The Smartest Way To Use Protein To Build Muscle (Science Explained)

Here are the key points from the transcript: - For general health, the WHO recommends 0.8g of protein per kg of body weight or 0.36g per pound. This is likely not enough for weight training goals. - When bulking, aim for 1.6-2.2g of protein per kg or 0.7-1g per pound. The 1g per pound rule is a good high end target. - When cutting, increase protein intake to 1.8-2.7g per kg or 0.8-1.2g per pound to prevent muscle breakdown. - For recomp, 1g per pound or 1g per cm of height can be used as simple targets. Spread protein across 3-5 meals. - You can likely use more than 20-25g of protein per meal. Up to 40-70g may maximize muscle protein synthesis. - Animal proteins are highest in leucine, but combining plant proteins can match animal sources. Focus on total daily protein intake. - Pre-sleep protein may improve overnight muscle protein synthesis. Timing not critical if daily protein is sufficient. - No safety concerns with high protein intakes up to 2g per pound in healthy exercising individuals. Total daily intake is most important. In summary, the key is sufficient total daily protein intake, with higher ranges needed for cutting. Meal frequency and timing strategies can further optimize results.

Speaker A: And I would eat three to 400 grams of protein a day, up to.

Speaker B: 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight. I may even go closer to 1.3 grams right now. 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. 0.82 grams per pound of body weight.

Speaker A: 0.75 grams, 0.4 grams times your body weight.

Speaker B: 1 gram of protein for every one pound of body weight. A lot of people will say that it's actually not true. Protein intake of 1.2 grams kilograms.

Speaker A: Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Speaker B: You said 1.2. No, I said 1.6, didn't I?

Speaker A: Okay, obviously there's a lot of conflicting information about protein out there. So in this video, I want to condense all the best science based information down to give you a final answer on every protein related question you've ever asked. First, when it comes to general health, the World Health Organization recommends just 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight or 0.36 grams per pound. So an 80 kilo or roughly 180 pound person would only need about 65 grams of protein per day. This is pretty hard to miss on a typical western diet. I mean, this ground turkey and rice bowl with a glass of milk has 65 grams of protein and that would have me covered for the day. However, this recommendation doesnt consider weight training, and many protein experts have called for an increase. Given the abundance of evidence showing health benefits with higher protein intakes. And the sports nutrition research is perfectly clear in showing that this amount of protein simply wont be enough to support, much less maximize muscle growth. For that goal, well need more. Now, just how much you need depends on if youre bulking, cutting or doing a recomp phase. And these ranges apply to both men and women. If youre bulking, your body is well fed, meaning its much less likely to break down muscle tissue as a fuel source, there are plenty of carbs and fats to burn first. For this reason, you generally need less protein when bulking. Here, the best research recommends 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilo or 0.7 to 1 gram per pound perennae per day. And here we can see the trusty old 1 gram per pound rule holding up pretty well as a high end figure. So if you weigh 180 pounds or 80 kilos, you'd want something between 125 and 180 grams of protein per day when bulking. On the other hand, if you're cutting, your body's not only getting fewer calories from food, you also have less body fat and less glycogen as fuel reserves. Therefore, your body is much more likely to break down muscle tissue as a source of calories. To offset this, the best data suggests increasing protein intake while cutting to 1.8 to 2.7 grams per kilo, or 0.8 to 1.2 grams per pound. This time we can see that the classic 1 gram per pound rule sits in the middle of the range. If youre already very lean and training very hard, youll want to err toward the upper end. If you have more body fat and are training more recreationally, the lower end will be plenty. Thirdly, when on a recomp phase, youre trying to build muscle and lose fat at the same time while setting your calories around maintenance intake. So I think most people can simply use the same protein figures as when bulking because at maintenance you're also at a low risk of muscle loss. As long as your training is on point. However, there may be some advantages to going a bit higher on a recomp phase, especially if you're in a slight deficit or a more advanced in the past, I've used this sliding model as a guide for recomp because it uses lean body mass instead of total body weight, making it more individualized, especially for those who hold more body fat. However, the extra step of subtracting your body fat did confuse some people. So these days I've come up with a simpler solution via researcher Eric helms. If you're overweight or obese, you can simply aim for 1 gram of protein per centimeter in height. So if you're six foot or 183 cm tall, you'd want around 183 grams of protein. This works shockingly well, especially if you're at a higher body fat. The answer to the question how much protein can you absorb in a single meal? Is all of it. Your body can absorb an enormous amount of protein in a single meal, more than you could even comfortably eat. But absorption simply refers to the passage of nutrients from the small intestine into the bloodstream. Just because protein is being absorbed doesn't mean it's being used to build muscle. So the real question is how much protein can you use in a single meal? And this is where there's some controversy. The earliest research suggested that 20 to 25 grams of protein in a single meal was all you needed to max out the anabolic response. And going above that didnt do anything extra for muscle growth. However, Im skeptical of this figure. First, on the anecdotal side, theres a huge intermittent fasting community who seem to be getting plenty jacked from just eating one or two meals per day with upwards of 50 to 100 grams of protein per meal. It does seem unlikely to me, given their muscularity, that most of that protein is going to waste for these folks. Second, more recent research has challenged the idea of a 2025 grams upper limit. This 2016 study showed higher muscle protein synthesis with 40 grams of whey versus 20 grams of whey after a full body workout. In this 2016 study showed greater muscle protein synthesis from a meal of beef containing 70 grams of protein versus 35 grams of protein. So the amount of protein we can use per meal isnt clear as of now, but its likely higher than we used to think. And regardless, I think that your protein intake per meal is clearly much less important than your protein intake perenna now despite this, most experts do still suggest that spreading your protein out across three to five meals is likely best from both a digestion standpoint and for keeping muscle protein synthesis high throughout the day. Still, if you were to eat two meals or six meals instead, you will still build muscle as long as you're hitting your daily protein target. I just suspect it might not be quite as optimal. Protein quality is partly based on the amount of the amino acid leucine. Leucine is very important because it is the so called trigger for for stimulating mtor, which then triggers new muscle growth. So let's take a look at how much of different protein sources you need to eat to hit 3 grams of leucine, which is a decent ballpark figure for maximizing the anabolic response to a meal. So in the table here, you can see that whey protein comes out on top. In just 29 grams of whey protein, you'll be getting 3 grams of leucine. And for just 145 calories, you can also get 3 grams of leucine and 40 grams of protein from chicken breast. And that would only cost you about 200 calories. Moving down the list here, you can see that you'd need to eat over 2000 calories worth of whole wheat bread to hit 3 grams of leucine. So it would take this much bread to give you the same anabolic punch as this scoop of whey protein powder. And as a general trend, animal sources of protein are higher in leucine than their plant based counterparts, especially per calorie. However, this issue nearly goes away once we introduce vegan protein powders like soy, pea and brown rice isolates, which also offer 3 grams of leucine for less than 200 calories. But leucine isn't the only factor that matters for protein quality because even though leucine will always spark the new muscle growth. You still need the other eight essential amino acids or eaas to actually build the new muscle. For eaas we use something called the DIAA score where the higher the number, the more eaas that are in that protein source. Once again you can see that dairy and animal proteins come out on top, but a very important caveat is that these tables all refer to proteins being eaten in isolation. In the real world, people combine various different foods and are almost guaranteed to get enough leucine and enough eaas by simply getting enough total daily protein. So this isnt something I personally nitpick over and its why I think protein quality is actually much less important than many people realize. Its also why leucine, Bcaa and EAA supplementation usually isnt necessary as as long as total daily protein is sufficient. However, vegan lifters should be a bit more strategic by either erring toward the higher end of protein ranges and or supplementing a high quality high leucine protein supplement such as so called vegan whey, which combines pea and brown rice protein to give it a similar amino acid profile to whey protein. Many people still believe that if you don't eat protein within 30 minutes after training, your entire session was wasted. But this idea was debunked years ago. In reality, as long as your pre workout and post workout meals within roughly four to 6 hours of each other, youll be maximizing the anabolic response to training. A possible exception to this would be if you train fasted, in which case you should try to consume some protein as soon as you can after your workout. Perhaps a more important but less discussed timing variable is consuming protein before bed. This study from my friend Joran Trommelin and his colleague Luke van Loon described pre sleep protein as an important protein feeding opportunity. They suggest consuming roughly 40 grams of protein before an overnight fast to improve overnight muscle protein synthesis. This is personally what I aim for granted. Two other longitudinal studies that directly tested consuming a slow digesting casein protein either before bed or in the morning found no significant difference after eight to ten weeks. However, both of these studies had subjects consuming a very high protein intake overall in the range of 2 grams per kilo or about 1 gram per pound, once again highlighting that as long as total daily protein intake is sufficient, these specific timing factors are much less important. There are also no legitimate safety concerns around a high protein diethenne in healthy individuals. According to this gigantic position stand from the International Society of Sports Nutrition, there is, quote, no controlled scientific evidence indicating that increased intakes of protein pose any health risks in healthy, exercising individuals. And the amount of protein recommended in this video has been shown over decades to not only be safe, but actually have health benefits. Even going way above the recommendations here, as high as 4.4 grams per kilo or 2 grams per pound has consistently reported no harmful effects. So by far the most important factor is total data protein intake. If you're looking to optimize further, you can pay attention to how you distribute your protein throughout the day. With three to five meals most likely being the anabolic sweet spot, these two factors alone will yield more than 90% of your potential results. However, protein quality can be worth keeping in mind, and protein timing may have some benefit from an optimization standpoint, especially if you train fasted or if you have a really long overnight fast. And before we go, I want to quickly shout out my ultimate guide to body recomposition. This is a 267 page book that covers everything on nutrition for muscle gain, fat loss and specific strategies for how to do both at the same time. It includes sample meal plans and tons of examples for both male and female lifters when it comes to setting up your macros, cardio supplementation, sleep, and plenty more. So if you're looking to take your nutrition to the next level, you can check it [email protected] and use the code protein to save 25% off. So that's it for this one, guys. Don't forget to leave me a thumbs up if you enjoyed the video. Subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you guys all here in the next one.