Welcome to the 13th issue of The MuscleTalker.
Yet another great moderator has been added to the MT team this month: Dirtyvest, who will be moderating The General, Beginners and the Progress Journals (see below) forums. Dirty is a long standing member who has a great broad knowledge of bodybuilding and fitness and has helped a lot of MT members in the past. Welcome to your new role Dirtyvest!
We’ve set up another new forum on the site: the Progress Journals forum. Members can now start their own progress journals including all aspects of their bodybuilding and other members can comment to help. This forum was the idea of members and is a great way for others to learn from reading the journals too. You can start your journal here
Due to the vast amounts of questions in the Supplements Forum about creatine, there is now a Creatine FAQs article which can be accessed through the articles link or directly through:
Creatine FAQs
There are loads of other great articles - Bodybuilding Articles
MuscleTalk just keeps growing and growing … and we hope you are too!
*** Best wishes from The MuscleTalk team! ***
*****************************************
** Check out New Articles, Training Tips and Nutritional Information in a new and exciting High-Intensity Training Website: www.highintensity.net
*****************************************
** MAXIMISE your nutrition knowledge with the Informed Bodybuilding Nutrition ebook. For more information click here now:
*****************************************
** The Chris Report – by Mick Hart
Get your copy of the exact "step by step" plan that took bodybuilding guru Mick Hart’s son Chris from zero to British Championship qualifier in less than 1 year...Then learn how you can customize it for yourself and make more progress in the next 12 months than you ever thought possible. See here.
*****************************************
*** Whey Protein Hydrolysates ***
By James Collier BSc Hons SRD – MuscleTalk Moderator
** Get Personalised Diet and Nutrition Advice from the Bodybuilding Diet Expert – James Collier, Dietitian. Face-to-face and email programmes are available tailored to YOUR needs. For more information see:
www.muscletalk.co.uk/james.aspx or email james@muscletalk.co.uk
This article is a continuation of the Whey Isolate v Whey Concentrate article in issue 12 of The MuscleTalker.
Proteins are long chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds, and during hydrolysis peptide bonds are broken. Depending upon the enzymes present and processing conditions, smaller chains of amino acids and different amino acid sequences can be produced. The hydrolysed protein chains determine the nutritional and functional characteristics of whey protein hydrolysates.
Hydrolysed proteins generally taste foul, so here are some tips to consider when looking for a hydrolysed product.
1) Most importantly the product should indicate the degree of hydrolysis applied to the protein. This varies from about 5%-25%. The higher the percentage the more hydrolysis that has taken place and the more bitter it will taste. If the product does not list ask the company why?
2) Packets should display a table listing the molecular weights of the peptides themselves. These will be measured in Daltons. Usually the percentage of peptides are listed, e.g. MW 20,000-40,000 Daltons 40%.
3) Hydrolysed Whey Protein contains virtually NO biologically active protein fractions. All of the fractions like glycomacropeptide are destroyed during the process.
4) Hydrolysed Whey Protein is primarily used clinically in enteral tube feeds. It is used in this instance not because it is absorbed more easily, but because it is hypoallergenic. Some babies are allergic to certain fractions like beta-lactalbumin; a way round this is to hydrolyse the protein, thus breaking down the allergen part of the protein into peptides.
5) If you see any claims for Biological Value (BV) higher than 104, be careful as this is not possible.
Of course hydrolysed whey protein is the ultimate protein to take immediately after a work out, in theory, as your body absorbs it very quickly, simply because it is more digested than other whey. However, I am not aware of any supplement company who exclusively uses ‘real’ hydrolysed whey protein. In reality I would stick to a good quality whey concentrate and integrate it into your well-planned nutrition regimen.
*** Why be Clark Kent when you can be Superman? ***
A look at Muscle Dysmorphia in bodybuilding males - By Benjamin Burrows
Is body preoccupation an under recognised problem facing the modern man?
There is a great deal of literature about the eating disorder anorexia (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN), conditions commonly, but not exclusively, suffered by adolescent girls (10-15% of cases involve males (Carlat et al 1997)). When discussing eating disorders, how often do people consider males to be at risk, how many people have heard of muscle dysmorphia (MD) and how many understand what it actually is? Are men less concerned about their appearance or have male concerns of this nature simply been ignored?
Abell & Richards have shown that males are concerned about their physical characteristics in almost the same proportion as females. The difference, however is that male physical ideals differ somewhat to the female desires in our body-beautiful culture. It is well known that females associate low body weight as being beautiful, a trait that perhaps owes much to the media. Many males on the other hand desire to conform to those characteristics of Hollywood stars, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is supported by research that has shown that males who are dissatisfied with their body image had ‘contradictory drives for bulk and thinness as a reflection of the bodybuilder’s desire to gain weight in lean body mass without gaining body fat’ (Olivardia 2000).
Initially this situation does perhaps not appear to be physiologically as detrimental as those of AN and BN are for females, it is well known that a very low body weight manifests with hormonal problems, which is one reason why females suffer from amenorrhoea (absence of menstruation). At first glance it is not apparent what could be wrong with having a high muscle and low fat body profile? However when you scratch the surface it becomes painfully clear, the individuals suffer from psychological ill health as well as some physical manifestations. Research showed that the lives of people suffering MD are consumed by weightlifting, dieting and associated activates of which anabolic steroid (AS) abuse are just one aspect (Pope et al 1997).
The mental health concerns for sufferers of MD stem from surveys conducted on individuals into their daily lives as well as their scores on tests such as the DSM-III-R criteria. Research showed that they became distressed about having their bodies seen in public, had impaired social and occupational function, constantly checked the mirror and demonstrated reassurance seeking behaviour, one man asked his father up to 20 times an hour, “Dad do I look bigger?” “Are you sure?” (Pope et al 1997). They also displayed very high rates of mood disorder, anxiety disorder and eating disorders in comparison to the controls (Choi et al 2002).
The physical concerns stemmed from the fact that many studies demonstrated an AS abuse rate of around 100% amongst sufferers of MD (Pope et al 1997, Harrison et al 2000, Olivardia 2000 and Choi et al 2002). The side effects associated with AS abuse are well documented and too vast a subject to discuss here, but include psychiatric, cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, hepatic and reproductive to list but a few.
Muscle dysmorphia is a condition that has both mental and physical health concerns. Many of the suffers seem to satisfy the conditions for a variety of psychiatric disorders which will clearly have a great impact upon their lives, and their physical health may suffer due to the abuse of a variety of substances including AS which are taken in the pursuit of achieving what they see as the body-beautiful.
References:
-Abell, S.C. and Richards, M.H. The relationship between body shape satisfaction and self-esteem: an investigation of gender and class difference. J youth & Adolescence 1996; 25: 691-703
-Carlat et al: Eating disorders in males: a report on 135 patients. Am J Psych 1997; 154: 1127-1132
-Choi et al: Muscle dysmorphia: a new syndrome in weightlifters. Brit J Sport medicine 2002; 36(5): 375-376
-Harrison et al: Body image perception among men in three countries. Am J Psych 2000; 157: 1297-1301
-Olivardia: Muscle dysmorphia in male weightlifters: A case control study. Am J Psych 2000; 157:1291-1296
-Pope et al: Muscle dysmorphia. An under recognised form of body dysmorphic disorder. Psychosomatics 1997; Vol 38(6): 548-557
*****************************************
Get your MuscleTalk Training T-shirt here
*****************************************
*** May’s Recipe – Not Even Sinful Double Chocolate Mousse ***
By Nicole Bremner – MuscleTalk Moderator
More great bodybuilding recipes by Nicole can be found in the Muscle Menus ebook
**Ingredients
1 x 340g packet of silken tofu
2 scoops of chocolate protein powder
2 tblsp of unsweetened cocoa
1 sachet of gelatine
**Method
In a blender combine all ingredients except the gelatine. Blend well. Make the gelatine according to the instructions and add. Blend again. Then pour into moulds and refrigerate until set.
** 19% of the calories are from fat, 2% are from carbs and 31% are from protein
The articles in The MuscleTalker are for information purposes only and are the sole expressions of the individual authors opinion and are those not necessarily shared by the owners of www.MuscleTalk.co.uk