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This question has been around since before dumbbells were new. It's one of the oldest questions in fitness and for every person who asks, there's a difference "official" answer. The answer to this question also tends to vary between your age, gender, what sport you play, what foods you like, your fitness goal, what city you live in, your political affiliation, whether you want to cut fat or build muscle, and what you named your kids.
Every day more and more research is being done on protein levels for professional athletes, recreational exercisers, and sedentary people - and maybe, possibly, it's finally being answered to a satisfactory level.
How much protein do you need? I'll give you the solid answer, support my reasoning, and offer rebuttals to the inevitable counter-arguments.
Here it is.
Ready?
Eat 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight.
It doesn't matter if you're male or female, a runner or weight-lifter, overweight or underweight. Eat 1 gram per pound of your body weight.
I know that's a lot of protein. It's probably more than you're used to eating.
And I'm ready for all of the "But what about..." questions that inevitably follow my statement. But before you start thinking about all the reasons why you SHOULDN'T eat that much protein, allow me to support and defend my statement.
The Research
"Eat a lot of protein" has been pseudo-sciency advice for a long time. It's been a blanket recommendation for athletes and people looking to build muscle to just eat more protein, but the exact numbers have fluctuated.
Recommendations have ranged from a low-end flat intake of 30-70g minimum, to a modest 0.8g per kilogram of body weight (United States Recommended Dietary Intake). On the higher end, some recommend 2.2g per kilogram of body weight (1g per pound).
It's a broad range.
Then once you factor in an individual's goals, sport, activity, and dietary preferences it gets even more gritty and specialized - and everyone has their own opinion and preference.
But with a growing body of research data, we can suggest with more and more certainty that there is a huge benefit to eating a lot of protein, and very little downside. More recently, a suggestion that eating 2.2g per kilogram (1g per pound) seems to maximize your performance and physique goal with very little downside.
In addition, many modern researchers are looking into extremely high protein intake - up to 4.4g per kilogram (2g per pound of body weight!) and examining the benefits and potential downsides of such an extremely high level of intake over the short-term (months) AND long-term (years).
Here's What Researchers Have Found
When participants consume between 2.2 - 4.4 grams per kilogram of body weight:
Across the board, participants gained lean mass (muscle and tissue). Not surprising.
Participants ALSO lost body fat when on very high protein diets. Interesting.
Both female AND male participants saw the same results. Cool.
So eating a very high protein diet helps you build muscle and lose fat at the same time. That's usually pretty difficult to do.
But there are more surprising revelations. Researchers have also found that eating an extremely high protein diet of up to 4.4g per kilogram of body weight (5.5 times the recommended amount) caused participants to lose fat and build muscle even when they went over their caloric limit.
Wait, what?
Even when eating extra calories (from protein) caused participants to go over their caloric requirements, they LOSE body fat? This seems to go against the only rule of weight loss.
It appears to defy the laws of physics - right?
Maybe not.
Researchers are learning that protein doesn't metabolize the same way carbs and fat do. That is, it's not a preferred source of energy for the body.
In fact, as far as your metabolism is concerned, eating extra protein increases your body's natural thermogenesis by increasing it's NEAT, TEF, and overall metabolic rate.
This means you can increase the amount of food you eat by way of protein, and not suffer any weight gain. It seems, actually, you'll lose fat by eating more protein. This method might help you hit that metabolic sweet spot without feeling hungry all the time.
So What's The Downside?
With any pro, there has to be a con, right? Surely eating too much protein MUST have some detrimental effect.
There are a few commonly-perceived health risks to eating too much protein. In no particular order:
Eating too much protein causes harm to your kidneys.
Eating too much protein strips your bones of calcium.
Eating too much protein causes high cholesterol and bad blood levels.
Protein shakes are bad for you.
It's physically impossible to eat enough protein.
So researchers set out to see if there's any validity to these statements and followed up on the very-high protein diets for a whole year. This means they asked participants to eat 2.5-3.3g per kilogram for a full year.
What happened to their kidneys?
It's been widely believed that protein breakdown increases nitrogen levels causing the kidneys to work extra hard to filter this. As a result, high protein diets are "bad for your kidneys."
So what happened to their kidneys?
Nothing.
All kidney markers were in the normal range. A healthy kidney handles the job like any healthy organ doing what healthy organs do. Eating extra protein does not stress a kidney.
However, if someone has a pre-existing kidney issue, extra protein intake may be a consideration. But that's common sense, right?
If a person has a heart attack, you don't ask them to run a 10k the next day. That doesn't mean running is bad for the heart.
What about the bone mineral density?
A while back some researchers found that eating extra protein caused an increase in blood calcium levels. They suggested that this may be a result of the bones "losing their calcium" due to a high protein level.
Unfortunately the researchers never actually checked bone density levels.
And, as rumors go, this must have meant eating too much protein caused your bones to break down.
So after a year on a very-high protein diet, modern researchers looked at bone mineral density, especially in women, and found no change over baseline, 6 months, and 1 year.
This indicates that bone mineral density was not affected by an increase in protein amount.
What about cholesterol and overall blood levels?
Another popular myth is that eating too much protein causes bad stuff to happen in your blood. It sounds logical, though, because many high protein foods are also high-fat and high-other stuff.
However, to raise the level of compliance among participants, many researchers use protein powders as a way to increase protein intake - as opposed to using meat or other "real foods."
This helps give the researchers a better level of control among the participants. However, many participants ate normal, protein-packed foods like lean meats, poultry, eggs, and diary.
In the end, the increase in protein levels did not substantially change the participant's overall blood lipid levels or overall health markers.
Protein Shakes Must Be Bad For You, Right?
In order to get enough protein to meet the requirements, most participants and dieters have to rely on protein supplementation in the form of shakes and powders. The efficacy of the shakes and powders are not usually in dispute, they work. But many people doubt the long-term health effects of "fake foods."
It's true that most supplements are not under the regulation of the FDA, and as a result quality control can suffer.
However, many brands are well-established and reputable, and if there is a health concern, the whistle is usually blown and the market reacts appropriately. I'm not going to recommend any specific brand - but definitely do a little research before you buy tubs of the stuff.
Of course the best course of action is to get protein from whole foods, which ARE under the jurisdiction of the FDA. Which brings me to the last rebuttal.
You Can't Physically Eat That Much Protein
Sure you can - you just have to practice.
Here's my personal food log where I consumed over 200 grams of protein while keeping around 2500 calories (I fast in the mornings, meaning my "breakfast" is around 12pm)
1st Meal- 280 calories / 14g protein
Apple
Grass-fed Whey Protein Bar
2nd Meal- 523 calories / 37g protein
Turkey Taco Bowl w/ Greens & Spinach
3rd Meal- 440 calories / 30g protein
Pulled Pork w/ Rice & Beans (0-sugar bbq sauce)
4th Meal- 315 calories / 50g protein
Strawberry Protein Shake with Superfoods Mix (Berry Flavor)
5th Meal- 1000 calories / 102.5g protein
30 count Chic-Fil-A Nugget Meal
Total Calories: 2558
Total Protein Intake: 233g
It takes a little bit of practice and a little bit of patience, but eventually anyone can find the right combination of foods they enjoy and high levels of protein. This is a pretty typical day for me (except the last fast-food meal).
I only had one shake on this day (2 scoops of protein) - and I made sure to pack plenty of greens in my taco bowl, get my superfoods / propbiotics / antioxidant mix with my protein shake, and eat my daily apple.
I may occasionally sneak some blueberries in at night for an extra 100 calories and anti-oxidant bump.
The point is, getting a high protein intake on a moderately low-calorie diet is possible with practice.
Conclusion
Eat at least 1g per pound of body weight (2.2g per kilogram) and you'll probably find yourself losing fat and building muscle with no side effects.
It takes practice and observation to pull this off, though.
Of course, no matter what, there will always be a small group of people who insist that eating this much protein will kill you. For whatever reason, they are very vocal and passionate about this. But that's fine - you obviously don't NEED to eat this much protein.
You also probably don't NEED to burn off that stubborn belly fat.
It's the difference between surviving and thriving. Which do you want?
MORE Information
References:
Antonio, J., Peacock, C.A., Ellerbroek, A.et al.The effects of consuming a high protein diet (4.4 g/kg/d) on body composition in resistance-trained individuals.J Int Soc Sports Nutr11,19 (2014).
Antonio, J., Ellerbroek, A., Evans, C.et al.High protein consumption in trained women: bad to the bone?.J Int Soc Sports Nutr15,6 (2018).
Antonio, J., Ellerbroek, A., Silver, T.et al.The effects of a high protein diet on indices of health and body composition – a crossover trial in resistance-trained men.J Int Soc Sports Nutr13,3 (2016).
Campbell BI, Aguilar D, Conlin L, Vargas A, Schoenfeld BJ, Corson A, Gai C, Best S, Galvan E, Couvillion K. Effects of High Versus Low Protein Intake on Body Composition and Maximal Strength in Aspiring Female Physique Athletes Engaging in an 8-Week Resistance Training Program. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2018 Nov 1;28(6):580-585. doi: 10.1123/ijsnem.2017-0389. Epub 2018 Jul 3.
Fulgoni VL: Current protein intake in America: analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2003–2004. Am J Clin Nutr. 2008, 87: 1554S-1557S.
Lemon PW, Tarnopolsky MA, MacDougall JD, Atkinson SA: Protein requirements and muscle mass/strength changes during intensive training in novice bodybuilders. J Appl Physiol. 1992, 73: 767-775.
Layman DK, Shiue H, Sather C, Erickson DJ, Baum J: Increased dietary protein modifies glucose and insulin homeostasis in adult women during weight loss. J Nutr. 2003, 133: 405-410
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