How much protein should we be eating?

Right off the top, I need to remind you all that I am not a dietitian and I cannot legally tell you how much protein you should be eating. That being said, people often come to me for help in losing bodyfat, or gaining muscle, or both, and numerous studies have shown that eating a higher-protein diet aids in increasing fat loss, while sparing or building muscle tissue. So, I wanted to share with you my experience in recent months.

I set out to research what the current recommendations are for how much protein one should eat. I was surprised to find that a number of sources recommend eating a whopping 1g of protein/lb of bodyweight/day.

I've been using the formula of 1.4-1.8g/kg of bodyweight/day for my clients who want to build muscle, a formula I learned back in college. However, this is still far less than 1g/lb/day (even the high end of the 1.4-1.8 g/kg/day range puts you at about 80% of the 1g/lb/day recommendation). Most clients I work with can't get this much protein/day without using a protein shake to supplement their dietary intake.

I had been in the habit of eating about 100g/day of protein, having one early-morning, plant-based, protein shake that delivered about 25g, and having a PBnJ sandwich and a glass of milk (roughly15-20g protein) after my workouts. But, after hearing the surprising amount of daily protein being recommended, I decided to try upping my intake. The results have been great!

The specific changes I made were to change my after-workout meal to a shake that delivers about 40g protein (whey, collagen, and plant-based), consumed ASAP after completing my workout. I also made sure that my breakfast included 2-3 eggs instead of cereal/almond milk, and that my dinner and afternoon snacks were protein-rich.

I haven't counted every gram, but I'd estimate that my average daily protein intake has risen from around 100g/day to the 140-150g/day range. In that time, I have kept up the same workouts I've been doing, with good intensity, decent-though-not-great sleep quality, and relatively high stress (self-rated at 5 out of 10). So, by no means has everything been perfect. The only thing that has meaningfully changed is my protein intake...check out my results:

I've managed to go from 161.8 lbs to 168.4 lbs over the course of about 2 weeks, with a gain of 1% bodyfat. The scale I'm using to record weight and bodyfat % uses bioelectrical impedance, so it's highly hydration-dependent in generating the bodyfat reading. I'm making sure to measure in the morning, with minimal clothing (ideally after using the bathroom) for best accuracy, but nonetheless, a change of 1% is small enough that I consider it be "noise" rather than a statistically significant increase. This tells me that the weight I gained is mostly muscle. The way my clothes are fitting agrees with this assessment; I will need to order some larger-sized t-shirts soon if this trend continues! As someone who struggles to build muscle, I couldn't be more pleased with the results.

Are you getting enough protein to support your fitness goals? If you need a sound muscle-building, or weightloss workout to pair with your new, higher-protein diet, try one of these:

6-Week Hypertrophy Program

4-Week Weight Loss Program