How Much Protein?

Protein

Protein is one of the three macronutrients that we talk a lot about in the fitness industry. From the biggest lifters to the fastest runners, protein is essential to our bodies in order to repair and maintain muscle. The added benefit of having more lean mass on your body is that you require more energy to maintain that lean mass. This is the switcheroo some coaches will use to say they can “speed up” your metabolism. More about that on a different blog.

Protein has a lot going for it when you’re on a fat loss journey and when you’re on a muscle building journey. Animal proteins are complete proteins with all the necessary components our bodies use to build and maintain muscle tissue. Vegan and vegetarian diets require a bit more research to insure the combination of foods meets (see what I did there…oi Sean) all the necessary amino acids required for muscle synthesis and maintenance. Yes, there are vegan bodybuilders! You don’t need to eat 6 chicken breasts a day to get ripped!

Protein also only has 4 calories per gram so on a fat loss journey, the more lean protein you eat the fuller you can feel because you get a good amount of volume for not a lot of calories. Also while you’re in a calorie deficit, you will want to maintain as much lean mass as you can, so making sure you get enough protein helps.

How Much?

The average individual probably gets about 50-60g a day without really trying. Have a couple of eggs in the morning, a sandwich for lunch, and a couple of drumsticks for dinner, and you’ll probably top out at about 50 grams that day. There are many foods that have small amounts of protein in them that can get us a little more along the way: oatmeal, broccoli, peanut butter just to name a few. And the average individual not looking to build muscle or maintain lean mass is probably fine within that range.

If you are looking to BUILD muscle, sometimes known as bulking, the goal would be about 1g of protein/1lb of bodyweight. For some folks that could be as much as 250-300g of protein depending upon your size. That’s a lot of protein. Again, the average individual who has no interest in building a lot of muscle shouldn’t really worry about this much.

If you are in a calorie deficit looking to lose fat, the goal would be about the same about .8-1g of protein/1lb of bodyweight. Again, this number could be pretty high for some folks. If you aren’t quite accustomed to eating this much protein, I strongly encourage you to ramp up to the high number. Protein consumption has a way of gumming up the works and potentially causing constipation if you’re not careful. Eat a lot of fiber and drink a lot of water.

The exact figure isn’t that important. If your goal is 250g of protein per day, that’s a lot of protein, and you only hit 200-220g you’ll be fine. Maybe your progress will be a bit slower if you’re bulking, but at the end of the day, you’re not losing much by missing protein goals by a small amount.

And remember: protein comes in all forms not just animal protein. You’d be surprised how much protein is in a serving of broccoli. And again, if you are vegetarian or vegan, make sure you do your research on what combinations of foods helps support muscle growth and synthesis.

Eat Your Protein

I often tell my clients to eat their protein. Shakes and bars are sure convenient to get to your protein goals and when the figure is high, it’s easy to slam a 30g shake and a 20g bar every once in a while. But drinking all your protein is not as productive as you think. Often those massive shakes with high protein contents end up being dumped into the kidneys because the protein is so broken down already that your body processes it fairly quickly. In its broken down form like this, it’s estimated that the body will really only use about 30-40g for muscle synthesis and repair and the excess will just get sent to the kidneys.

Eating protein will require the body to digest it and break it down which takes longer. Thus, when in a calorie deficit having some chicken or turkey will help you continue to feel fuller longer than a shake or a bar. Your body has to process the dense food in order to use it rather than absorbing it quickly.

Too much protein in general has been known to cause kidney stones, so anyone recommending much more protein than 1g/1lb of bodyweight is just inviting a painful result. Also, drink lots of water regardless.