Protein is awesome. If you’re in the fitness space, you’ve probably heard it a million times. “Eat more protein!!” “Make sure you get your protein in.” If you haven’t, now you have.
Whether you’re hitting the gym, the pavement, or even thinking about getting more active, you should be consuming enough protein. There’s a strong research consensus that protein is crucial for building and maintaining muscle, as well as proper body functioning.
So how much protein do you really need?
Here’s the quick answer: Around 0.8g/lb or 1.8g/kg of body weight/day
But you can probably get away with a bit less and still see the same results.
Let’s take a deeper look into it.
What Is Protein?
Protein is used throughout the body, for muscles, hair, skin, hormones, boosting the immune system, and is even used for energy. Your body needs protein in order for cells to function properly, to make new cells, and even to repair the old ones.
Essentially, you can’t live without it.
Protein is made up of amino acids, think of them as the building blocks that combine to make different proteins. There are 20 different kinds of amino acids that your body needs in order to function properly, 9 of which are considered essential as they have to come from your diet. The remaining 11 your body can produce and are called nonessential amino acids.
If you’ve ever seen BCAA supplements, which stands for Branched Chain Amino Acids, all that is are 3 of the essential amino acids, leucine, isoleucine, and valine, packaged into a supplement. (Another post on this later…)
Why Is Protein Important For Body Composition And Strength?
Protein is a crucial component of a healthy diet and is essential for proper body functioning. It’s essential for proper growth and development in younger people, but let’s talk specifically about those who are looking to get stronger and put on some muscle.
Getting enough protein in helps with:
Greater strength gains1,2
Increased muscle mass (especially when added with resistance training)1,2
Better preservation of muscle - when not training, in a caloric deficit, or when ill3
Limits age-related muscle loss4
Provides a great muscle protein synthesis response when distributed evenly across the day1,5
All in all, if you’re someone looking to get into shape, get stronger, and sustain your gains, you should make sure you’re getting enough protein in your diet.
Where Do I Find Protein?
Great question!
There are lots of foods that contain protein, some better than others. What makes one food better than another when it comes to protein you might ask? Remember those amino acids we talked about? Some foods contain more of them, or contain a better profile of amino acids.
Meats: beef, lamb, veal, pork, turkey, chicken, etc. This category is one of your best bets in getting tons of protein and a good all-round profile of amino acids
Fish & Seafood: salmon, tuna, halibut, cod, crab, lobster, etc. Another great option for getting your grams of protein in
Eggs: With about 6g of protein per egg, you can’t really go wrong
Dairy Products: Not all dairy products are high in protein, but certain yogurts like Greek or Icelandic, or cheeses like cottage cheese, can be great sources of protein
Legumes & Beans: Beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu. These foods are great sources of plant protein
Nuts & Seeds: While higher in fats, these can contribute as a source of protein for those who are on a plant-based diet
How Much Do You Need?
As mentioned earlier, the consensus is 0.8g/lb or 1.8g/kg of body weight per day.
Any more than that doesn’t seem to have any additional benefits.
Let’s take a look at some studies that tried to find the optimal daily protein intake.
Lockwood et al (2016)6: Aimed to look at changes in body composition, strength, and weight with different forms of whey protein supplementation. The study found that there were no significant differences in muscle mass or strength changes between groups. They also noted that there was no extra benefit beyond 1.6g/kg intake for muscle growth.
Hoffman et al (2006)7: Found no differences in body composition or strength in athletes consuming either 0.77g/lb or >0.91g/lb.
Roberts et al (2017)8: Looked at whether 1.8g/kg or 2.9g/kg helped people recover better in the days following a hard workout. The higher protein group didn’t see any improvements in muscle damage or reports of soreness compared to the lower protein group.
Phillips & Van Loon (2011)9: Looked at athletes and optimal dietary protein intakes and found 1.8g/kg to be the upper limit for body composition benefits.
Morton et al (2018)10: The cut-off point from which no additional benefits were found was 1.6g/kg or 0.73g/lb daily.
One thing to keep in mind is that these studies mainly looked at the top upper limit of protein intake - essentially, how much can you have before you don’t see any additional benefits.
Many of these studies had a “buffer” (aka added standard deviations) to make sure all the possible benefits of additional protein intake would be observed.
Meaning 0.8g/lb is more than safe, and that you can maybe get away with a bit less.
Some studies pointed to 0.73g/lb or even 0.64g/lb being enough.10,11,12
Who Needs More?
Some people may need more protein than others.
That may include those over the age of 65. The reason being is that older people have a lower rate of muscle protein synthesis (MPS), which helps build muscle, and puts them at a greater risk of low muscle mass, also known as sarcopenia.
One paper recommended that older people should consume 0.73 - 0.82g/lb (or 1.6-1.8g/kg) per day of protein, but that they should also aim to consume at least 0.27g/lb per meal, distributed throughout the three main meals of the day. Those meals should also contain a minimum of 5 to 6g of leucine, one of the essential amino acids mentioned earlier.13
Another group that may benefit from more is concurrent athletes who train both strength and endurance in very high volumes who have lots of room to grow muscle building wise, adolescents who are still growing, people who take performance enhancing drugs, people with amazing and jealousy-inducing genetics, and outliers.
Otherwise, you probably don’t need more than the recommended 0.8g/lb/day.
What If You’re Trying to Lose Weight?
When cutting calories, you should try to keep your protein intake up to around the same levels. You don’t really need more, but it’s a good idea not to let it dip too low.
When you’re in a calorie deficit, you lose weight by not only losing fat, but sometimes muscle mass too. One way to help prevent losing muscle is to keep your protein levels up. One study looked at endurance athletes who consumed 0.41g/lb or 0.82g/lb of protein per day and found the ones consuming 0.82g/lb completely protected them from muscle loss.14
How Much Protein Can You Have In A Single Sitting?
A common misconception is that the maximum amount of protein your body can absorb in a single meal is 30g. This simply isn’t the case.
There haven’t been many studies really looking at what’s the max amount of protein you can have in one sitting. One paper looked at consuming 100g of milk protein in one go and found that it was utilised by the body.15 An upper limit hasn’t really been found.
One thing to keep in mind, the more protein you consume at once, the longer it will take to digest.16
Remember those amino acids we brought up earlier? They can also affect things. When you consume protein, as well as when you exercise, you stimulate muscle protein synthesis. Leucine, one of the essential amino acids, has been shown to stimulate MPS, so if you consume less leucine, you may need to consume more in order to elicit a greater response.
What About Plant Based Diets?
One issue with plant based diets is that people tend to consume less overall protein as well as the fact that plant proteins tend to be absorbed slower and have an incomplete amino acid profile and lower essential amino acid content compared to animal based protein.
Vegan and vegetarian athletes and non-athletes alike need to consume on average 20-40% more plant based proteins compared to their animal protein peers in order to get similar amounts of essential amino acids.17
Some ways they can do this other than eating more beans and legumes are supplementing with a plant based protein powder, or other BCAA supplements that are vegan friendly.
As long as proper planning is taken into account, people on a plant based diet can achieve the same exercise training and body composition adaptations as those who consume animal proteins.
Are Supplements Really Needed?
In short, no.
Supplements are nice to have. They’re convenient, quick, easy to make, come in all sorts of flavours, and can be easily added to other foods to add some extra protein.
Supplements make it easier to get your protein in, so if you find you’re missing those last couple of grams at the end of your day, this might help you bridge that gap.
There are plenty of different kinds of protein supplements. Whey, casein, pea proteins, etc. They each have their benefits and some might be better for you specifically.
One thing to keep in mind with supplements, especially the whey protein ones, is that they can cause some bloating. Some people find it’s not the nicest on their gut too. Just something to remember…
But again, they’re supplements. They’re not inherently better or even meant to replace regular food. It can just be nice to have.
Can You Have Too Much Protein?
There have been some fears that having too much protein is bad for you - bad for your kidneys, bad for your bones, bad for your cholesterol, or for some other reason.
Recent research has shown that to not be the case.
The Institute of Medicine, WHO, and others found no link between excessively high amounts of daily protein intake, in the range of 1.18 - 2.64g/lb, and adverse effects on the kidneys.18-21
No affects on blood lipids were found either when subjects were put on a year long high protein diet in the range of 1.14 - 1.5g/lb/day.22
There’s another misconception that excessive protein consumption can negatively affect bone health, which is quite ironic, considering there’s research showing that a high protein diet can actually be beneficial for bone health.23,24
Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis, and Musculoskeletal Diseases and by the International Osteoporosis Foundation found that higher dietary protein intakes are associated with higher bone mineral density, a slower rate of bone loss, and reduced hip fractures (provided there was adequate calcium intake) in older adults.25
What If You’re Overweight?
If you have excessive body fat to lose, then a good way to gauge how much protein you should be having is to use a healthy goal weight for this equation.
So, if you’re currently 300lbs with a height of 5’7”, a healthy goal weight for you could be 150lbs. You’d use the 150lbs in your equation.
150lbs x 0.8g of protein = 120g of protein per day
Conclusion
There’s normally no extra benefit of consuming more than 0.8g/lb a day to preserve or build muscle and strength, and even as low as 0.64g/lb has been shown to be enough.
Monitor yourself, see if you notice any changes if you go a bit above or below that mark. See how you feel and how you perform.
If you’re looking to improve your physique, performance in the gym or on the field, it’s important to pair up your protein with proper training as well. Just because you eat protein doesn’t mean you’re going to pack on muscle or become a pro athlete - you have to put in the work for that too!
But if you’re already putting in work in the gym, then you also have to make sure you’re putting in work in the kitchen making sure your nutrition is dialled in to help you see the best possible results.
All in all, you need protein, and as long as you’re in the ballpark of 0.8g/lb of body weight per day, you should be good.
Final Remarks
Our goal at Delta Kinesiology is to help women reach their health and fitness goals, whether it be online, in the gym, or in-house! We specialise in conditions and injuries that women are more likely to experience, and we tailor the sessions using evidence-based principles and methods to help you reach your goals. Whether that be going about your day pain-free, building muscle, improving stamina, or feeling better about yourself, we are here to help.
Check out some of the ways we can help below!
References
Stokes, T., Hector, A. J., Morton, R. W., McGlory, C., & Phillips, S. M. (2018). Recent perspectives regarding the role of dietary protein for the promotion of muscle hypertrophy with resistance exercise training. Nutrients, 10(2), 180.
Morton, R. W., Murphy, K. T., McKellar, S. R., Schoenfeld, B. J., Henselmans, M., Helms, E., Aragon, A. A., Devries, M. C., Banfield, L., Krieger, J. W., & Phillips, S. M. (2018). A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British journal of sports medicine, 52(6), 376–384. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2017-097608
Carbone, J. W., McClung, J. P., & Pasiakos, S. M. (2019). Recent advances in the characterization of skeletal muscle and whole-body protein responses to dietary protein and exercise during negative energy balance. Advances in Nutrition, 10(1), 70-79.
Mitchell, C. J., Milan, A. M., Mitchell, S. M., Zeng, N., Ramzan, F., Sharma, P., ... & Cameron-Smith, D. (2017). The effects of dietary protein intake on appendicular lean mass and muscle function in elderly men: a 10-wk randomized controlled trial. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 106(6), 1375-1383.
Mamerow, M. M., Mettler, J. A., English, K. L., Casperson, S. L., Arentson-Lantz, E., Sheffield-Moore, M., ... & Paddon-Jones, D. (2014). Dietary protein distribution positively influences 24-h muscle protein synthesis in healthy adults. The Journal of nutrition, 144(6), 876-880.
Lockwood, C. M., Roberts, M. D., Dalbo, V. J., Smith-Ryan, A. E., Kendall, K. L., Moon, J. R., & Stout, J. R. (2016). Effects of Hydrolyzed Whey versus Other Whey Protein Supplements on the Physiological Response to 8 Weeks of Resistance Exercise in College-Aged Males. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 36(1), 16–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2016.1140094
Hoffman, J. R., Ratamess, N. A., Kang, J., Falvo, M. J., & Faigenbaum, A. D. (2006). Effect of protein intake on strength, body composition and endocrine changes in strength/power athletes. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 3(2), 12–18. https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-3-2-12
Roberts, J., Zinchenko, A., Suckling, C. et al. The short-term effect of high versus moderate protein intake on recovery after strength training in resistance-trained individuals. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 14, 44 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0201-z
Phillips, S. M., & Van Loon, L. J. (2011). Dietary protein for athletes: from requirements to optimum adaptation. Journal of sports sciences, 29 Suppl 1, S29–S38. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2011.619204
Morton, R. W., Murphy, K. T., McKellar, S. R., Schoenfeld, B. J., Henselmans, M., Helms, E., Aragon, A. A., Devries, M. C., Banfield, L., Krieger, J. W., & Phillips, S. M. (2018). A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British journal of sports medicine, 52(6), 376–384. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2017-097608
Lemon, P. W., Tarnopolsky, M. A., MacDougall, J. D., & Atkinson, S. A. (1992). Protein requirements and muscle mass/strength changes during intensive training in novice bodybuilders. Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985), 73(2), 767–775. https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.1992.73.2.767
Walberg, J. L., Leidy, M. K., Sturgill, D. J., Hinkle, D. E., Ritchey, S. J., & Sebolt, D. R. (1988). Macronutrient content of a hypoenergy diet affects nitrogen retention and muscle function in weight lifters. International journal of sports medicine, 9(4), 261–266. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2007-1025018
Rogeri, P. S., Zanella, R., Jr, Martins, G. L., Garcia, M. D. A., Leite, G., Lugaresi, R., Gasparini, S. O., Sperandio, G. A., Ferreira, L. H. B., Souza-Junior, T. P., & Lancha, A. H., Jr (2021). Strategies to Prevent Sarcopenia in the Aging Process: Role of Protein Intake and Exercise. Nutrients, 14(1), 52. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14010052
Pikosky, M. A., Smith, T. J., Grediagin, A., Castaneda-Sceppa, C., Byerley, L., Glickman, E. L., & Young, A. J. (2008). Increased protein maintains nitrogen balance during exercise-induced energy deficit. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 40(3), 505–512. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0b013e31815f6643
Trommelen, J., van Lieshout, G. A. A., Nyakayiru, J., Holwerda, A. M., Smeets, J. S. J., Hendriks, F. K., van Kranenburg, J. M. X., Zorenc, A. H., Senden, J. M., Goessens, J. P. B., Gijsen, A. P., & van Loon, L. J. C. (2023). The anabolic response to protein ingestion during recovery from exercise has no upper limit in magnitude and duration in vivo in humans. Cell reports. Medicine, 4(12), 101324. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2023.101324
Schoenfeld, B. J., & Aragon, A. A. (2018). How much protein can the body use in a single meal for muscle-building? Implications for daily protein distribution. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 15, 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-018-0215-1
Antonio, J., Evans, C., Ferrando, A. A., Stout, J. R., Antonio, B., Cinteo, H., Harty, P., Arent, S. M., Candow, D. G., Forbes, S. C., Kerksick, C. M., Pereira, F., Gonzalez, D., & Kreider, R. B. (2024). Common questions and misconceptions about protein supplementation: what does the scientific evidence really show?. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 21(1), 2341903. https://doi.org/10.1080/15502783.2024.2341903
Antonio, J., & Ellerbroek, A. (2018). Case Reports on Well-Trained Bodybuilders: Two Years on a High Protein Diet. Journal of Exercise Physiology Online, 21(1).
Antonio, J., Ellerbroek, A., Silver, T., Vargas, L., Tamayo, A., Buehn, R., & Peacock, C. A. (2016). A High Protein Diet Has No Harmful Effects: A One-Year Crossover Study in Resistance-Trained Males. Journal of nutrition and metabolism, 2016, 9104792. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/9104792
Brändle, E., Sieberth, H. G., & Hautmann, R. E. (1996). Effect of chronic dietary protein intake on the renal function in healthy subjects. European journal of clinical nutrition, 50(11), 734–740.
Joint WHO/FAO/UNU Expert Consultation (2007). Protein and amino acid requirements in human nutrition. World Health Organization technical report series, (935), .
Trumbo, P., Schlicker, S., Yates, A. A., Poos, M., & Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine, The National Academies (2002). Dietary reference intakes for energy, carbohydrate, fiber, fat, fatty acids, cholesterol, protein and amino acids. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 102(11), 1621–1630. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0002-8223(02)90346-9
Sale, C., & Elliott-Sale, K. J. (2019). Nutrition and Athlete Bone Health. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 49(Suppl 2), 139–151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01161-2
Antonio, J., Ellerbroek, A., Evans, C., Silver, T., & Peacock, C. A. (2018). High protein consumption in trained women: bad to the bone?. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 15, 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-018-0210-6
Rizzoli, R., Biver, E., Bonjour, J. P., Coxam, V., Goltzman, D., Kanis, J. A., Lappe, J., Rejnmark, L., Sahni, S., Weaver, C., Weiler, H., & Reginster, J. Y. (2018). Benefits and safety of dietary protein for bone health-an expert consensus paper endorsed by the European Society for Clinical and Economical Aspects of Osteopororosis, Osteoarthritis, and Musculoskeletal Diseases and by the International Osteoporosis Foundation. Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA, 29(9), 1933–1948. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00198-018-4534-5
Comentários