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Thread: Protein needs for intermediates

  1. #1
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    Default Protein needs for intermediates

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    Hi Robert,
    A question that has been percolating in my mind for a couple weeks. Is the 1g protein per lb of bodyweight that's recommended for novices still the recommendation for a guy who's been doing intermediate programming for a couple years? Or, assuming a consistent total caloric intake, should he consider skewing more towards carbs for the purposes of recovery?

    Thanks.

  2. #2
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    I find that I can get away with less now than I could before. The theory is that we become more efficient at turning it over as we become more advanced. Same can go for any macro tbh. We become very adapted and true overload becomes less frequent because of the recovery time between overload events. In practice, this really depends like anything else. Have you tried to play around with your ratios to see how you respond?

  3. #3
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    I haven't really messed with my ratios yet. I have my diet pretty well dialed in at this point. I try to set a baseline of about 200g protein and 300-350g carbs and if I need to add or subtract I usually manipulate carbs first and then fat (my fat intake is relatively low without being anal about it). That's served me well historically through almost a year of 4-day TM and then about 9 months of a less stressful 8/5/2 program that Nick D'Agostino wrote for me. I recently had to lay off for several months due to illness but I kept my diet consistent in order to not lose mass, and it worked pretty well. Just got done doing a modified LP (twice a week due to recovery) to get back to reasonably heavy weights and now I've been doing a press-focused 3-day TM (which I'm finding actually easier to recover from than the 4 day version, at least for now). Plan is to run that to get back into PR territory, and then probably switch back to a more sustainable long term program.

    The reason I asked the question is that I'm at a point where I suspect I won't be able to pack on muscle as easily as before, and I'm starting to think about recovery as a bigger priority than growth. I'm 45, 5'9", probably 210-215, 38" waist and dropping.

  4. #4
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    Well recovery drives growth it just happens over a longer timeline since overload events are worked up to over the course of several weeks or months. So you just have to make sure you are eating and sleeping well and then when you hit those realization phases of your training cycle you definitely want to eat more than baseline.

  5. #5
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    Makes sense, Robert. Thanks.

  6. #6
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    starting strength coach development program
    You are welcome!

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