What’s up, guys.
Sean Nalewanyj here, www.SeanNal.com-www.BodyTransformationTruth.com, answering a nutrition question today, it’s
one that I’ve gotten several times over the past few months and that is “Do incomplete
proteins count as part of your protein totals for the day and do they contribute toward
muscle growth?”
So the short answer here is, yes and yes.
Every gram of protein that you eat thorough out the day does count toward your protein
total, whether it’s 25 grams from a chicken breast or one gram from a banana.
And yes, incomplete proteins do assist with muscle growth as well.
So for those who don’t know, a complete protein is a protein source that on its own
has a sufficient proportion of all nine of the essential amino acids that your body needs
for proper health.
And the essential amino acids are the ones that your body can’t make on its own, and
so they have to come in through your diet.
On the other hand, incomplete proteins are protein source that are low in at least one
of the essential amino acids.
Complete protein generally come from animal sources, so meat, eggs, dairy, et cetera,
whereas incomplete protein come from plants sources so, bread, pasta, rice, vegetables,
et cetera.
Now, the reality here is that almost every food that you eat is technically complete
because it does contain all twenty of the amino acids in some amount, but it’s just
that certain foods will be particularly low in at least one specific essential amino acid.
And this is usually called the limiting amino acid in that food.
For example, beans are high in the amino acid lysine but are low in methionine, whereas
grains are high in methionine but are low in lysine.
Now, keep in mind, it’s very important to understand that rather than thinking in terms
of your protein intake being broken down into complete sources and incomplete sources, it’s
more useful to think in terms of just total amino acid intake.
And that’s because all proteins are ultimately broken down into those individual amino acid
building blocks for use.
So as long as you’re consuming enough total protein for the day as a whole and my general
recommendation would be between 0.8 to 1 gram protein per pound of bodyweight daily, as
long as you’re eating around that amount and you’re eating a standard fitness diet
that includes a variety of different protein sources, then the idea of complete versus
incomplete protein really just becomes a non-issue because by the end of the day you’re going
to be getting in all of the amino acids that your body needs to maximize muscle growth
anyway.
Your body can only build so much muscle in a given day and it only needs a limited quantity
of each of those amino acids to max out your growth potential over any given period.
And so it’s not as if just eating higher and higher amount of complete protein, it’s
not as if that’s necessarily going to improve results.
Your body can only use so much.
If you were only eating a very small amount of protein relative to your bodyweight each
day, let’s say you were eating, for some reason 0.4 grams per pound of bodyweight and
let’s say that you were only getting that protein from one or two primary sources, then
yeah, it would definitely become a problem because certain amino acids wouldn’t be
there in high enough quantities to maximize protein synthesis.
But as the total quantity of protein that you’re eating increases along with sufficient
variety, this becomes proportionally less and less of a concern because you’re total
intake of each specific amino acids is going to be increasing along with it.
And then on top of that your body also has what’s called the free amino acid pool and
so if certain amino acids are missing at a certain time when they’re needed then your
body can draw from this pool in order to make up for it.
So the bottom line here, yes so called incomplete proteins definitely do count toward your daily
totals and the amino acids that they provide do contribute toward muscle growth as well.
Remember that they still do contain essential amino acids, but it’s just that they’ll
be low in, maybe one or two of them, in each different source maybe higher or lower in
different essential aminos and so when you start combining them together in the big picture
it’s really not something to worry about.
Guys, if you found this advice helpful and you want to get all the tools you need to
gain muscle and lose fat as effectively as possible; the work-outs, the meal plans, supplement
guides along with one-on-one coaching then you can download my Body transformation Blueprint
by clicking here or by heading over to www.BodyTransformationTruth.com using the link in the description box.
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Thanks for watching, guys.
And I’ll to you again soon.