Clyde, I disagree 100% on this one, page 21 of your Guide (Endurance Nutrition Book): "Research has shown that protein provides marginal benefits..."
That just doesn't jive with my experience. Failure to intake protein past the 3 hour mark has always resulted in poor performance for me. In fact, I'd say that it's only when I started to include protein that I was *able* to sustain an all day effort with 85% of my strength left at the end of the day. Lloyd
ANSWER: I myself include protein powder in my training fluids, but only when I am able to maintain proper hydration during training (see my post "protein and fructose" in my "calories during training" thread). And I do not dispute the theoretical benefits of amino acids during training or anectodal benefits experienced by individual athletes. However, after searching the literature many times in the last several years, I have found the scientific evidence supporting benefits of protein intake during training to be lacking, showing marginal benefits at best, and even then only for the highest level of athletes (Olympic level). There are thorough reviews published on the topic as well, so I am not just depending on my own personal ability to search the literature. I do not suggest that anyone stop doing what works for them, but rather that protein take a back seat to water and carbohydrate intake during training, as well as during the recovery window for that matter. It is always amazing to me that athletes would consume large amounts of protein during training as if muscle catabolism could be shut off by flooding amino acids into the bloodstream (it can't, because exercise generates a cortisol "stress" response that forces muscle breakdown no matter how much protein you eat). It is equally amazing to me how many athletes drink "protein shakes" after a workout, as if muscle starts building immediately after the workout ends (it doesn't; the damaged material has to be removed first, so muscle recovery does not peak until the next day when delayed onset muscle soreness peaks, at which point the white blood cells that are removing damaged material and releasing compounds that induce pain are making room for new material to be produced by activated satellite cells that have migrated to the damaged regions).
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