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Even female volleyball players are wo- men - no wonder they tend to undereat ;)

Usually we are learning about what makes us fat by looking at those who are fat. Studies on athletes like gymnasts and volleyball players, and what influences their body composition, on the other hand, are scarce. Reason enough for me to take a closer look at two thesis by graduates from the Georgia State University who analyzed the relationship between moderate, within day protein intake and energy balance on body composition of collegiate sand volleyball players (Richardson. 2014) and the relationship between daily protein distribution and body composition in elite gymnasts (Paszkiewicz. 2014) - research that could be relevant for both, men and women.

I guess many of you will remember that Ive written about gymnasts before - in July 2013, to be precise. In said article with the telling title "Do Chronic Energy Deficits Make Athletes Fat? The Longer & More Severe You Starve, the Fatter You Are. Irrespective of What the Calories-in-VS-Calories-Out Formula May Say" (read more) I analyzed the negative effects of "starvation" on body composition to highlight that simply not eating or eating like a bird is not going to give you the Shape cover model body, many girls are looking for.
In spite of the fact that the titles of the two studies and hand and the previously cited study by Deutz differ, the objectives are not very different:

• "The  purpose  of  this  study  was  to  simultaneously  assess  energy  balance  and
  protein  intake  to  determine  if  these  factors  are  associated  with  body  composition  in  a
  population of collegiate sand volleyball players." (Richardson. 2014)
• "The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between hourly EB and protein intake with body composition" (Paszkiewicz. 2014)

If you look at the exact ways the authors phrase it, it does yet become obvious that Richardson (2014) puts a greater emphasis on the amount of protein, while Paszkiewicz is, just like Deutz back in the day, very interested in the hourly energy balance (EB) and thus the time the subjects remain in a positive / negative energy balance.

Apropos subjects! In the gymnasts who participated in Paszkiewicz study were elite and highly
competitive athletes from several training gyms across the country. The information on their daily food intakes was elucidated by the means of secondary analyses that were performed on previously collected three-day food diaries and the interactions with body composition were calculated by comparing intakes and anthropometric measures (made with DEXA).

Table 1: ?Subject? Characteristics of the Gymnasts ? (N=?40; Paszkiewicz. 2014)?

Table 1 provides an overview of the subject characteristics. If you take a closer look, you will see that there is a pretty broad range from hardly any muscle to pretty muscular and from ripped to the shreds to average body fat.
If we take a closer look at the correlations Paszkiewicz found, some of you may be surprised to see that the relative carbohydrate intake (as percent of macronutrients) was not just positively associated with higher lean mass (see Figure 1), but also negatively with fat mass (R = -0.043).

Figure 1: Minimal, maximal and average energy balance in the gymnasts (left); positive correlates and correlation coefficients R of lean mass in 40 elite competitive female gymnasts (Paszkiewicz. 2014)

The amount of protein the gymnasts ate, however, was not significantly associated with increase lean mass. In fact, when we compare two groups, i.e. those with a high and those with a low protein intake, statistics inform us that "the higher protein group ha[s] a statistically significant lower FFM [fat free masss]" (Paszkiewicz. 2014).

Are high(er) protein intakes bad for gymnasts or, what?

Personally I suspect that this is due to a correlation between high(er) protein intakes, lower cabohydrate intakes (R = -0.595) and, most importantly, a reduced overall energy intake, which is associated with lower lean body mass and (listen up, ladies!), just as it has been reported by Deutz et al. previously, increased body fat % (reread the corresponding article from July 2013).

But why dont we have a look at the other study? Beach volleyball players are regarded as the epitome of health and sexappeal, so things could easily look different for them compared to the "frail" gymnasts, right? With a mean body fat % of 18% and a standard deviation ±7% the twelve women from the GSU sand volleyball team who participated in Richardsons study have a much healthier body fat percentage than the average, let alone extreme gymnast in the previously discussed study (we got to be careful here, because the BF% in the Richardson study was measured by body impedance and could thus easily be 5% off).
With a mean BMI of 22 kg/m², all female participants of the study were normalweight and consumed a diet with >1.94g protein per body weight (mean intake 132 ±52 g per day). An amount of protein most of the ladies spread across the day with a mean 26.06 (±10.51) g being consumed on every eating opportunity. Thats not yet the "SuppVersity suggested" amount of 30g of protein per meal, but its getting close, yet with an uneven distribution from AM to PM:

• 30g from 6-12 AM,
• 63g from noon to six PM,
• another 39g in the evening

In contrast to many average Janes and Joes, the study participants consumed almost half of the mean protein intake during mid-day, while their protein intake from 6 pm to midnight amounted to only 24(±23) % of their total daily protein consumption. Still, Richardson is right to point out that

"[...] protein intake distribution was skewed, on average, toward the latter half of  the  day  with  approximately  19%  of  protein  consumed  in  the  morning  and  34% consumed  in  the  evening." (Richardson. 2014)

Much to my surprise, the ladies in the beach volley ball team were similarly anorexic as their peers in the gymnast group. With -404  (±385) kcal/day the average energy balance was clearly negative; and even if the standard deviations indicate that this was not the case for all of the ladies, the athletes spent 17 hours, on average, in a catabolic energy balance state (< 0 kcal) on a daily basis.

A high relative protein intake was not associated with better body composition!

Interestingly, though, no significant correlation was found between energy balance per gram of protein consumption and body composition.

Table 2: Spearman’s Correlations: Six Zone Protein Intake and Body Composition (N=12; Richardson. 2014); FFM – fat free mass: FFM to Ht ratio – amount of FFM per cm of height; eating Opportunities – number of times athlete consumed calories; 24 Hour EB – net kcal at the end of the day (energy consumed less energy expended)

The picture that emerges from a regression analyses with respect to the relation of energy balance and protein variables is in fact dubious (see Table 2). The only significant correlations (bold) are a positive correlation between fat free mass (FFM) and protein intake late, and a negative correlation between fat free mass and protein intake early in the AM. A similarly confusing, yet at no time significant association arises for the fat mass, which correlates negatively (albeit with p = 0.678 statistically non-significantly) with the number of meals with a protein content of 25g or more.

You wont see the same effects with pineapple/juice (Aiyegbusi. 2011).

Proteases are as any Wikipedia user will lean enzymes that break down proteins (proteolysis) by hydrolyzing the peptide bonds that link amino acids together in the polypeptide chain forming the protein.

Proteases have evolved multiple times, and different classes of protease can perform the same reaction by completely different catalytic mechanisms. Proteases can be found in animals, plants, bacteria, archaea and viruses. And proteases can be found on among the favorite supplements of naturopath.
Up to today, however proteases could not be found on the list of scientifically proven performance enhancers. With the latest study from the University of Tasmania, the latter has changed: According to the results Shing et al. published in the latest issue of the European Journal of Sport Science, bromelain, a protease that can be found among others in several foods, most prominently pineapple, can reduce (a) the subjective feelings of fatigue and (b) help to maintain testosterone concentration in competitive cyclists taking part in a six-day cycle stage race.

The former is what Shing et al. conclude based on the results of a study that involved fifteen highly trained cyclists [age: 22, years, height: 1.79, body mass: 68.69]. In the corresponding randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

• 8 of the cyclist 1000mg of bromelain per day, while
• 7 of the cyclists got a visually identical placebo supplement

which was consumed daily across six days of competitive racing. Blood was collected from each cyclist on days one, three and six of racing and analysed for creatine kinase (CK), myoglobin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and testosterone.

Figure 1: Changes in CK and testosterone during the 6 days of competitive cycling (Shing. 2015).

The results of the study show significant elevations in CK activity (this protein is indicative of muscle damage), LDH activity (this protein is necessary to get rid of lactate) and myoglobin concentration in both groups. What was different, though was that the testosterone concentrations of the athletes who received the bromelain supplement tended to maintain stable, while those of the subjects in the placebo group decreased significantly over the course of the 6-day race period.

In conjunction with the perceived feeling of fatigue with was lower in the bromelain group on day four of racing (P = 0.01), the results of the study at hand to this in fact suggest that the consumption of 1,000mg of bromelain can have beneficial effects on some, albeit not directly performance relevant parameters in trained athletes.
References:

• Aiyegbusi, Ayoola I., et al. "A comparative study of the effects of bromelain and fresh pineapple juice on the early phase of healing in acute crush achilles tendon injury." Journal of medicinal food 14.4 (2011): 348-352.
• Pavan, Rajendra, Sapna Jain, and Ajay Kumar. "Properties and therapeutic application of bromelain: a review." Biotechnology research international 2012 (2012).
• Shing, Cecilia M., et al. "Acute protease supplementation effects on muscle damage and recovery across consecutive days of cycle racing." European journal of sport science ahead-of-print (2015): 1-7.

Can you hit the fat hard with choline?

I want to be honest with you. I am a huge fan of choline and truly believe that it is hugely under-appreciated, but the prominent relative (not absolute) increase in body fat loss in study at hand must be interpreted with caution - no matter how statistically significant the "choline advantage" may be.

Before we can get to said "cautious interpretation", lets briefly take a look at what exactly Gehan Elsawy, Osama Abdelrahman, and Amr Hamza from the Zagazig University and the Mansoura University in Egypt did to produce a 100% increase in body fat loss in their 22 female study participants (15 taekwondo and 7 judo athletes).
The idea was to clarify the magnitude of rapid body mass reduction among Egyptian judokas, in order to identify the scientific basis and justification for such practices. In that, the researchers were particularly interested in the effects of choline supplementation on bodymass reduction and leptin levels among their females taekwondo and judo athletes.

The athletes were divided into two groups, according to their body mass; the experimental group contained ten female athletes, and the control group twelve female athletes. At the time of enrollment, all the subjects were healthy, according to a medical information questionnaire, and none of the subjects had any specific dietary restrictions. Exclusion criteria included the use of any medication or supplement during the previous six months.

2.0g per day divided in two 1.0g doses of choline did the trick

For one week prior to a competition, the athletes in the experimental group took choline tablets (1.0 g) twice daily with a meal, equaling a total daily dose of 2.0 g (the scientists dont provide any information on the form of choline, they used, but their references suggest that it was PS, i.e. phosphatidylcholine). The control group received a placebo, and they participated in usual training (with 75% training intensity) at the same time as the choline group four times per week.

"According to Anni et al. (2011), choline supplementation appears to be safe and the authors recommend taking approximately 2.5 g one hour before a prolonged exercise session. The effective dose in sport studies is 0.2 g phosphatidylcholine 90% per kg of the body mass, which equals 2.1 g of choline for an 80-kg athlete. There is no requirement for a loading or maintenance phase and choline supplementation up to one hour before exercise has been shown to be effective in reducing fatigue." (Elsawy. 2014)

There was no standardized diet, there were no diet logs and there was no recording of training intensity and volume.
Things that were assessed are body weight, body fat (see red box above), serum and urinary choline, as well as back and leg strength.

Figure 1: Changes in leptin, plasma choline, body fat (%), BMI, leg & back strength within the last week of precompetition dieting with or without the addition of 2g of choline (undisclosed form) in a recent study by Elsawy et al. (2014).

Statistically significant differences were observed for plasma choline (obviously), leptin and the change in body fat (-1% vs. -2% in the choline group). It would be nice if we also knew if this affected the food and/or water intake and/or if we had confirmation from DEXA and caliper data that the body fat difference was more than just body impedance b*s* - unfortunately, none of these data are available.
References:

• Elsawy et al. "Effect of Choline Supplementation on Rapid Weight Loss and Biochemical Variables Among Female Taekwondo and Judo Athletes." Journal of Human Kinetics volume 40/2014, 77-82.
• Hanin I, Ansell GB. "Lecithin: Technological, Biological, and Therapeutic Aspects". Plenum Press, NY, 180-181; 1987.
• Slater, Gary. "Assessing Body Composition of Athletes." Sports Nutrition for Paralympic Athletes (2014): 189.
• Wurtman RJ, Hirsch MJ, Growdon JH. "Lecithin consumption raises serum-free-choline levels." Lancet, 1977; 2: 68-69