Protein Question

dax07

dax07

Member
I am a double major at Ohio University. Exercise Physiology and Nutrition. What I've learned in my nutrition class is that the human body can only do so much with protein. Now, my nutrition professor (who has a doctorate degree and has done many experiments and tons of research) says that eating too much protein is actually bad for strength training / hypertrophy. She says that 1g of protein / lb of BW is way too much protein and that the human body cannot utilize that much protein in one day. Now some exceptions would be if an individual is taking synthetic hormones such as testosterone injections or any other anabolic steroid. I would assume the jacked up hormone levels would allow the body to utilize more protein in the day, but for the natural bodybuilder this is invalid.
My professor recommended anywhere from 1.3-1.6 grams of protein / kilogram of bodyweight. For me that equals out to less than 150g of protein a day. My professor argues that anymore protein consumed is not used for muscle growth or anything of that nature and eating anymore than that will only stress my kidneys and could possibly cause health issues long term. Now obviously I argued this in class stating that I never started actually seeing real significant results in muscle mass until I increased my protein intake to at least 200g a day. I also stated that I see other bodybuilder's sample diets and some of them are over 300g of protein per day for a similar body weight to my own.
Does anyone have any insight? Protein is expensive as hell when you're in college buying all your own groceries. Providing enough kcal in the day is hard enough on my wallet haha.. If I do not have to consume massive amounts of protein, why would I? I could replace the excess protein with more yummy carbs lol.. What would you all recommend for proper protein intake?
 
I will go out on a limb and agree with your professor. I personally actually found much better results on less than 1 gram of protein per pound than higher amounts, including up to 300 grams per day. I also believe that if you have to take supplements to reach your protein goals, your diet is screwed up. The only body building supplement I ever found to be of any use was creatine and I use that only when I need to get over a plateau. Most people would disagree with me but I am not sure how many will have actually swayed from what the experts proclaim and made a comparison. Nor have I looked up tons of research. This is just my story. Use your protein money on condoms! :cool:
 
Both of these replies were very helpful. And yes Lol, that article should be read by anyone who wishes to increase muscle mass or strength train for it was extremely helpful. I think I will go with about 1.5-2g / lb of body weight.
 
I have not read Lyle's Protein book and probably won't as too many conflicting studies over many years have turned me off to a lot of the "science". I believe that Lyle's conclusion of 1.5 g per lb is reasonable but unfortunately he addresses that only to strength and power athletes. Can you conclude the same for those doing HST? I have no idea and Lyle admits he really doesn't know how much someone should take but reaches what he felt was a reasonable compromise. I would encourage people to try both ends of the spectrum; the max of say 2 g per lb and the min of say .8 g per lb over a reasonable length of time and see how it impacts your particular training and results and report what you find back to us here. Until then, happy eating! I'm having cold left over pizza for lunch, which is what I also had for breakfast this morning! :cool:
 
BAH, everytime I think I have something figured out, I realize I don't.

Looks like I'll be lowing my protein intake and increasing my carbs...
 
Keep in mind that this research could change, yet again, in the future. The moral, to me, seems to be that 1 gram per lb of bodyweight is still a fairly safe level to be at. You know you have your bases covered and there is really no drawback to 1 gram per lb of bodyweight. It's an easy rule of thumb to remember. You have some play either way on both sides. As Borge pointed out, you also need to keep in mind that during a cut, a higher protein intake has additional benefits that you don't want to ignore, so keeping protein intake higher during that time would be a good idea.

I am somewhat interested in trying out Borge's diet that he has come up with. Might give it a couple weeks run during my cut just to see.
 
I myself have noticed that carbs seem to very anabolic. I focus purely on protein when cutting, but when I am going for hypertrophy, carb intake seems to be just as important as protein intake, so lately I just try to get as much protein and carbs down the piehole as I can.
 
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