The Scholar: Atticus Rudolph
The Project: Time (and Protein) is Muscle
The Essential Question: “My project as an in-depth dive into how the body uses different macronutrients in food to build muscle. I was researching how to maximize the amount of muscle you can build through proper nutrition. I chose this topic for one because I’m really into lifting and working out, so for my own self I was kind of curious about what I can do to build muscle as best as possible. But also, because it’s a personal interest of mine and I see a lot of other people working out, I thought it would be interesting to do that research and share it with other people so they can have that knowledge going forward. I know when I started working out, I new nothing about the nutritional side of it and it definitely would have helped me a lot, so I wanted to share that knowledge with other people.”
Surprising Discovery: “One thing that I learned was that the amount of protein that you intake throughout the day can vary a lot. I personally thought that you would need a certain amount of protein and a certain amount of carbs and fats–very specific numbers–throughout certain intervals throughout the day, and that’s not quite the case. That was a little surprising to me because a lot of things that I’ve watched or read, I’ve preached that mentality and scientifically it’s not the case.”
Biggest Challenge: “[Putting the project together], that in and of itself was kind of hard. There are so many different things that go into the body processing food and utilizing it to repair the muscles and make them bigger and stronger, so that was–putting all of that and choosing what information was most important when it comes to specific processes behind muscle building was definitely the challenge of the presentation–putting it all into one paper that isn’t 50 pages and a presentation that’s an hour long.”
Tip for Future Scholars: “I would say one thing that I really learned was structure–figuring out how to structure your presentation. Making a presentation that is cohesive and explains everything that you want to explain, but is also not super long. I would also say taking pretty extensive notes and doing that as soon as you start, so not waiting for a month or two to really get down into the nitty gritty. For me, I did a lot of research but wouldn’t take as many notes. When it came time to put together everything, I had to reread stuff and it added a lot of time I could have avoided spending.”
What do you think is one key food item that people need to incorporate into their diet to properly build muscle? “That’s kind of a tricky one! I would say out of everything, protein powder is such a great supplement that can be utilized because most people really struggle getting in the levels of protein they need to get in throughout the day. It’s a pretty significant number when you look up how much protein is in foods people eat. Supplementing your diet with protein powder can make a really big difference and help you achieve whatever goals you have.”
