Will the muscle go?

[william]

How does Muscle work?

I am a veggie kung fu practitioner who has recently been supplementing his diet with Soya isolate protein.

The question is I have noticed good gains and an increase in muscle size as well as tone. If I stop eating it for a few weeks, will I lose the muscle? Even if I continue to train? My thinking was that, I probably would not lose it just not gain any more?

Any advice would be great,

W

[IronMonkey]

If you stop eating it, but keep training hard, I dont think it will disappear, unless you also stop training. But hey, it sounds nice, so keep eating it, haha.

[trevorstalker]

William,

Well that depends of how long does a "few weeks" last.

If you're a veggie, you're sources of protein are well limited. Whenever you train, either MA or weight training, or bike riding or swimming, whatever, you'll eventualy be breaking protein down (on different levels, to different extents). Unless you have a protein source you'll not re-build this protein back. So gradually you'll have muscle breakdown. How fast you'll notice that is really a matter of what practice you take.

My advice would be to keep the soy protein. Even if you quit practice, I don't think a "proteinless" diet is any healthy...

[IronFist]

Protein is used to rebuild and maintain muscles. If you stop eating it, your body will not have anything to rebuild and maintain its muscles with. Therefore you will lose muscle even if you still exercise. In fact, still exercising while not eating protein will probably make you lose muscle faster.

[FooFighter]

William:

I agree with what Iron wrote and I know many shaolin students who are buddhist vegetarians. Most of their work consist of power endurance training. They eat alot alot; mostly expensive yuppish soy based products and they snack on beans and nutts. Maybe eating 3-6 servings of nutts and/or beans during your day may be your next best choice instead of that soy protein supplement. Back when I training to build muscles I prefered Whey protein and canned Tuna with sweet miro-nuked Yam. Recently I do not use any supplements except basic multi-Vits and amazon/chinese based holistic herbs. Best of luck.

[IronFist]

Soy protein increases estrogen in men.

That's no fun.

[scotty1]

^ is that a fact?

Am I going to get boobies?

Seriously though...

[rubthebuddha]

maybe not as large of hoots as vitamin s will give you, but soy does indeed cause increased estrogen levels, particularly the normal soy you'll find in western foods.

[scotty1]

Bugger.

Did a brief Google on the effects on estrogen on men and weight gain was one of them, alongside other undesirables.

Increased libido was also one of them though.

Thing is, it's cheap, on sale actually, and I'm a skinflint.

oh well.

[Nick Forrer]

Interesting phenomenon no 1.

When you are regaining muscle you previously had but lost, it comes back a lot quicker then when you first put it on.

Interesting phenomenon no 2.

The more muscle you put on and the longer you have been training the more you have to fight to keep hold of what you have- like a performance athlete at their peak- just a little disruption in training shedule and their PB plummets.

[scotty1]

Whey is the best protein for those who it doesn't give the
sh!ts to, right?

[rubthebuddha]

scotty -- you can increase both testosterone and libido simply by watching a bond movie. he kicks the bad guys' collective ass, and gets not one, not two, but often three girls in the process. plus, as long as you're working out on a regular basis, sitting around watching bond movies won't give you manboobs.

annnnnd, he drives sweet cars and has cool toys. what more do you need to get the man-mojo flowin?

[rubthebuddha]

and yes, whey doesn't give you much hovering ability when it's time to shake hands with the governor.

speaking of protein that won't make you digestively rowdy, i'm going to fess up about the protein i use:

http://www.bioplexnutrition.com/bp/b...ion_shake.html

they make other stuff that's good, but this particular shake has all sorts of goodies and vitamins in it, and even has fiber, CLA, etc. to keep your grub solid on the way out. that, and it actually does mix easy and doesn't have the froth that lines the inside of your mouth like everything EAS puts out.

[scotty1]

lol, thanks

Ok here's another question: You put on muscle using whilst using a supplement, if you stop using that supplement will some of that muscle be lost? Will your muscle be lost and maintained at a level dictated by your diet?

I'm fed up of drinking twice a day something that tastes like puke, and is going to give me t!ts.

I don't lift weights, my daily training is more of a little and often type thing that does put on muscle, but the workouts aren't as 'severe' as using weights. With that in mind, I don't know if I need as much protein as someone working out in a more intense fashion.

Sorry if I'm not making sense.

EDIT. F*ck it, I'll just try it and see how it goes!

[IronFist]

^ If that supplement is protein:

You will generally maintain that level of muscle as long as you keep up the protein intake. It doesn't have to come from supplements. You could stop having protein shakes and start eating more chicken breast or whatever.

If that supplement was something not generally found in your diet (ie. big doses of creatine, roids, etc.)

You will probably lose some of the muscle when you stop using it because it's no longer in your system.