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Healthy Eating

Put Down That Steak: You’re Eating Too Much Protein

You've heard the recommendation - eat 1-1.5g of protein per pound of body weight to build muscle. All strength athletes know this. But now, new science says that's too much.

Written by Jeff Barnett Last updated on October 16, 2012

How much protein should a strength athlete eat? I’ve heard recommendations ranging from 1-1.5 grams per pound of body weight per day. But that’s a huge range, and putting down that much protein is no easy task. So what’s the ground truth? What is actually required?

How much protein should a strength athlete eat? I’ve heard recommendations ranging from 1-1.5 grams per pound of body weight per day. But that’s a huge range, and putting down that much protein is no easy task. So what’s the ground truth? What is actually required?

Two researchers from the U.K. reviewed the scientific literature to find out and published their findings in this month’s issue of the Strength and Conditioning Journal. Their conclusion: we’ve been eating way more protein than we actually need.

Their review of research shows 0.55 grams per pound of body weight per day is adequate for advanced trainees and 0.77 grams per pound of body weight per day will satisfy novice athletes. If you find this tough to swallow, you’re not alone, but the authors’ review was pretty thorough. They cite five different independent studies for this recommendation.1

The authors describe the importance of essential amino acids (EAAs) in muscle protein synthesis. Ensuring you get plenty of EAAs in conjunction with your protein can almost double the anabolic effect. That’s pretty potent. You can also ensure your protein gets converted to muscle by mixing it with carbohydrate in the time immediately before, during, and after exercise. Finally, eating both fast and slow absorbing proteins contributes to muscle building more than fast proteins alone. The classic example is milk, which contains both whey (fast) and casein (slow). This combination is more potent than a fast absorbing protein like soy.2

Finally, the authors reiterate that even if you consume “unnecessarily high protein intakes” like 1.3 grams per pound of body weight per day, this still isn’t a risk to your kidneys unless you already had kidney disease. I’m glad we’ve finally got that myth behind us.3

So are you ready to put down the steak? I’m not sure I am. But the studies cited show that with the right combination of EAAs, and fast- and slow-absorbing proteins, we really don’t need that mythical one gram per pound per day. Perhaps consistently consuming the right combination of each component can be tricky, and we’ve learned to overcome that through eating more, more, more instead. What do you think?

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.

About Jeff Barnett

Jeff Barnett is a CrossFit affiliate owner, mechanical engineer, and former Marine. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. He holds specialty certifications as a CrossFit Mobility Trainer, CrossFit Olympic Lifting Trainer, CrossFit Gymnastics Trainer and is a USA Weightlifting Sports and Performance Coach. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA.

Jeff served as a Marine officer from 2003-2007 and deployed to Fallujah in 2006. After leaving the Marine Corps he co-founded CrossFit Impulse in 2009. His writing focuses on fitness, nutrition, and leadership. Jeff’s writing has appeared in publications as diverse as The New York Times and CrossFit Journal.

Jeff competed in the CrossFit Games Southeast Regionals in 2010 as an individual competitor and 2012 as a team competitor. If you don’t find him training hard or coaching athletes to PRs at CrossFit Impulse, then he’s probably wakeboarding, snowboarding, or eating meat off the bone.

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