Protein it’s Important but Often Over Consumed

Protein is the most important macronutrient we consume, it’s vital for rebuild and growing among other processes in the body. This vital nutrient is useful for satiety so it’s great during a fat loss phase, and is very anabolic so it’s good for growing muscle.

It’s commonly said that the ideal amount of protein for a person is 1g per lb, (2.2g per kg). This is based on old nitrogen balance studies that don’t hold up to scrutiny anymore.

For those of you that have a hard time getting your protein in the good news is that the number is decently lower than you might expect.

As always dietary recommendations will vary from person to person but on average it seems the most amount of protein you’ll need to maximize strength and muscle growth is about 0.6-0.8g per lb daily. This has been the case in individuals training extremely hard and elite bodybuilders, and it might be the case that the more advanced you get the less protein you need because the body becomes better at stopping proteins from breaking down. There may be a few reasons that you might need more protein like if you are doing concurrent training (strength and endurance) or a growing teen. There isn’t much info on those scenarios but I’m sure as research continues we’ll be able to update those recommendations.

That doesn’t mean you can’t eat more protein if you want to, I tend to eat more than that just because of dietary preferences and the added satiety during fat loss phases. Just don’t expect the more protein you eat the more muscle you’ll grow.