The BEST Way to Use Protein to Build Muscle (Based on Science)

[Applause] how many grams of protein were you having on Olympia prep 600 g of protein wow protein shakes are really bad takes 3 years to digest one scoop of protein shake by the way if you take too much protein in you're going to damage your kidney and you end up just peeing it out or storing it as fat protein is hands down the most important food to build muscle but it's also an area of Confusion And there's a lot more that goes into it than just slamming a protein shake after every workout today we'll discuss the latest science on the best types of protein how much you really need and then how exactly to eat it to maximize growth let's start with protein type so there's two factors scientists use to rank how effective a protein Source will be at building muscle the first is digestability the higher the score means that more of that protein can be actually broken down and used to build muscle second every protein Source contains a variety of different amino acids which are the building blocks of protein there's 20 in total but nine of these can't be produced by the body and are defined as essential these are the most important amino acids for building muscle so what protein sources have the highest digestability and the highest essential amino acid content well it's typically the protein sources you'd expect protein powder meat fish and dairy products human muscle also scores pretty high but don't get any weird ideas P based protein doesn't score very well but we'll talk about what that means later on now there is some new research suggesting that digestibility and amino acid content may not be all we should consider back in 2017 a study had subjects eat either 18 g of protein from whole eggs or 18 g of protein from egg whites after a workout researchers analyze their muscle protein synthesis response after eating the meal which you can think of basically as a signal to your muscles to recover and grow bigger generally you'd expect it to be the same given the equal protein content to everyone's surprise the whole eggs led to a significantly higher muscle protein synthesis response but the real question is would this increase actually lead to more muscle growth well a few years after the study came out another group of researchers came to answer that question they assigned one group to eat 20 g of protein from three whole eggs after every workout whereas the other group ate the same amount of protein but by consuming six egg whites without the yolk both groups also eat the same amount of total calories and protein throughout the day after 12 weeks the whole egg group increased their strength and reduced their body fat percentage to a significantly greater extent than the egg white group there is also a strong Trend towards a greater increase in lean body mass in the whole egg group and although it's unclear what made whole eggs Superior it may be linked to their cholesterol content and possibly some additional nutrients contained within the yolk now I'm not saying to eat a diet exclusively of eggs based on this preliminary evidence but it just goes to show that there may be some unique muscle building properties within protein sources that we are not yet aware of and I'll keep you guys updated with any new research now what plant-based protein sources surely they're less effective than animal-based protein sources at building muscle right well the answer might surprise you remember how the plant-based protein sources ranked relatively poorly when it comes to digestibility and essential amino acid content because of this they tend to result in a lower protein synthesis response when compared to animal-based protein sources but protein synthesis doesn't always correlate well with changes in muscle growth and this led researchers in a 2021 study to inves further by comparing the effects of a vegan diet versus a primarily animal-based diet over the course of a 12we training program the vegan group supplemented with soy protein and also made an effort to vary their protein sources throughout the day just to make sure they weren't deficient in any particular essential amino acid surprisingly both diets led to similar increases in both muscle size and strength and this same result was shown in a similar study published just this year however researchers highlighted the outcome was likely heavily dependent on two things eating enough daily protein as well as properly spreading out that protein throughout the day both are what will cover next eat too little protein and you won't maximize your growth but eating too much has its downsides as well what's The Sweet Spot well it depends the best piece of evidence we have so far is a metaanalysis that analyze the effect of protein intake on muscle growth across 49 studies they found that adding more protein to one's diet significantly increased muscle mass on average by about 0.66 lb over the length of the studies however although more protein did lead to more growth this was only true up to a point in this case protein intakes above around 0.73 G per pound of body weight per day fail to help build any additional muscle so for the average 180 lb individual this would come up to around 130 g of protein per day and remember this is to maximize growth even if you're below this you'll definitely still be able to build muscle so don't get discouraged if that Target seems really high that's it in all the studies analyze subjects were eating at either maintenance calories or in a surplus but what about when you're in a calorie deficit this is when the body is more likely to burn off muscle for energy and is when an even higher protein intake could help prevent this well unfortunately we don't yet have a study comparing protein intakes that are both higher during a caliber deficit such as 0 .8 G per pound body weight versus 1.2 G per pound body weight but there is some speculative evidence suggesting that the cleaner you get and or the more aggressive your diet is the higher your protein intake should be to prevent muscle loss but again it's relatively unclear so I'd recommend if you're maintaining or eating in a surplus to maximize growth aim for a minimum of 0.73 G per pound of body weight per day you can also go higher than this it's perfectly safe and may have other benefits like helping with Hunger but I generally wouldn't go above 1.2 G per pound of body weight since by that point those additional calories may be better used towards carbs to help Fel your performance and energy in the gym whereas when you're in a deficit there's no harm in being extra cautious and bumping up your minimum protein inake to 1 G per pound a day especially if you're relatively lean however these protein recommendations are based on your total body weight but if two people weigh the same yet one has significantly less muscle and more fat then that individual won't need as much protein so if your body fat is higher than around 30% for males and around 40% for females instead of using my GRS per pound recommendation you can take your height in centimeters and simply eat that amount of protein in GRS per day okay so before we move on to how to eat your daily protein to maximize its benefit let's talk about the actual cost of eating enough protein while it can be pricey there's ways around that in my latest budget meal plan video which I'll link in the description box down below I found the cheapest protein sources possible and I ranked them based on their cost per gram of protein here is the list but i' also add protein badg to this despite its rising cost if you buy it in bulk and you calculate the cost per gram of protein it comes out cheaper than ground beef and Greek yogurt and actually ends up comparable to eggs milk and can tuna not to mention it tastes great it's convenient and it doesn't come with a ton of extra fat and calories like some other protein sources do now I do sell my own protein powder I've built with size.com which is a little bit more pricey but it is the highest quality protein and it delivers 29 g of protein for scoop now whether you get it from me or not it doesn't matter just definitely consider investing in the supplement as it's cost effective and it will make hitting your daily protein intake so much easier okay so you know how much protein you should eat per day but if you want to truly maximize the growth you get from that protein then how exactly you eat that protein throughout the day also matters you see every time you consume protein your muscle protein synthesis levels increase which as you now know is basically a signal for your muscles to grow however you can only increase this up to a point and it seems like around 20 to 30 g of protein pretty much Maxes this out in addition to this after this increase there is some evidence that you won't be able to restimulate it again for at least a couple hours and this is where protein distribution comes into play theoretically if you space out your protein evenly throughout the day you'll be able to keep your muscle protein synthesis levels elevated and provide a consistent signal for your muscles to grow but to determine if this actually makes any difference on muscle growth let's take a look at this 2020 study subjects were assigned to one of two groups one had a low protein breakfast an average protein lunch and a high protein dinner the other group had a more even protein distribution across the three meals both groups tried to eat a similar amount of total daily protein but the uneven protein distribution group actually ended up eating about 10 G more protein per day on a average so what happened well after 12 weeks of this combined with a strength training program the evenly distributed protein group had slightly more favorable strength increases for all five of the exercises tested and also had slightly more favorable increases in Total Lean mass that said the daily protein intakes for both groups was quite low and the sample size was pretty small for the study but it does provide some evidence that Distributing your protein to at least three meals per day may have a benefit but what about increasing this further to four five or even six protein meals per day would that provide an even greater benefit well a study that was published a year after this one helps provide some insight researchers compared the effects of spreading daily protein to take evenly across either 3 or 6 meals per day after 8 weeks there were no significant differences in muscle growth or any other measurement recorded So use three meals as a minimum but feel free to eat more than this if it helps making hidden your daily protein Target more manageable all right we've covered a lot so I thought I'd make a chart to help summarize everything but just always keep in mind that above all on this chart your daily protein intake is what's most important and for some more diet help I highly recommend giving this video a watch next for a $5 a day cheap high protein meal plan designed for fat loss or give this video a watch for the bullet conversion instead and if you're looking for a completely done for you science-based plan that'll guide you every step of the way just head over to buildwi science.com and take my quiz to find what program is best for you and your body thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next time

Channel: Jeremy Ethier

Views: 2,412,467

Keywords: protein, protein sources, post workout protein, how much protein, protein intake, how much protein to build muscle, best source of protein, best protein food, how to get enough protein, sources of protein, best protein sources for building muscle, how much protein do I need to build muscle, builtwithscience, jeremyethier

Id: PJNorBZk6WQ

Length: 10min 35sec (635 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 27 2023