Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - How Much Protein You Should Eat to Build Muscle

Episode Date: February 13, 2018

Once upon a time, I was stuck in a rut.Despite training 5 to 6 days per week, my weight wouldn’t budge…I couldn’t get stronger…and I hadn’t built any muscle to speak of in years.What is an aspiring little “shredder” to do?Well, I consulted the prestigious annals of broscience and quickly found the answer:Eat more protein. A metric f$%# ton, to be exact.   And so the great protein gluttony began. I double-scooped my protein shakes. I ate over a pound of meat per day. I popped hardboiled eggs like they were candy.I was a good little bodybuilder… with (thankfully) good little kidneys. Thanks mom! (Just kidding–high-protein diets aren’t bad for your kidneys.)Well, after a year of eating 400+ grams of protein per day… I had to face the facts.It wasn’t working.Despite all the gorging, I looked and weighed more or less the same and I was lifting more or less the same weights.Nothing had changed, really.Well…fool me once, shame on… shame on you. Fool me…you can’t get fooled again!To my credit, I got wise, dramatically changed course with my diet and training, and finally escaped the crater of mediocrity. And along the way, I learned “little things” like how much protein to eat every day.And here’s the long story short:You don’t have to stuff yourself silly with protein to build muscle or lose fat, but you might have to eat more–or less–than you think.And in this episode, I’m going to break it all down for you. By the end, you’re going to know exactly how much protein you need to eat every day based on your goals and why. Let’s get started. Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my fitness book for women, thinner,, Leaner, Stronger. Now, this book has sold over 150,000 copies in the last several years, and it has helped thousands of women build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 1,200 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average. So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that keep women from ever achieving the lean sexy strong and healthy bodies they truly desire and if you want to learn the simple science of building the ultimate female body then you want to read thinner leaner stronger today which you

can find on all major online retailers like audibleudible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. Now, speaking of Audible, I should also mention that you can actually get the audiobook 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, which I highly recommend that you do if you're not currently listening to audiobooks. I myself love them because they let me make the time that I spend doing things like commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth into more valuable and productive activities. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my book for free, simply go to www.bitly.com slash free TLS book. And that will take you to Audible. And then you just have to click the sign up today and save button, create your account. And voila, you get to listen to thinner,

leaner, stronger for free. All righty. That is enough shameless plugging for now. At least let's get to the show. Hey, it's Mike Matthews from Muscle for Life and Legion Athletics. And in this video, we're going to talk protein intake. How much protein should you be eating to gain muscle effectively? And if you have been following my work for any amount of time, you probably know the answer to this already. But as I haven't recorded a short and simple video slash podcast on it, I want to put this out there just so it's out there for any of you that are wondering and then any people in the future that are wondering that come and check my stuff out, like what I have to say, and then go, huh, I wonder what he has to say about protein

intake and muscle building. And in the spirit of trying to keep this video podcast truly short, I want to try to see if I can get to five to seven minutes. I always go into them going, I'm going to go five to seven minutes and then it goes 15, 20 minutes. I'm just going to get straight to the point. And here is how much protein you should be eating if you want to gain muscle effectively. So if you are at maintenance calories or in a slight surplus, anywhere between 0.8 to one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day will get the job done. And that range of intake will also work well when you're cutting for the purposes of preserving

lean mass. However, if you are very muscular, so if you have a lot more muscle than the average person and you are pretty lean, wanting to get very lean, there is evidence that a slightly higher amount of intake may be slightly better for muscle preservation purposes. So for example, I myself, when I'm cutting, my protein intake is between one gram and 1.2 grams per pound of body weight per day. And I know that that in particular is a point of debate in the evidence-based bodybuilding community. A good example of that is the debate, I think it was a couple years ago now, but it was a debate on protein intake between Menno Henselman and Eric Helms, which I highly recommend if you really

want to dive into the science of this. And in that debate, Menno makes a good case for really never having to eat more than 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. And Eric also makes a great case for not necessarily disagreeing with that, but saying that under certain circumstances, it may make sense to have a bit more protein and particularly for certain people. And when you look at the totality of the evidence, most of it does suggest that there really are no benefits deficit or not, uh, to go above 0.8 grams per pound of body weight per day. Protein, of course, 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body per day. However, there is evidence. So let's say like 80% of the evidence pretty much says that. However, there is a minority of evidence that slightly higher levels of intake does benefit body composition more. higher levels of intake does benefit body composition more. And so this is why I think it's reasonable to recommend the higher end of that range because it's not going to hurt your body comp. It may help your body comp and it probably also is going to help your diet on the whole because protein is very satiating. So especially when you're cutting, eating a bit

more protein generally means you are going to be less hungry. That said, if for whatever reason, one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day is less enjoyable to you, and I would say significantly less enjoyable to you than 0.8 grams per pound per day, then go with the 0.8. You're not going to be missing out on anything major. the 0.8. You're not going to be missing out on anything major. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me. And if you are going to post about it on

social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at Muscle for Life Fitness, Twitter at Muscle for Life, and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. Muscle for Life and Facebook at Muscle for Life Fitness. Now, a few odds and ends that you should be aware of. One is that protein needs can actually vary quite a bit individual to individual. Some people's bodies require a lot more protein than others to best preserve muscle when you're cutting and best gain muscle when you are bulking. preserve muscle when you're cutting and best gain muscle when you are bulking. Now, a good example of this is a study that was conducted with female cyclists, wherein researchers found that on average, about 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day was enough to maximize muscle preservation. However, when you look into the individual numbers, you know, for each of the

individual participants, you find that some of the women needed to eat as much as 2.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day to achieve the same results body composition wise that other women were able to achieve with 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Another little interesting tidbit that you should be aware of is several studies have pitted very high protein intake against high protein intake while also being in a caloric surplus. So we're looking at like on the very high end, 1.7 to about 2.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. That's a lot of protein versus around one gram per pound per day. And what these studies found is that the very high protein intake didn't appear

to benefit body composition any more than the high protein. So eating a shitload of protein isn't going to help you build muscle or probably isn't going to help you build muscle faster. But what researchers found is that the very high protein dieters gained less body fat than the high protein dieters, despite eating the same amount of calories. So what that tells us is that if we are going to be overfeeding, which is of course what you need to do, if you, even when you're lean bulking, you have to overfeed to, you know, some extent, even if it's just eating five to 10% more calories than you're burning every day, it's still overfeeding, right? And we're doing that because

it optimizes our body's muscle building machinery. That's the easiest way to think about it. When we have a surplus of energy available, some cool things happen physiologically that help us build muscle faster. Now, it appears that how we get to that surplus in terms of macros doesn't really matter from a muscle building perspective. So if we overeat, let's say purely on fat, so we are eating 110% of our TDE and the 10% over the TDE just comes from additional fat intake. So you could do it that way, or you could do it through this just carbs or just protein or a combination. It appears that that doesn't really matter. What matters is just having the energy surplus. And again, referring back to, there are four studies on this, if I'm not mistaken, on this high protein approach,

where again, let's say all of your surplus came from just additional protein. It appears that that will result in less fat gain over time, which of course makes for a better lean bulk. So while the evidence here isn't conclusive, we can't just say, oh, you know, very high protein bulking is just the best way to go about it because there is a trade-off. You know, let's say, again, you're eating 110% of your TDE and you are getting all of your surplus. The 10% over your TDE is coming exclusively from protein. While it does appear that that is going to minimize fat loss, you may actually make better progress with more carbs, for example. you may actually make better progress with more carbs, for example.

And by more progress, I mean more progress in your workouts, which then, of course, turns into more muscle gain. Because high-carb dieting is by far better than low-carb dieting for the purposes of maximizing muscle and strength gain. And if you want to read more about that, just head over to legionathletics.com and search for carbs. And you'll see an article I wrote on how many carbs you should be eating. And I break it all down in that article. That said, though, there is, of course, diminishing returns with carb intake.

You can't just continue eating more and more carbs and continue gaining muscle and strength faster and faster. There is going to be a pretty significant difference between 200 grams of carbs a day and 400 grams of carbs a day. And that's been shown in research, but probably not so much between 400 grams and 800 grams per day, for example. And that's true. You have an absolutely insane workout schedule. Then, you know, maybe, maybe it would actually help to, to eat upwards of 800 grams of carbs per day. So my point here is once you reach that ceiling of carbon take, which again, I've worked with thousands and thousands of guys and a lot of guys, hundreds and hundreds of guys who were always skinny and always had trouble gaining weight. They didn't really have the appetite to do it. And also just had to eat an inordinate

amount of calories. I mean, I'm talking about like 170 pound guys that had to eat upwards of 4,000 calories a day just to gain a pound a week. And for those guys, there is a point where it's just eating more carbs becomes very difficult, just physically very difficult. And generally that seems to be about four to 500 grams per day. So, you know, let's say you get to that point, four to 500 grams, you're at 500 grams of carbs per day. You're at a hundred grams of fat per day and you need to continue increasing your calories, where do you go? Go to protein. Just start increasing your protein because again, that's going to help you continue to push your surplus forward. And it's also going to minimize fat gain. And the last tidbit, which actually did record a podcast. I think it also was like a video like

this, a video podcast on protein timing, which you can search for and find. But I just want to quickly make a note here that research shows that it's probably optimal to have about 30 to 40 grams of protein every three to four hours or so to maximize muscle gain. Again, this is a point of trying to gain every little advantage that you can. And I think these things matter as natural bodybuilders, as natural weightlifters. We have our basics. We have our fundamentals. We have our 80%, you know, managing our energy balance properly, managing our macronutrient

balance properly, pushing for progressive overload in the gym, making sure that we're hitting enough volume, blah, blah, blah. And then though, we do have that 20% that is available to us if we're willing to make a lot of little tweaks and do little things to bump us up 2% here and there. And protein timing does seem to be one of those little things that does matter to some degree. So again, 30 to 40 grams of protein every few hours, every three to four hours does seem to be better for the purposes of muscle building than fewer larger servings of protein. And also pre and post workout protein, which again, I've recorded podcasts and recorded videos on if you really want to dive into it, but that does

also seem to help. So if you want to optimize, have some protein before you train, have some protein, at least within an hour or two before training, within an hour or two after training, and try to have some protein every three to four hours thereafter. And then hit around one gram per pound per day and have high quality proteins, of course, that are rich in essential amino acids and absorbed well. And that's about the most you can get fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how to build their best bodies

ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback. So please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about

something of mine, specifically my fitness book for women, Thinner, Leaner, Stronger. Now, this book has sold over 150,000 copies in the last several years, and it has helped thousands of women build their best bodies ever, which is why it currently has over 1,200 reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average. thousand two hundred reviews on Amazon with a four and a half star average. So if you want to know the biggest lies and myths that keep women from ever achieving the lean, sexy, strong and healthy bodies they truly desire. And if you want to learn the simple science of building the ultimate female body, then you want to read Thinner, Leaner, Stronger today, which you can find on all major online retailers like Audible, Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, and Google Play. Now, speaking of Audible, I should also mention that you can actually get the audio book 100% free when you sign up for an Audible account, which I highly recommend that you do if you're not currently listening to audio

books. I myself love them because they let me make the time that I spend doing things like commuting, prepping food, walking my dog, and so forth into more valuable and productive activities. So if you want to take Audible up on this offer and get my book for free, simply go to www.bitly.com slash free TLS book. And that will take you to Audible. And then you just have to click the sign up today and save button, create your account. And voila, you get to listen to thinner, leaner, stronger for free.