Recommended Protein Intake For Building Muscle

One of the most frequently asked questions regarding muscle building diets is along the lines of “What is the recommended protein intake for building muscle?” and this article will attempt to give you a full and frank answer. Like most things in life – and especially in bodybuilding – the answer is quite fluid and not as set-in-stone as you may like. That may sound quite disheartening but it’s actually good, because many people have given up on building substantial muscle because they erroneously believed they were doing ‘everything right’ and yet for some mysterious reason ‘couldn’t build any muscle at all’. I don’t want you to be one of those people – I want you to come away from reading this article with an understanding that if something doesn’t work out for you, tweaking and testing is the way to make it work and then you will succeed eventually. Let’s crack on…

The first thing you absolutely must understand is: Although there are protein recommendations, and some protein recommendations are more popular than others, it’s a spectrum, and it’s all about finding out which part of the spectrum works for you and satisfies you.

Undoubtedly, the most common protein intake recommendation for building muscle is 1g of protein per LB of bodyweight. It’s probably much less a coincidence that these numbers match 1-for-1 than actually being a popular recommendation because it’s easy to remember.

The U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance for protein intake is around 0.8g of protein per KG of bodyweight for adults.

It should be noted that the above figure is a guideline for the average person, and just one glance at the average person should tell you that they don’t have much muscle mass to maintain, thus they won’t require that much protein.

Also, government calculations are notoriously unreliable. To highlight this point, did you know that the way government calculates obesity, somebody completely ripped with substantial muscle could be classified and counted as obese if their overall weight came above government recommended weight?

Given we’re trying to build muscle which is demanding physiologically thus nutritionally, we can probably say that the government recommendation of approximately 0.4g of protein per LB of bodyweight won’t be optimal – especially not for a full body muscle building program.

In bodybuilding circles, 1g of protein per LB of bodyweight is sometimes seen as conservative. Some people I’ve seen go up to 2g of protein per LB of bodyweight.

Some even calculate their per gram protein intake per LB of lean body mass (i.e. minus fat) and appear to do just fine.

What this should tell us is that different approaches work for different people.

Great, so, this means the smallest amount of protein I can get away with, right?

Well, no. The problem with that is you’re not taking into account the caloric value of the protein – 4 calories per gram. You need to take in more calories than your body spends in order to add muscle (or fat, for that matter). If you limit your protein intake to as little as you can get away with, you’ll only need to replace those calories with more of the other nutrients – carbohydrates and fats.

Aside from Trans Fats which deserve their reputation as unnatural destroyers of health, heightened intake of dietary fats should be fine for most people, so don’t fall into the trap of trying to limit your fat intake to almost none – you need them to maintain hormone balance, it’s as simple as that.

Carbohydrates, on the other hand, would have to pick up the caloric slack if you choose to limit your protein and fats, and evidence now strongly suggests excessive reliance upon carbohydrates is one of the biggest factors in the faltering health (namely diabetes type 2 and obesity) of the Western population over the last 50 years or so, due to their effect on insulin levels and blood sugar levels.

What you should do now…

The easiest way to work out how much protein you need to build muscle is to first find out how many calories you need daily to stay at the same bodyweight (including calories spent during day-to-day activities and training) and add an extra 300-500 to support muscle growth.

Once you’ve worked out the calories you need, you can then work out a macronutrient split that you feel confident and happy to consume based upon the following nutrient caloric information:

• Proteins are 4 calories per g of protein consumed.
• Carbohydrates are 4 calories per g of carbohydrates consumed.
• Fats are 9 calories per g of carbohydrates consumed.

When deciding on your macronutrient split, a rough guideline to fall within would be 0.75-1g of protein per LB of bodyweight, and should be more than sufficient for most natural lifters.

Protein should be consumed regularly throughout the day, but I recommend carbohydrates only be consumed during breakfast, pre-workout and post-workout so they’re used to their strengths – quick muscular energy replenishment – and not creating a constant environment for fat storage. (Also, substantial carbohydrates and fats together is a mix best avoided.)

If you gain too much fat then you’re taking in too many calories, so I’d recommend looking to cutting your carb intake first, before looking into cutting protein and fats – but that’s your call. You’ll find yourself needing to make regular adjustments as you go along; that’s just the nature of building muscle.