Joel, my lean mass is approx 224 pounds. I’m looking to maintaain my muscle mass and trim up some more.
What can a body like mine handle per hit or protein please? Don’t want to be wasting that expensive supplement!
Love your blogs! Thank you
After a day of flying across the country, I’m finally getting the opportunity to write this newsletter.
Straight from…what’s this place called? Ah yes, the Gibson Guitar Lounge in Orange County airport.
I was actually planning on sending this during my last flight, because, that plane was COOL and had the internet, but alas, my middle seating assignment amongst two individuals even larger than I made that an impossibility.
But here I am, making it a point to deliver on my promise to you, my loyal subscriber, even before I check in to my hotel.
Alright, enough of that…moving on to what you really want to know: How much protein do you really NEED?
Ha! Trick question, because that’s actually not the question you should be asking anyway. You see, when you ask the question about “need”, one needs to examine the context of the question.
How much protein do you need for what?
To build muscle? To improve body composition? To improve performance? To enhance recovery? To live?
In most cases, people are asking how much protein should I intake to enhance my body composition and performance related goals.
And with that question, it’s important to take a look at things not from a “need” standpoint, but from an “optimization” standpoint.
And because my very good friend and nutritional biochemist and all around bad ass Dr. John Berardi already covered this in another article, I’ll just quote him here:
“Asking ‘How much protein does an athlete need?’ is much like asking the question ‘How much does a student need to study for an exam?’ Since a student only needs to pass their exam to remain a student, the proper answer would be ‘however much it takes to score a 60%.’ However, very few students want to earn only a 60%. Therefore the best question would be ‘How much does a student need to study to get an A on their exam?’
Now, the truth is, there are MANY reasons beyond “need” to increase protein intake to boost body composition and performance related results, here are just a few:
Reason #1
Increased Thermic Effect of Feeding — While all macronutrients require metabolic processing for digestion, absorption, and storage or oxidation, the thermic effect of protein is significantly higher than that of carbohydrates and fat. In fact, protein requires 25-30% of the energy it provides just for digestion, absorption, and assimilation while carbs only require 6-8% and fat requires 2-3%. That means that eating protein is actually thermogenic and can lead to a higher metabolic rate. This means greater fat loss when dieting and less fat gain during hypercaloric diets.
Reason #2
Increased Glucagon — Protein consumption increases plasma concentrations of the hormone glucagon. Glucagon is responsible for antagonizing the effects of insulin in adipose tissue, leading to greater fat mobilization. In addition, glucagon also decreases the amounts and activities of the enzymes responsible for making and storing fat in adipose and liver cells. Again, this leads to greater fat loss during dieting and less fat gain during overfeeding.
Reason #3
Increased IGF-1 — Protein and amino-acid supplementation has been shown to increase the IGF-1 response to both exercise and feeding. Since IGF-1 is an anabolic hormone that’s related to muscle growth, another advantage associated with consuming more protein is more muscle growth when overfeeding and/or muscle sparing when dieting.
Reason #4
Reduction in Cardiovascular Risk — Several studies have shown that increasing the percentage of protein in the diet (from 11% to 23%) while decreasing the percentage of carbohydrate (from 63% to 48%) lowers LDL cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations with concomitant increases in HDL cholesterol concentrations.
Reason #5
Improved Weight-Loss Profile — Research from Layman and colleagues has demonstrated that reducing the carbohydrate ratio from 3.5 – 1 to 1.4 – 1 increases body fat loss, spares muscle mass, reduces triglyceride concentrations, improves satiety, and improves blood glucose management.
Reason #6
Increased Protein Turnover — All tissues of the body, including muscle, go through a regular program of turnover. Since the balance between protein breakdown and protein synthesis governs muscle protein turnover, you need to increase your protein turnover rates in order to best improve your muscle quality. A high protein diet does just this. By increasing both protein synthesis and protein breakdown, a high protein diet helps you get rid of the old muscle more quickly and build up new, more functional muscle to take its place.
Reason #7
Increased Nitrogen Status — Earlier I indicated that a positive nitrogen status means that more protein is entering the body than is leaving the body. High protein diets cause a strong positive protein status and when this increased protein availability is coupled with an exercise program that increases the body’s anabolic efficiency, the growth process may be accelerated.
Reason #8
Increased Provision of Auxiliary Nutrients — Although the benefits mentioned above have related specifically to protein and amino acids, it’s important to recognize that we don’t just eat protein and amino acids — we eat food. Therefore, high protein diets often provide auxiliary nutrients that could enhance performance and/or muscle growth. These nutrients include creatine, branched chain amino acids, conjugated linoleic acids, and/or additional nutrients that are important but remain to be discovered. This illustrates the need to get most of your protein from food, rather than supplements alone.
So, looking over this list of benefits, isn’t it clear that for many individuals, an increase in protein intake would be advantageous for most people’s training goals?”
Hmmmm, indeed it does, Johnny boy, indeed it does.
So rather than looking at “need”, when talking about protein intake, let’s talk optimization.
Based on my experiences (and many others), that level is around 1 g per pound of lean body mass in most cases.
In some situations, for very specific purposes (like the protein depletion day of the XFLD), higher protein intake may be warranted.
Regardless, the bottom line is this: protein is the most under-rated nutrient, or at least the nutrient that most people under-consume. If you’re looking to boost your body composition results, make sure you’re getting enough.
Comments? Post ’em below!
But, only after you hit the facebook LIKE button below to share this with your friends.
Talk to you in the comments section!
Joel
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71 comments - add yours
Lke the article.
People need to realise that whey protein is a convenient suppliment and no more. Jack says he is unable to afford 50 -100 bucks extra but he needs to change what he eats not necessarily more money on real food. I do use whey for 2 of my meals on workout day because it is convenient but eat real food when I am not working out (active recovery is not working out in my opinion). Eggs, mature cheese, milk (mind the carb content), chicken, fish,meat, tofu, soy milk are all high in protein. It just takes planning. Include these products in every meal and before you know it you have reached you protein target.As a side note, I now spend less money on food now that I eat whole foods rather than the expensive pre made meals that i used to eat. I still have a long way to go to reach my goals but I have lost 7% body fat since I changed my diet 2 months ago.
this is great
but please what does that mean 1g per? around 1 g per pound of lean body mass ?
would U please describe more pricisely? What is lean body mass and how to calculate, for ex my weight and height ….?
I agree with what you said about protein. I have been wanting to lose 4 or 5 kg for the past 10 years or so, with little success. However, for the past few weeks, since discovering the Dukan Diet, I have been eating much more protein than I ever did before and much less carbs. Now, I have just 1 kg to lose to be at my target weight – and this without going hungry or feeling weak or irritable. In fact, I feel just fine. Protein definitely does the trick!
@ Flo:
Actually, 1 oz. of ribeye steak has about 8 g. protein and 1 oz. of broccoli has about 0.7 g. of protein. Source: nutritiondata.com
Joel Marion wrote:
Flo wrote:
What has more protein, steak or broccoli.
Answer: 1 oz of steak = 4g protein 1 oz broccoli = 7g protein
Meat is not necessary for your protein needs, just look how big and strong a cow is.Neither of those numbers is even close to being correct.
Joel
lol
Protein is absolutely way Overrated in building muscle..which it does not do,nor burning fat..which it never has…much ado about nothing.now discussions of carbohydrates and fat..Now we are talking!!!
Joel,
As mentioned in your article about the amount of energy it takes to digest protein vs carbs vs fat, it’s important to know that you have X amount of energy each day. We gain energy in two ways, food and sleep. Some foods are net gain and others are net loss foods. Protein requires more energy than it gives, than do vegetables and fat. The body loves to burn fat because it burns clean and produces fewer waste products. Eating monounsaturated fats burn the cleanest, like olive oil and avocado oil (a new favorite).
In the warrior diet, it is recommended to eat vegetables and fruits during the day to sustain the energy you have and eat more protein at the biggest meal in the evening. The produces satiety, releases seratonin and is relaxing.
I generally have a protein shake from FullStength in the morning and salad with fruit and a little protein for lunch. I’ve noticed my energy after lunch is still high when I stick to the veggie heavy lunch with a little lean meat, without the afternoon crash due to insulin spikes and crashes that cause subsequent cravings.
So I’m not saying to stay away from a lot of protein during the day, but to be aware of the energy it takes to process it.
Good article! Thanks,
Jerry
Hey Joel,
Thanks for the 8 GREAT reasons to increase protein intake! I personally make sure I consume some form of protein (steak, chicken, fish, dairy, etc.) or whey protein with every meal.
In addition, I supplement with BCAAs on days that I fast…as you recommend in your Xtreme Fat Loss Program.
I do agree with Chris when he states: Chris Cannon wrote:
I’ve personally experimented and tested consuming various amounts of protein at certain times per day, in certain amounts, etc.. and have found that going over 20 to 30 grams per serving didn’t increase my results much more than if I took in 40 to 60 grams in a serving.
I seem to have the most success with about 30 grams of protein per serving.
Thanks again and have an awesome weekend!
~ Pete
Everything has two sides to consider, and protein intake is no exception. Too much protein can be bad for your kidneys, and this should be considered when deciding how much protein you want in your diet.
I love your reply Joel! Right to the point! LOL@ Joel Marion:
Gee Joel,
Looks like you stormed up some controversy here! Actually, it makes sense to me to consume more protein. And the ratios of protein, carbs, and fat in the xfld seem well balanced. (I personally struggled with getting the fat grams without the carbs). I lost 12 lbs and 8 3/4″ after doing xfld for 16 days. I didn’t complete the 25 day cycle due to unexpected family issues. But, I plan on doing another cycle in August. I was extremely pleased with that as I am 50 yrs old, and have been fat my whole life. I say keep the info flowing Joel! (I think it would be great to throw in Cheat Your Way Thin for those who purchased xfld….::hint::: ;-)
Joel: recently became concerned about blood and tissue acidity vs alkalinity. It is better to be alkaline yet most protein foods like meat, eggs, yoghurt, nuts are acidic. I am going to assume egg and whey protein supplements do also (makw the body acidic). I do know that most oils, greens, and healthy plant foods make you alkaline. Will the alkaline foods balance the acidic environment fostered by the meat, egg, nut, and yoghurt protein sources??
maria wrote:
Protein is absolutely way Overrated in building muscle..which it does not do,nor burning fat..which it never has…much ado about nothing.now discussions of carbohydrates and fat..Now we are talking!!!
WTF?!
Protein is overrated?! Since when?
I think it’s underrated and Maria, FWIW, you need to go back to the top of this page and re-read the reasons shown for the importance of sufficient protein intake, as for your request to discuss carbs & fat, no thanks, that discussion has been going on indirectly for the past 50-100 years, people are fat because they consume foods that cause the body to store fat. I’m all for clean carbs (veggies, fruits, wholegrains) but in general people have no problems consuming “enough” carbs.
Great post, Joel. I wrote a similar one a few weeks ago. The problem with protein is that the research behind the current recommendations (0.8 – 0.9g/kg bodyweight) is surprisingly lacking… The RDA only represents the MINIMAL amount to prevent deficiency in MOST people, and even those who set this number admit that it’s based on a flawed method: Nitrogen balance.
Whether or not active people need more is still up for debate in the lab, but current nutritional practices and common sense clearly suggest a benefit. I think this is just another example of how the application is sometimes ahead of the research.
There does seem to be a limit to the amount of dietary protein that can be used for muscle protein synthesis, but there is NO EVIDENCE that extra protein damages otherwise healthy kidneys (as you also pointed out). It ultimately gets stored as fat or glycogen or oxidized for fuel like the other macronutrients.
I’ve read many different articles from many different experts. I’ve read Vince, Jeff, Jason, Elliot, Lee, and Mike. Most of them seem to say the same thing over and over and over again. I don’t seem to understand why people don’t get it. Your body NEEDS protein. Stop complaining and whining about how much you can and can’t get. If you eat as much protein as you can in your daily diet, and your diet is sound (i.e. balance of fats, carbohydrates, and protein), then don’t worry about it.
Joel,
Solid post. Have you ever read “How Much Protein” by Brad Pilon?
It is a detailed look at protein requirements to build muscle mass. Brad tends to think we need less than what a lot of the experts recommend, which I agree with as well.
That being said…there are some nice side benefits of a higher protein diet like you outlined.
*Thermic Effect
*Weight Loss
*Health Benefits, etc.
My stance is a little more than Brad recommends, but not as much as the typical muscle mag. I have found that roughly 120 grams per day has been enough for me to increase in size without adding fat…perhaps I can get away with less…but it tends to work well.
Great topic!
-George D
Amazing post; almost as good as your post Joel is reading the comments :D
I want to weigh 110 but I am currently 128. So do I eat 115 g of protein or 130 grams of protein? Any of these numbers better than the other?
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...