After working exercise, it’s crucial to eat something quickly digested, but this protein will have a greater impact on your blood sugar levels than you might anticipate.
When it comes to protein powders, whether they are made from whey, egg whites, grains, vegetables, collagen, or bone broth, not all protein is created equal.
Protein powder has the advantage of providing your body with an easily absorbed supply of protein shortly after exercise. After tearing down muscle throughout your workout, your muscles are yearning for those amino acids in order to rebuild and grow more muscle.
Blood sugar effects
There are three factors that make that protein powder affect your blood sugar considerably more significantly than you might anticipate.
- Because the protein in protein powder has already been broken down, it can be easily absorbed and requires little digestion.
- After a rigorous workout, your body needs more than simply amino acids.
- All that protein might not be utilised by your body in one sitting.
Protein powder is simple to assimilate.
Have you ever noticed how rapidly breakfast cereal causes a blood sugar spike? Protein powder is a highly refined, broken-down source of calories, similar to cereal. In fact, it has been so thoroughly broken down that compared to eating a chicken breast or a veggie burger, your stomach needs to work much less hard to digest it. Its job is largely finished!
This is advantageous because the amino acids and calories from the protein powder will enter your bloodstream rapidly, providing your muscles with the fuel they require to grow and recover after an exercise.
However, for those of us with type 1 diabetes, this means that it enters the bloodstream fast, and some of that protein is readily converted to glucose as you will discover in the following two sections.
After a rigorous workout, more than just amino acids are required.
Protein alone is not everything that your body requires. In order to refill the glycogen reserves in your muscles, it also need glucose. Because your body turns the glycogen into glucose, which is subsequently cycled back to your muscles for fuel, these stores of glycogen are drained during your workout. (For more information, see Why Lifting Weights Raises Your Blood Sugar in Insulin Nation.)
If you don’t provide your body with carbohydrates after working out with fruit, muesli or anything else, it will either manufacture glucose from the glycogen that has been stored in your liver or it will make more glucose from the protein you eat.
Your body, and particularly your brain, depends on a constant supply of glucose to function. Ketones cannot power your brain. Your liver continues to provide your brain with the glucose it needs to function even while you are following a ketogenic diet.
Extra protein is transformed into glucose.
Although there is some debate on this, research has been able to identify a neutral position.
According to Dr Soumya, “In one study, researchers discovered that a meal containing 30 grammes of protein increased muscle-building activity by about 50%.”
That is the quantity of protein found in a 3-ounce serving of lean beef or chicken breast, respectively. However, it showed out that adding more protein to the meal didn’t result in a greater increase in muscle synthesis. Subjects who consumed 90 grammes of protein on average at each meal saw the same benefits as those who consumed 30 grammes.
Protein content in a serving of protein powder typically ranges from 20 to 30 grammes. A bodybuilder who weighs 235 pounds will probably be able to use more of those 20 to 30 grammes than a woman who weighs 120 pounds.
Since your muscles can only absorb and utilise a certain amount of protein in one sitting, many nutrition experts hold the belief that any protein quantity over 20 grammes is transformed into glucose. For this reason, it’s crucial to eat protein numerous times throughout the day if you want to gain muscle mass.
At the end of the day, it’s just crucial to understand that just while you aren’t consuming carbohydrates, your body is still receiving glucose from outside sources. Carbohydrates are your body’s preferred fuel source since they are the quickest and most effective way to produce the glucose that it needs to function. It will find a method to receive the glucose it needs from other sources if you don’t give it any carbohydrates.
A bolus of insulin is needed.
How many insulin units are required to cover your protein powder beverage?
There isn’t a universal solution to this, but if other factors around your protein powder are stable, then there should be a consistent solution for your body.
To cover 2 scoops of Orgain protein powder (Amazon) with approximately 1.5 cups of unsweetened vanilla almond milk, I personally know that I need 2 units of insulin. What works for me is that. Make thorough notes, regularly monitor your blood sugar, and discover what works for you!
