Everybody knows that protein is an essential macronutrient for muscle building. However, the amount of daily protein intake is debatable. This article will clear all your doubts regarding “how much protein do you actually need to build muscle“.
So let’s science the shit out of it.
Why Protein Is Important To Build Muscle
Before looking at the protein intake for muscle growth, let’s understand what protein is and why is it important to build muscle. Protein is an essential macronutrient that your body needs for various purposes.
Protein is made up of amino acids which can be called the building blocks of protein. These amino acids can be divided into two groups – essential and non-essential. Non-essential amino acids are those which our body can make naturally while essential ones we have to take from outside.
When we talk about muscle building then protein is very important because they work as the building block of muscles. Apart from maintaining and building muscle tissues, your body needs protein for the proper functioning of joints, tendons, ligaments, and organs.
Proteins are the building blocks of muscles. Hence, it is not possible to build muscle without enough protein in your diet.
How Protein Promotes Muscle Growth
Whenever you do exercise or use your muscles for any activity, you create micro-tears in your muscles. These micro-tears lead to muscle protein breakdown which has to be replenished with enough protein intake.
For a normal person who doesn’t involve in any rigorous physical activity like weight training or sports, 50-70 grams of protein per day is sufficient.
However, this is not the case with daily gym-goers like you. When you do intense training in the gym, you create more damage to your muscles. Due to this, the amount of protein your body needs is higher than normal.
There are an ample amount of researches that support that argument. A 2018 study, done to check the role of protein in muscle hypertrophy, shows that “protein intake promotes more gains in lean body mass than those observed with resistance training only.“
Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS) vs. Muscle Protein Breakdown (MPB)
The damage or micro-tears causes during rigorous physical activity or weight training is called muscle protein breakdown. After that, these damaged muscle tissues have to be repaired by amino acids.
This process of repairing the wear and tear in the muscles after intense use is called muscle protein synthesis (MPS).
To maintain existing muscles and to gain more muscle mass, you have to consume more protein than you are breaking down.
Protein works as the building block for new muscles. If you don’t provide enough protein then your body will compensate from other sources. This includes extracting protein from the existing muscle tissues which lead to muscle loss.
Hence, muscle growth happens when MPS is more than MPB.
So How Much Protein To Build Muscle
Now the question is that “how much protein should we consume to overcome muscle protein breakdown?”
Well, there is no single answer to this question. Protein intake to build muscle depends on various factors including your gender, muscle mass, fat percentage, body weight, etc.
What does science say?
Here also, different researchers and studies give different results. Some studies recommend protein intake as high as 0.9 to 1 gram per pound of body weight (2 to 2.2 grams per kg) is required to build muscle (1, 2).
Whereas some other studies say that about 0.8 grams per pound (1.6-1.7 grams per kg of body weight) is enough to gain muscle mass. Going beyond this won’t give you any extra benefit in muscle growth (3, 4).
All these recommendations fall in the range given by the American College of Sports Medicine that:
0.5 to 0.9 grams of protein per pound of body weight (1.2 to 2 grams per kg) is sufficient to build muscle mass and for other body functions.
3 Ways To Calculate Protein Requirement
As we have seen that 1.2-2 gm protein per kg of body weight is good enough to build muscle mass. It’s a big range that covers almost every individual. But how you can calculate the exact protein intake for muscle growth for yourself?
Here are some simple and effective approaches that you can take.
#1. Based on body type and gender:
These are the estimates of protein intake to build muscle based on your gender and body type. If you are a beginner or want to keep things extremely simple, then you can take references from the following table.
| Gender | Underweight | Healthy weight | Overweight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 0.9 gm/lb of BW | 0.7 gm/lb of BW | 0.6 gm/lb of BW |
| Female | 0.8 gm/lb of BW | 0.6 gm/lb of BW | 0.5 gm/lb of BW |
Remember that these are just estimates, you can change your protein intake later as per the results.
#2. Based on your calorie requirement:
For more accurate results, you can calculate your protein requirement based on your daily calorie intake. For this, just follow the following steps:
Step-1 Find your BMR: BMR or basal metabolic rate gives you an estimate of daily calorie requirement based on your weight, gender, height, and activity level. To get this, simply type “BMR calculator” on google.
Step-2 Fix your calorie requirement: The number of calories you got in step 1 is your maintenance calories. Now to gain muscle mass, you have to take some extra calories. Hence, add 300 to 500 calories to your maintenance calories.
Step-3 Get your protein intake: Now take protein as 20-30% of your daily calories. You can start with the lower range and keep slightly increase your protein intake as you progress.
For instance, your daily calories come out to be 2000 calories. Adding a slight surplus – make it 2400 calories. Starting with an optimal range of 25% protein, you need to consume 600 calories from protein.
As 1 gram protein = 4 calories, hence you need 600/4 = 150 grams of protein daily.
Related Post: Find Your Macros For A Lean Bulk In 3 Simple Steps
#3 Based on your lean body mass
This approach is the simplest and accurate also.
Lean body mass simply means your total body weight minus the weight of fat you have. To calculate your lean body mass, just check your body fat percentage and subtract that much weight from your total body weight.
For instance, if you weigh 200 lb with 25% body fat, you have 150 lb lean body mass. Now your daily protein intake to build muscle is 1 gram per pound of lean body mass. That means 150 grams of protein per day.
Consume 1 gm protein per lb of lean body mass (total bodyweight – fat weight).
Best High Protein Foods To Build Muscle
Here are some high-protein foods that can help you in completing your daily protein intake.
| Food item | Protein content |
|---|---|
| Chicken breast | 32g (per 100g) |
| Fish | 24g (per 100g) |
| Ground beef | 26g (per 100g) |
| Whole eggs | 7g (1 whole egg) |
| Egg whites | 4g (1 egg white) |
| Greek Yogurt | 15g (per cup) |
| Tofu | 16g (per 100g) |
| Skimmed milk | 8g (per cup) |
| Legumes | 15-18g (100g cooked) |
| Cottage cheese | 15g (per 100g) |
| Peanuts | 25g (per 100g) |
| Almonds | 22g (per 100g) |
If you are unable to fulfill your protein requirement through food, then I recommend you to take whey protein supplements.
How Much Protein To Build Muscle – The Takeaway
When we talk about muscle building or getting that muscular ripped body, protein is the thing that comes first in our mind. After all, it’s the most important nutrient to build muscle mass.
Remember one thing that there are a lot of recommendations on the internet regarding protein intake. But the truth is, there is no one size fits all. Everybody is different and responds differently. Nobody can tell you that what suits you best. You have to find it out yourself.
So don’t get confused and calculate your own protein needs. You can follow any approach among the 3 to calculate your protein requirement for building muscle.
Thanks for reading this so far. I hope you have learned something valuable from this article.
