From: paul@clodii.Columbia.NCR.COM (Paul Fidler)
Subject: Re: Kidney damage/accelerated aging to gain weight [was: Weight gain]
Keywords: weight gain, excess protein
Organization: NCR E&M Columbia SC
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 92 15:03:17 GMT

In article <212@sftwks.UUCP> bradbury@sftwks.UUCP (Robert Bradbury) writes:
>>In sci.med.nutrition / dcborean@undergrad.math.waterloo.edu (David Borean):
>>> > Seth Reichelson writes:
>>> >    does anybody know of a healthy way of gaining weight


>>After a heavy workout, EAT.  Calories -- low fat calories, at that --
>>are essential to growth.  Eat carbos and protein (minimum 1gm/lb of 
>>body weight per day).                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>I must disagree with Dean unless he provides some scientific evidence
>to back it up for several reasons.  First of all, your body is very
>efficient at recycling amino acids into protein.  Arthur Guyton documents
>in the "Physiology of the Body" in 1964 that the human body can function
>perfectly well for a month with no vegetable or animal protein intake.

  1964????   And you're asking HIM to provide evidence? Man, you're going
  to have do better than quoting thirty year old studies when it comes 
  to anything in nutrition.....

  And are you equating "function perfectly well for a month" with gaining
  a few pounds of lean body weight?

>
>>There are supplements you'll want to take,
>>and all of the "weight gainers" are low-cal and high calorie/carbohydrate.
>
>Most of the supplements I've seen are yeast/soy based and tend to be very
>high in amino-acids (protein) for the purpose of providing those "extra"
>amino-acids you need to build muscle mass.  As pointed out above excess
>consumption of foods of this type is probably not good.
>
 
 I think you're thinking of protein powders. Most of the "weight gainer"
 supplements I've seen are very high in complex carbohydrates, with the
 protein and fat being in proper proportions of the total calories.  



>>a week, heavy, and eat perhaps 2000 calories more per day, than you
>>normally do (use supplements), then you'll gain good weight.  
>
>This raises the issue of people desiring the "image" society pushes on
>us (thin women, muscular men) when it may not actually be the logical
>choice from a health standpoint.  For example, look at the numbers of
>male teenagers who are trying to take the easy way out by taking steroids
>to build muscle mass.  This behavior will have very long term negative
>consequences for their bodies.  Ultimately some working out is very
>beneficial to build up heart and lung reserve capacity, increase numbers
>of mitochondria, reduce fat, increase muscle density, etc.  At some point
>our quest for the "perfect body" actually starts working against us as
>the increased food intake (with the associated xenobiotics) and oxygen
>intake (leading to free radical damage) required for intense exercise
>regimens result in a faster rate of aging and a diminished lifespan.
>You also have the phenomena that many people go through "phases" where
>they build muscles for a couple of years and then stop.  If they do
>not make severe alterations in their calorie intake much of the muscle
>will be replaced by fat.   
        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 So this is the current version of the old myth (from 1964?) that muscle
 eventually turns to fat, eh?  You might want to provide some scientific
 evidence for this one: Everyone I know that has added muscle by lifting 
 weights for a few years and then stopped has merely lost what they gained,
 and not gotten fat. Arguably, they might even be better off than someone
 who was sedentary for those years.....

>                         Then you end up as an elderly person with
>problems associated with years of placing excess stress on your joints
>and tendons.
>
  
 All I can say is, wow.

 Some pretty heavy stuff to be laying on someone who wants to gain
 some lean body weight in a healthy way.



...................................... Paul Fidler .................
"Please consult your physician         NCR Corporation, Columbia, SC
 before exercising with Lee Haney"     paul@clodII.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM
Newsgroups: sci.med.nutrition