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My female friend trains for fitness /body contests and says to grow muscle you need starch and carbs (good ones) and not protein powders. She advise me to eat brown rice, oatmeal and sweet potatoes. This is something new to me.... Any thoughts?
Carbs are used by the body as energy, not as building blocks for muscles, amino acids. Your body needs both carbs and protein in order to workout, rip muscle and rebuild it. You do not need to use protein powder, but you should be consuming protein quality foods, examples: cottage cheese, nuts/nut butters, cheese, yogurt, chicken, beef, turkey, salmon, eggs, etc.
You need a higher amount of quality protein than you'd usually consume when not building lean muscle mass. You can get that any way you want, but protein powder is an easy way to add protein to the diet without adding fat or carbs. That's why people use it. You need extra protein to build lean muscle mass.
Your female friend is wrong. Watch her, she'll probably end up gaining weight or gaining fat with all those carbs, instead of trimming up and getting lean. Excess carbs cause you to gain fat, because they provoke insulin in the body, and insulin stimulates the body to hold onto fat. You need some carbs, but not too much, like she's doing.
My female friend trains for fitness /body contests and says to grow muscle you need starch and carbs (good ones) and not protein powders. She advise me to eat brown rice, oatmeal and sweet potatoes. This is something new to me.... Any thoughts?
Protein powders are not required to build muscle.
She is correct. The body needs carbs for energy to repair muscle (as well as replenish glycogen). Protein is just the building blocks. Protein is available in nearly everything we eat. However, meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, and seafood are the best "sources" because they have the most biologically compatible proteins. Vegans need to be very meticulous in their food choice to get all the amino acids our body needs.
My female friend trains for fitness /body contests and says to grow muscle you need starch and carbs (good ones) and not protein powders. She advise me to eat brown rice, oatmeal and sweet potatoes. This is something new to me.... Any thoughts?
No, you don't need protein powder to build muscle. You do, however, need lots of protein if you are into serious weight training. I wouldn't describe oatmeal, sweet potatoes and brown rice as muscle building foods though.
You need protein to build muscle. Muscle consists mostly of protein, that is it's building block. When you work out your tear it down, in order for it to rebuild stronger/bigger then before, it needs material to rebuild with.
You need complete protein. Shakes are alright as a supplement to your diet, but that's it. Eat plenty of meat, basically.
Carbs are good too, I've found they help with recovery and performance in the gym.
You don't need protein powder to build muscle if you get enough through your diet. The figure I've heard is one gram per pound of bodyweight, though I'm sure most people could get away with less than that.
Also not all protein is created equal. You should be eating a good amount of meat and dairy.
Do we need protein powder to gain muscle? This is something new to me.... Any thoughts?
You dont NEED it but it definitely helps.
Its incredibly difficult to gain muscle, this is why you see so many skinny guys at the gym working and working and working but not getting big. Its difficult to not only eat enough to gain muscle, but you have to eat the RIGHT THINGS in order for it to happen. This is why protein powder becomes so important. It helps you get additional protein to help with muscle gains.
If your friend is truly trains to compete in fitness/body contests I think you completely misunderstood or misheard her.
It doesn't even take someone of her level to know where protein, carbs, fats fit into a good diet.
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