Yeah keep carbs low, but probably refeed a bit over the weekend. I'm just not bothered about carbs that much anymore - I don't feel the urge to eat them as much as I used to which is handy.
There's a lot of debate about whether or not we need 0.8g per kg or up to 2g per kg of lean body weight. The basic fact is that optimal protein synthesis is around 20-30g at one time. Any more than that, you will still synthesis, but the excess will just be oxidised (either turned into energy, fat, or moved to another part of the body that requires amino acids of some kind for different purposes other than protein synthesis for skeletal muscle.
Whilst excercising protein synthesis decreases (naturally). So we need to get it back up to nominal levels. Conversely we can try and minimise the reduction of protein synthesis, by taking bcaa/eaas before workout. For example Leucine is one of the BCAAs that is important in regulating the initiation and of protein synthesis, certainly after exercise. After exercise, protein and/or BCAAs (depending on the amino acid profile of your protein source) is required for kick start in getting your protein synthesis going again, this is done by increasing L-Leucine concentrations. Increased L-Leucine PWO releases the inhibition of the initiation factors. This ties in with insulin which also has a control over the inhibition of translation initiation.
Insulin and L-Leucine regulate prtoein synthesis within the muscles, though clearly this is dependent on your body type and diet, and the way you train etc... In fact it goes to levels that are too complex for me!
This leads on nicely to EEAs and protein synthesis. Although the effect of insulin and the time spent in muscle protein anabolism after taking EAAs differ from person to person, EAA ingestion is nonetheless effective at acutely stimulating muscle protein synthesis in people.
A mixture of EAAs containing a certain amount of leucine (I can't remember the amount, around 3-4g I think) increased protein synthesis up to 60% - though this is taken from basal values, I can't remember the name of study, I just remember the figure. This is why I bang on about amino acid profiles of protein that people want to buy, it's far more important than how much "whey" or hemp you get down your neck. You get leucine in eggs, chicken and beef too. (in fact have a look here for foods containing leucine:
http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/leucine-rich.php). So if you keep your leucine intake to that level with most meals your effectively optimising protein synthesis, minimising catabolism and atrpohy.
The protein intake required to reach that much leucine is only around 25-30g whey isolate, or aound 40g from eggs, 40-50g from chicken, and about the same for beef. If you look through that link I sent, it's so easy to keep your amino acid intakes high without even using supplements - hence why, I again, bang on that a diet is far more important than reaching for supplements all the time.
For what it's worth the elevated amount of protein synthesis can last anything from 2 to 4hrs, hence the proposed argument for eating every few hours.
Incidentally, amino acids are typically absorbed within about 15mins and peak within about 30 mins or so. Hence the argument for drinking amino acids before a workout and during a work out as well as post work out. However I've often questioned whether or not you want to keep protein synthesis active which may block or diminish other proteins and hormones from reacting to the work they are having to undertake during a workout - but that's another debate altogether!
Now going back to the carb/protein question, or more specifically carb and EAA from all that I've read post workout creates a significantly great anabolic response than EEAs/protein alone, I'm convinced this is to do with insulin transport within the protein synthesis process.
I can't categorically state how much protein per meal is ideal, but taking into consideration protein oxidisation if you injest more than can be synthesised, there must be a maximum. There is, and it's all to do with their amino acid profiles. Can you work it out for each meal? Not really, and if so it's a ball ache. So I aim between 30-40g as I know that I'll be getting enough leucine in to release the inhibition of the initiation factors for protein synthesis. There's so much more to it than that though, you have to take into consideration the fats you injest the rise in anabolic hormone response that that offers, clearly all the hormonal responses should be taken into consideration. I know there's a bit of a standard distribution curve which shows peaks at around 30-40g, but I can't remember where I found that. However, in purely biological/science reasoning it would make sense that there's a bell curve distribution and a "peak" so to speak. That doesn't mean to say that any more won't mean more bang for buck, it just means that gramme for gramme you're getting more at around 30-40g.
Now this is just from studies, and from research I've done, not everyone agrees with this, but it does seem to make sense. Do I follow this by the book? No, as I cant' always feed when I want to, but I do try and eat the right things, in the right quantities, when I can. So take what you want from this post, do your own research, agree/disagree I'm happy to hear other theories and ideas - I'm by no means an expert, just someone who reads a lot of information and absorbs it like a sponge!
I know I haven't really answered the question, but maybe it's given enough direction to your question for you to be able to seek out what you need? If so I'd be happy to hear back from you!
) between reps on the last sets, but yeah I can complete them all. Bearing in mind if I go down and can't come back up I'm *'d, I'd have to ditch the bar behind me, involving possible shoulder lols - I am upping the weight with every session so far, just not too fast for the aforementioned reason. And on the back squats I'm definitely going below parallel, on front squats probably just about parallel, for some reason I find those harder to go down as far with.
and it does help increase calories