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The Smartest Way To Use Protein To Build Muscle (Science Explained)

Jeff Nippard10:20

Transcription

and I would eat 3 to 400 gram of protein

a day up to 1.5 g of protein per pound

of body weight I may even go closer to

1.3 G right now 1 g of protein per pound

of body weight 0.82 G per pound of body

weight 75

G4 G times your body weight 1 g of

protein for every one pound of body

weight a lot of people will say that

it's actually not true protein into take

of 1.2 G kg a day wait wa 1.2 no I said

1.6 didn't I okay obviously there's a

lot of conflicting information about

protein out there so in this video I

want to condense all the best

science-based information down to give

you a final answer on every protein

related question you've ever asked first

when it comes to General Health the

World Health Organization recommends

just 0.8 gr of protein per kilogram of

body weight or 0.36 G per pound so an 80

kilo a roughly 180 lb person would only

need about 655 g of protein per day this

is pretty hard to miss on a typical

Western diet I mean this ground turkey

and rice bowl with a glass of milk has

65 g of protein and that would have me

covered for the day however this

recommendation doesn't consider weight

training and many protein experts have

called for an increase given the

abundance of evidence showing health

benefits with higher protein intakes and

the Sports Nutrition research is

perfectly clear and showing that this

amount of protein simply won't be enough

to support much less maximize muscle

growth for that goal we'll need more now

just how much you need depends on if

you're bulking cutting or doing a recomp

phase and these ranges apply to both men

and women if you're bulking your body is

wellfed meaning it's much less likely to

break down muscle tissue as a fuel

source there are plenty of carbs and

fats to burn first for this reason you

generally need less protein when bulking

here the best research recommends 1.6 to

2.2 G per kilo or 0.7 to 1 G per pound

per day and here we can see the trusty

old 1 G per pound rule holding up pretty

well as a high-end figure so if you

weigh 180 lb or 80 kilos you'd want

something between 125 and 180 gram of

protein per day when bulking on the

other hand if you're cutting your body's

not only getting fewer calories from

food you also have less body fat and

less glycogen as fuel reserves Therefore

your body is much more likely to break

down muscle tissue as a source of

calories to offset this the best data

suggests increasing protein intake while

cutting to 1.8 to 2.7 G per ow or 0.8 to

1.2 G per pound this time we can see

that the classic 1 G per pound rule sits

in the middle of the range if you're

already very lean and training very hard

you'll want to air toward the upper end

and if you have more body fat and are

training more recreationally the lower

end will be plenty thirdly when on a

recm phase you're trying to build muscle

and lose fat at the same time while

setting your calories around maintenance

intake so I think most people can simply

use the same protein figures as when

bulking because at maintenance you're

also at a low risk of muscle loss as

long as your training is on point

however there may be some advantages to

going a bit higher on a recm phase

especially if you're in a slight deficit

or more advanced in the past I've used

this sliding model as a guide for recomp

because it uses lean body mass instead

of total body weight making it more

individualized especially for those who

hold more body fat however the extra

step of subtracting your body fat did

confuse some people so these days I've

come up with a simpler solution via

researcher Eric Helms if you're

overweight or obese you can simply aim

for 1 g of protein per cimeter in height

so if you're 6t or 183 cm tall you'd

want around 183 g of protein this works

shockingly well especially if you're at

a higher body fat the answer to the

question how much protein can you absorb

in a single meal is all of it your body

can absorb an enormous amount of protein

in a single meal more than you could

even comfortably eat but absorption

simply refers to the passage of

nutrients from the small intestine into

the bloodstream just because protein is

being absor absorbed doesn't mean it's

being used to build muscle so the real

question is how much protein can you use

in a single meal and this is where

there's some controversy the earliest

research suggested that 20 to 25 gram of

protein in a single meal was all you

needed to max out the anabolic response

and going above that didn't do anything

extra for muscle growth however I'm

skeptical of this figure first on the

anecdotal side there's a huge

intermittent fasting Community who seem

to be getting plenty jacked from just

eating one or two meals per day with

upwards of 50 to 100 100 g of protein

per meal does seem unlikely to me given

their muscularity that most of that

protein is going to waste for these

folks second more recent research has

challenged the idea of a 20 to 25 G

upper limit this 2016 study showed

higher muscle protein synthesis with 40

gam of whey versus 20 G of whey after a

full body workout in this 2016 study

showed greater muscle protein synthesis

from a meal of beef containing 70 g of

protein versus 35 g of protein so the

amount of protein we can use per meal

isn't clear as of now but it's likely

higher than we used to think and

regardless I think that your protein

intake per meal is clearly much less

important than your protein intake per

day now despite this most experts do

still suggest that spreading your

protein out across 3 to five meals is

likely best from both a digestion

standpoint and for keeping muscle

protein synthesis High throughout the

day still if you were to eat two meals

or six meals instead you will still

build muscle as long as you're hitting

your daily protein Target I just suspect

it might not be quite as optimal protein

quality is partly based on the amount of

the amino acid Lucine Lucine is very

important because it is the so-called

trigger for stimulating mtor which then

triggers new muscle growth so let's take

a look at how much of different protein

sources you need to eat to hit 3 G of

Lucine which is a decent ballpark figure

for maximizing the anabolic response to

a meal so in the table here you can see

that whey protein comes out on top in

just 29 G of whey protein you'll be

getting 3 G of Lucine and for just 145

calories you can also get 3 G of Lucine

and 40 g of protein from chicken breast

and that would only cost you about 200

calories moving down the list here you

can see that you'd need to eat over

2,000 calories worth of whole wheat

bread to hit 3 gr of Lucine so it would

take this much bread to give you the

same anabolic punch as this scoop of

whey protein powder and as a general

Trend animal sources of protein are

higher in Lucine than their plant-based

counterparts especially per calorie

however this issue nearly goes away once

we introduce vegan protein powders like

soy pea brown rice isolates which also

offer 3 G of Lucine for less than 200

calories but Lucine isn't the only

factor that matters for protein quality

because even though Lucine will always

spark the new muscle growth you still

need the other eight essential amino

acids or EAS to actually build the new

muscle for eaas we use something called

the diaa score where the higher the

number the more eaas that are in that

protein Source once again you can see

that Dairy and animal proteins come out

on top but a very important caveat is

that these tables all refer to proteins

being eaten in isolation in the real

world people combine various different

foods and are almost guaranteed to get

enough Lucine and Enough eaas by simply

getting enough total daily protein so

this isn't something I personally

nitpick over and it's why I think

protein quality is actually much less

important than many people realize it's

also why Lucine BCAA and EA

supplementation usually isn't necessary

as long as total daily protein is

sufficient however vegan lifters should

be a bit more strategic by either airing

toward the higher end of protein ranges

and or supplementing a highquality high

leucine protein supplement such as

so-called vegan whey which combines PE

and brown rice protein to give it a

similar amino acid profile to wey

protein many people still believe that

if you don't eat protein within 30

minutes after training your entire

session was wasted but this idea was

debunked years ago in reality as long as

your pre-workout and post-workout meals

are within roughly 4 to 6 hours of each

other you'll be maximizing the anabolic

response to training a possible

exception to this would be if you train

fasted in which case you should try to

consume some protein as soon as you can

after your workout perhaps a more

important but less discussed timing

variable is consuming protein before bed

the study from my friend yoran trolin

and his colleague Luke vanloon described

pressle protein as an important protein

feeding opportunity they suggest

consuming roughly 40 gram of protein

before an overnight fast to improve

overnight muscle protein synthesis this

is personally what I aim for granted to

other longitudinal studies that directly

tested consuming a slow digesting casine

protein either before bed or in the

morning found no significant difference

after 8 to 10 weeks however both of

these studies had subjects consuming a

very high protein intake overall in the

range of 2 G per kilo or about 1 gam per

pound once again highlighting that as

long as total daily protein intake is

sufficient these specific timing factors

are much less important there are also

no legitimate safety concerns around a

high protein diet in healthy individuals

according to this gigantic position

stand from the international Society of

Sports Nutrition there is quote no

controlled scientific evidence

indicating that increased Le intakes of

protein pose any health risks in healthy

exercising individuals and the amount of

protein recommended in this video has

been shown over decades to not only be

safe but actually have health benefits

even going way above the recommendations

here as high as 4.4 G per kilo or 2 G

per pound has consistently reported no

harmful effects so by far the most

important factor is total daily protein

intake if you're looking to optimize

further you can pay attention to how you

distribute your protein throughout the

day with 3 to 5 meals most likely being

the anabolic Sweet Spot these two

factors alone will yield more than 90%

of your potential results however

protein quality can be worth keeping in

mind and protein timing may have some

benefit from an optimization standpoint

especially if you train fasted or if you

have a really long overnight fast and

before we go I want to quickly shout out

my Ultimate Guide to body recomposition

this is a 267 page book that covers

everything on nutrition from muscle gain

fat loss and specific strategies for how

to do both at the same time it includes

sample meal plans and tons of examples

for both male and female lifters when it

comes to setting up your Macros cardio

supplementation sleep and plenty more so

if you're looking to take your nutrition

to the next level you can check it out

at Jeff ner.me