Much to people's surprise, you don't build muscle in the gym; you only break it down and tear the muscle fibres. The growth takes place through rest and protein consumption, and having too little of each will halt your progress in its tracks.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is not prioritizing enough protein from real food choices such as chicken, beef, eggs, and turkey. As a result, their muscle mass doesn't increase. Think of building muscle as trying to build an extension on a house. You need two main things: bricks/materials and builders. The builders are your workouts, and the bricks/materials are your protein. You can have five builders ready to start your house extension, but if there are only 20 bricks, the progress will be very slow! Conversely, 800,000 bricks/materials with only one builder will also result in slow progress, and you will have a lot of bricks left (lots of body fat). So, too much is not always better.
The Sweet Spot
Before we get to how much is right for you, I can't stress enough the importance of eating real food for protein. Far too many gym rats rely on protein shakes and bars to get their protein, and it's simply not as good as real, unprocessed organic protein sources. Remember, every food that isn't real or is processed comes with side effects!
So, how much protein do you need? It depends on how much you weigh and how hard and how much you train. If you're weight training three times a week or more, a good starting place is to have 2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight. So, if you weigh 100 kilos, then 200 grams of protein will be a good starting place.
The upper ceiling of protein consumption has been debated for years. I have tried everything from 30 grams of vegetable protein per day (didn't work at all!) to 400 grams of animal protein (about 1kg of meat per day!) and everything in between. I got skinny and sick on too little and was simply losing muscle hand over fist. I got fat eating too much, although I got miles bigger and stronger on more, but felt insanely clogged and clouded.
From 25 years of experience, I can tell you that 1 gram per lb of body weight is more than enough protein if you're trying to put on muscle. Most people find it tough to eat more real food than this.
In Summary
Too little protein will murder your progress, but way too much may make you fat, gassy, and no fun to be around. Stick to a minimum of 2 grams per kilo or 1 gram per lb of body weight as the ultimate sweet spot.
Much to people's surprise, you don't build muscle in the gym; you only break it down and tear the muscle fibers. The growth takes place through rest and protein consumption, and having too little of each will halt your progress in its tracks.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is not prioritizing enough protein from real food choices such as chicken, beef, eggs, and turkey. As a result, their muscle mass doesn't increase. Think of building muscle as trying to build an extension on a house. You need two main things: bricks/materials and builders. The builders are your workouts, and the bricks/materials are your protein. You can have five builders ready to start your house extension, but if there are only 20 bricks, the progress will be very slow! Conversely, 800,000 bricks/materials with only one builder will also result in slow progress, and you will have a lot of bricks left (lots of body fat). So, too much is not always better.
The Sweet Spot
Before we get to how much is right for you, I can't stress enough the importance of eating real food for protein. Far too many gym rats rely on protein shakes and bars to get their protein, and it's simply not as good as real, unprocessed organic protein sources. Remember, every food that isn't real or is processed comes with side effects!
So, how much protein do you need? It depends on how much you weigh and how hard and how much you train. If you're weight training three times a week or more, a good starting place is to have 2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight. So, if you weigh 100 kilos, then 200 grams of protein will be a good starting place.
The upper ceiling of protein consumption has been debated for years. I have tried everything from 30 grams of vegetable protein per day (didn't work at all!) to 400 grams of animal protein (about 1kg of meat per day!) and everything in between. I got skinny and sick on too little and was simply losing muscle hand over fist. I got fat eating too much, although I got miles bigger and stronger on more, but felt insanely clogged and clouded.
From 25 years of experience, I can tell you that 1 gram per lb of body weight is more than enough protein if you're trying to put on muscle. Most people find it tough to eat more real food than this.
In Summary
Too little protein will murder your progress, but way too much may make you fat, gassy, and no fun to be around. Stick to a minimum of 2 grams per kilo or 1 gram per lb of body weight as the ultimate sweet spot.
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