The optimal amount of nutrients necessary for the body depends on several factors, but age is undoubtedly one of the most relevant, as our older athletes need a very different amount of protein than is normally believed.
Whether you are in this age range or not, it is of interest to know how much and how a person of these characteristics should eat and compensate for the effects of the passage of time when playing sports.
Why do you lose muscle mass during old age?
It is understood by “third age” when we pass 60 years of age. From here on, the body is affected by aging and sarcopenia , a syndrome that is accompanied by old age, characterized by a decrease in skeletal muscle mass , as well as a decrease in strength. As a consequence of this, our functionality for day to day and our training is affected.
Sarcopenia is attributed to several factors in addition to old age, such as low physical activity, inadequate protein intake , or poor ability to synthesize ingested protein.
On the other hand, in this period there is another effect called anabolic resistance , which produces a reduction in sensitivity to insulin, and its ability to reduce the loss of protein from the body.
Sarcopenia progresses in its development by carrying out chronic alterations in the turnover of skeletal muscle proteins, where the rates of decomposition (catabolism) are higher than those of protein synthesis (anabolism).
What should an older person who does sports eat?
You could fall into the trap of thinking that an athlete over the age of 50 needs less daily protein than a young athlete. Well, nothing is further from the truth: the best way to deal with this is by increasing your protein consumption if you are training intensely and your age is approaching or exceeding 50 years.
In everyday life, breakfast usually consists of a couple of slices of bread, or a bowl of cereal, accompanied by some fruit or vegetable juice. For lunch we usually have a sandwich, an apple for lunch and for dinner a meat stew with boiled vegetables. In other words, carbohydrates tend to predominate, which leads to a significant lack of protein . Therefore, before learning how to eat the optimal amount of protein we need, it is more important to understand how much we need.
How much protein does an older person who does sports need?
To this day, we know on a scientific basis that a person close to 60 years of age needs an amount of approximately 40 grams of protein in each daily meal. This is significantly more than the 20/25 grams that an adult or young person needs in each intake to stimulate the synthesis of protein in the body, which is the ability to add that protein to the muscle, making it increase or maintain (anabolism muscular).
To get an idea, an individual 50 years and older, weighing 60 kilos, should eat about 2 / 2.5 grams for every kilo of weight. A day it translates into about 120/150 grams of net protein.
To calculate the net protein found in foods we must go to their nutritional value. In this section they will indicate the number of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats (among other data). The amount of these nutrients will be expressed in grams, for every 100 g of the food in question.
Where should an elderly athlete get protein from?
Chicken, turkey, beef or fish usually have about 20/25 grams of protein per 100 grams (already cooked). Therefore, we should eat about 200 grams of one of these products to reach the 40 grams of protein that we need at each meal.
Therefore, it is quite difficult for some people to ingest such amounts of food. In these cases, it is recommended to take a certain amount of whey protein shake until reaching the recommended intake of each one.
The whey protein shake not only provides an excellent and easy-to-absorb protein for the body, but also provides essential or branched amino acids (BCAAs), whose production is impossible for the body, so we have to obtain them from abroad.
In this way, we will not only achieve the correct protein intake, but we will also provide even more important nutrients for our body.
Conclution
It has been shown that people who eat greater amounts of protein feel more vigorous, retain their muscles better (protein is the building block of muscle), and gain more strength.
Therefore, if you are an elderly athlete, we recommend that from now on you monitor your food and drink consumption for at least two weeks and that, from this monitoring, you calculate your protein consumption. If it is low, the objective will be to increase the intake, until reaching the necessary amount in each case.
If you have any type of kidney or liver disease, or if you have health-related questions, you should consult your doctor whether or not it is advisable to eat more protein before taking the step.
References
- Scott Tindal. Protein Requirements For The Aging Athlete. For breakingmuscle [Revised August 2016]
