Build Muscle - Your Protein Needs For Building Muscle Faster
One topic in the bodybuilding work that gets debated over and over again is how much protein you really need in order to maximize the muscle building process. Some believe you should consume vast amounts of protein as this will help build muscle tissue, while others praise that nothing more than the general recommendation of 0.8 grams per kg of body mass is needed.
What's the answer? How much protein should you really be consuming to build muscle as optimally as possible?
Here's what to consider.
Lean Body Mass
When determining your protein intake, it is important to consider your total lean body mass, not just your total body mass.
For example, let's say we have two 170 pound guys. If one is carrying around 25% body fat, this brings his lean mass to 127.5 pounds. If the other is already very lean and sits at 7% body fat, his total lean mass is going to be 158.1 pounds.
Since fat mass does not require much protein at all to maintain itself, the two people would have different protein requirements.
Protein Intake To Prevent Muscle Mass Loss
It has been established in studies that the prevention of a loss in lean muscle mass can be achieved when starving individuals were fed 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body tissue.
Therefore, if you want to make sure all the muscle you currently have stays on your body, eat this amount and you can rest assured that you shouldn't lose muscle tissue.
Now, What About Those Who Aren't Dieting
We need to make this applicable to YOU though - the individual who is trying to build muscle and is not dieting. Since you're working to build muscle, you will naturally be eating a calorie surplus. This is absolutely vital if you hope to gain weight - there's no way around it.
This then means that you will have the addition of dietary fat and carbohydrates as well in your nutritional plan, and these serve to be 'nitrogen sparing'. This means, the more of those you eat, theoretically the less protein you need.
The Bottom Line
So, what's the bottom line for you, the muscle builder? You should still aim for a minimum of one gram of protein per pound of body weight, as protein does supply the amino acids that form the structure of new muscle tissue and obviously you don't want to short yourself on those.
After that though, you really won't need any more because once those basic needs are met, all you require is the energy to then build this muscle out of those building blocks.
While protein can be used for energy, it's not used nearly as effectively as carbohydrates or dietary fat is, therefore it actually makes more sense to raise either of these two macronutrients in comparison with raising protein.
So, next time someone is telling you that you need to take 2 grams of protein for every pound of body weight you have to build muscle, remember that you know better. There's really no harm in taking in this much, but it by no means is going to be the way to go if you want to optimize your muscle building ability.