Recreational Athletes, Stress and Protein Intake

I am getting a little closer to writing about the protein requirements for recreational athletes and their sport demands, I promise.  However, each time I start writing, I think of another important step in the process.   Protein intake is not as simple as it sounds. Many different factors need to be considered, not just age, height, weight, gender, goals, and physical activity level.

Today I want to talk about the impact that stress has on the body and how this is linked to your protein intake.  

“Stress” is a commonly used word that generally refers to experiences that cause feelings of anxiety and frustration because they push us beyond our ability to cope successfully. Stress is a huge topic, and in this post, we will look at how stress affects your fat-free-mass and why "stressed out" people require more protein.

I'm going to return to the furnace analogy that I wrote about in "Why should recreational athletes stop cutting calories and start building a bigger furnace?" Our furnace is our fat-free-mass, and recreational athletes must aim to increase and maintain their fat-free-mass so that they can stay active, fit and strong. Protein is the key nutrients for maintaining and building fat-free-mass. 

So, where does stress come into the picture?  It’s important to note that:

  1. The body responds to almost any event or challenge by releasing chemical mediators (hormones) that help us cope with the situation.

  2. Chronic levels of these same chemical mediators (hormones) produce chronic "wear and tear" on the body that can, over time, result in disease or even death.

Research suggests that chronic stress contributes to:

  • high blood pressure

  • sleep deprivation

  • the formation of artery-clogging deposits

  • brain changes that may contribute to anxiety, depression, and even addiction

  • fat gain and difficulty losing fat

  • a decrease in fat-free-mass making it harder to maintain and gain

If you’re chronically stressed, your fat-free-mass literally start to break down. Stress researchers call this wear and tear allostatic load. [1] The fat-free-mass breakdown is caused in part by collagen proteins being used faster than they can be replaced.  More preliminary research suggests that chronic stress may also contribute to obesity through direct mechanisms (causing people to eat more unhealthy foods) or indirectly (decreasing sleep, decreased exercise tolerance, blood sugar management issues).

The term “allostasis” was introduced by Sterling and Eyer to refer to the active process by which the body responds to daily events and maintains homeostasis.

Homeostasis is the body’s way of managing the internal environment and keeping the body functions within a certain physiological range. These body functions are often impacted by varying internal and external stressors.   The brain is designed to maintain homeostasis to ensure survival in all circumstances. This process ultimately protects the body’s ability to produce energy as needed, which is essential to life.

The body carries out homeostasis through allostasis, which is the constant dynamic adjustment of the body’s internal environment to meet the external environment's demands. 

The process of allostasis:

  1. Assess the external environment

  2. Perceive the energy demands to meet stressor(s)

  3. Assess the internal environment

  4. Either increase energy production (more stressful external environment) or increases energy storage (less stressful external environment)

When the brain perceives a need for energy production, it stimulates the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight). When the brain perceives a need for energy storage, the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and recover) predominates. These two systems govern the process of allostasis.

Autonomous nervous system.jpg

The role of the Autonomous Nervous System (ANS) and the stress response is to prepare the body for the perceived demands of the external environment. If you perceive an environment as stressful, your body will crank up the sympathetic nervous system function.

Because chronically increased sympathetic function can lead to disease, the term “allostatic load” or “allostatic overload” was introduced to refer to the "wear and tear" that results from either too much stress or from inefficient management of allostasis, e.g. not turning off the response when it is no longer needed. 

Ultimately allostatic load leads to fat-free-mass breakdown.

If left unchecked allostatic load can cause adrenal issues or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis issues (HPA-Axis), which screws with blood sugar management.   If you continue to face an onslaught of stress without reprieve, you may end up with HPA axis dysfunction (HPA-D).

Excess cortisol symptoms.png
Low Cortisol Symptoms.png

Managing Stress with Nutrition

One of the worst things you can do if you're struggling with stress management is to go on a diet and eat less.  Dieting is stress!  Eating less is stress!  When you are struggling with stress, it doesn't make sense to be adding additional stress to the body. It is a much better idea to focus on supporting your body with nourishing, nutrient-dense foods. 

In our very diet-focused culture, where losing weight and looking good is often prized above all else, we are quick to jump on board with the mainstream diets with very little understanding of the physiological health implications.  As an example, preliminary research suggests that low-carbohydrate and ketogenic diets can increase cortisol; long-term restriction of carbohydrates could potentially lead to chronically elevated cortisol and subsequent HPA-D. [2]

Some research suggests that increasing carbohydrates, in the context of real whole-foods, "may reduce circulating cortisol and dampen psychological stress-related cortisol responsiveness." [3]. If you're feeling stressed, you should experiment with a moderate carbohydrate intake (75-100 grams of carbs plus the required carbohydrates for your training frequency, volume and intensity) per day.

If you want to experiment with adding more carbs to your diet, be sure to choose nutrient-dense carbs such as:

  • Sweet potatoes

  • Winter squash

  • Plantains

  • Cassava

  • Taro

  • Whole fruit

If you are feeling stress and you're following a reduced-calorie diet, or a low-carb diet, trying to lose weight, your well-intentioned diet may have the opposite effect, causing you to put on additional body fat due to rising cortisol levels. [4]

I'm getting a little off-topic there, but it’s important to highlight the need for carbohydrates when you feel stressed.  Carbohydrates are not the devil, they are made out to be, and when we consume carbohydrates in the form of real whole-foods, they can actually improve our health, fat-loss, wellbeing and physical performance.

How much protein for athletes under a lot of stress?

As mentioned above, stress can screw with your blood sugar management.  High-protein diets have been shown to have a stabilising effect on blood sugar and lead to beneficial changes in a wide range of metabolic, cardiovascular and inflammatory markers, from insulin sensitivity to cholesterol and triglycerides to C-reactive protein. [5,6]

If you’re under a lot of stress and experiencing some of the symptoms listed above, you should experiment with increasing your protein intake to be between 25-35% of your daily calories.  The higher end of that scale (30–35%) would be for recreational athletes experiencing unhealthy weight loss (the loss of fat-free-mass), metabolic problems, or doing extreme training (high frequency, high volume or high intensity).

The lower end (25-30%) would be for recreational athletes doing moderate to vigorous intensity.  

Protein Recomendation Stress.png

That said, these are just general guidelines, and you may need to experiment with different percentages to see what works best for you. As I said at the start, many different factors need to be considered, not just age, height, weight, gender, goals, and physical activity level.

Most recreational athletes that come to me for health coaching are not eating enough protein. 

ProteinIntake.png

As you can see, this falls short of the protein 20-35% targets above.

One option is to increase your intake of whole-food protein sources, such as meat, fish and eggs.  Not everyone is going to enjoy eating this amount of meat. I love animal protein myself, and I feel better with a higher protein intake.  Many clients with low stomach acid, bile insufficiency, or other digestive problems have trouble digesting large amounts of meat and fish.  I also have clients that are intolerant of eggs (or other animal proteins). Ultimately, the goal is to heal their gut first, so they can eat as much of these foods as they’d like.

Supporting your gut microbiome is crucial for helping your body manage stress. Gut health is a huge topic that I aim to write more about in the future.

In these situations, protein powders can be a useful addition to the diet.  A protein shake between meals or in place of breakfast can boost overall protein intake.  There are three important factors in choosing a protein powder: tolerability, quality, and bioavailability, which I wrote about in "Best protein supplements for recreational athletes."

If you’re under a lot of stress, it’s essential to eat proteins that contain collagen.  Collagen can be absorbed by the body, where it is used to rebuild fat-free-mass (connective tissue, muscles, bones, gut lining, skin and more).

Your body produces less collagen in high-stress states because more of the body's resources are being used to combat stress.  Over time, chronic stress can lead to inflammation and oxidative stress. Oxidative stress further depletes your collagen levels and contributes to premature ageing.  Research shows that athletes who took a hydrolysed collagen supplement experienced less pain in their joints, improving performance for recreational athletes and competitive fitness buffs. [7]

If you exercise a lot, adding a collagen supplement to your diet can be useful for stress management and recovery.  If you would prefer not to add a collagen supplement, you can consume bone broth. Bone broth is a source of gelatin, which breaks down into collagen in the body.

I've only just scratched the surface regarding the impacts that stress has on the body and how you can manage your stress with nutrition.  The food you eat is information that tells your body how to respond to the environment around it.  If you're feeling stressed, maybe its time to change up your diet and experiment with your protein and carbohydrate intake?

There are obviously many other stressors in our life besides the food we eat.  Exercise is a physical stress placed on the body, and too much or too little can have a detrimental impact on your health and wellness.  Again, the mainstream advice to "eat less and move more" makes no sense when you consider the impacts this can have on your stress levels.

Are you a recreational athlete who wants to stay active, strong and healthy for as long as possible?

Recreational athletes often struggle to sustain optimal health and wellbeing by following mainstream health & fitness advice. These guys and gals work hard to stay fit and healthy, and yet,  they succumb to health-related problems just like everybody else. They can be carrying unwanted body fat, experiencing fatigue, having trouble sleeping, noticing anxiety, struggling with digestive complaints, and not performing or recovering like they know they can.

I empower recreational athletes to take ownership of their recovery, nutrition and stress management with sustainable lifestyle practices. We work together to build the habits and routines you need to manage stress, improve sleep, balance hormones, resolve digestive issues, promote a healthy body composition, and fuel your energy demand.