Protein and biological valency – why is it so important for your recovery?

During the day, your body renews between 2-6 % of the amino acids in your body, depending on the intensity of body activities. If you train without enough regeneration (overtraining), the renewal rate of proteins will only be around 2 %, so with other words your body does not recuperate to the full potential or even degenerates. With enough rest, the renewal rate of proteins is around  6 %, the tripple amount! This means your body recovers better and in the end has higher capabilities for intensive training.

To avoid a high depletion rate of your amino acids you should take care of your food intake before each training sessions, especially before intensive training sessions. It is very important to consume enough carbohydrates to keep energy at a high level and also to avoid high protein depletion. If you do sport on a regular basis, you should consume between 1-2 g protein / kg body weight -between 10-15 % of your daily calorie intake should consist of proteins.

The higher need for proteins can also be balanced with a clever combination of different protein sources – do not automatically consume supplements. Check the biological valency of food which shows how similar to the bodys protein a protein is – the more similar, the less protein your body needs to keep the protein synthesis balanced. 100 is the best single value (egg) which means that the egg white protein is very similar to the bodys protein. Certain food combinations have a higher total biological valency, which is useful to know. As you know, the higher the biological valency of the food, the less protein your body needs. Check the table blow for examples of good food combinations: