The Body Building Diet and Protein Intake

A normal bodybuilding diet does not need to include massive amounts of protein, in spite of what the fitness experts currently say. The most common suggestion is to have one gram of protein per pound of body weight. That works out to roughly 200 grams per day if you are a 200 pound man. If you compare this to the recommendation shown in the body building magazines, it’s a really low number.

The recommendation by the RDA for Protein for Adults is .8 gram per kilogram of body weight.

So that would be roughly 64 grams for a 175 pound person. So why is it these numbers are so widely varied? Well first of all the RDA’s sugestion is based on research studying college aged men. The studies found that this was the proper amount of protein to keep a correct nitrogen balance in these young men. However, using a nitrogen balance as the basis to predict muscle gain or loss has not been proven to be 100% accurate. This would indicate that the RDA’s protein intake estimate wouldn’t be appropriate for the body building diet.

The AMDR recommends between 10% and 35% of all calories consumed daily to be protein.

This makes the amount of protein you eat dependent upon how many calories you consume in a day. The acronym AMDR stands for Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Range and the Institute of Medicine established it in 2005. The issue with this recommendation is that it is a rather large range. Neither this recommendation or the RDA takes into account . Someone who trains hard would need to take their activity levels into consideration for their body building diet.

So is doesn’t seem like the AMDR or the RDA are much help when it comes to creating a body building diet for someone.

Many of the body building magazines use numbers as high as 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight as a suggestion. That is 350 grams per day, for a 175 pound man! Let’s face it, body building magazines aren’t the most neutral parties. Their main source of income is by selling advertising. The number one supplement the advertisers sell is protein. No doubt that 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight is way more than necessary.

The More Protein You Eat, The More Protein You Can Digest

The weird thing about protein is that your body will be able to absorb high amounts of protein at every meal, if it is used to high amounts of protein at every meal. If your body is accustomed to eating smaller amounts of protein, then a high protein meal will make your stomach upset because your gastro-intestinal system won’t be able to digest it all. Most people associate being able to digest more protein with building more muscle, but it is more complicated than that.

Just because you consume ten times more protein than you normally would doesn’t mean you will build ten times more muscle.

Research has demonstrated that the more protein your body consumes, the more likely it is to convert amino acids to fuel instead of fat and carbohydrates. Most of the time your body is using protein, carbs, and fat for fuel. Depending on what goes into your system, your body adjusts its fuel burning needs to output energy. So there is a certain level beyond which more protein just won’t make a difference – so how do you determine how much is right for your body building diet?

For Exceptional Muscle Gains A Recent Study Recommends 70-120 Grams Of Protein Each Day

This topic has been covered in a book by Brad Pilon called “How Much Protein.” By comparing several different studies, he found that if a person eats between 0.55 and 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight a day, that is a good balance for increasing muscle. He also references several studies that have shown that going over 120 grams of protein each day will not help add to your muscle gain. So you can believe the supplement companies or scientific research. It’s up to you. My suggestion is to average roughly 100 grams of protein per day, which is easily doable without adding protein shakes to your body building diet.