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How Much Protein Do I Need To Build Muscle? | Nutritionist Explains... | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
Find out how much protein you need to build muscle, how to calculate your optimal protein target for muscle growth and how much protein your body can absorb per meal.
So you want to know how much protein you need to build muscle? You’ve come to the right place. Our expert nutritionist Richie Kirwan is here to take the guesswork out of protein requirements for muscle growth in this easy-to-follow video.
Whether you’re trying to get toned, shredded, or bulk up, it's essential that you get the right amount of protein if you want to see progress.
Find Richie on Instagram: @be_more_nutrition
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0:00
do you ever get confused with all the
0:01
different recommendations for protein
0:02
that you see
0:03
are you confused about how much you need
0:05
to build muscle mass in this video i'm
0:06
going to tell you exactly what you need
0:08
to know about protein
0:09
and muscle gain
0:10
[Music]
0:13
today we're going to talk all about one
0:15
of the most important nutrients when it
0:17
comes to building muscle
0:18
that's right protein more importantly
0:20
i'll tell you
0:21
how much you should be taking to build
0:23
muscle mass we'll also learn something
0:25
about the maximum amount of protein that
0:27
you can eat in just one sitting
0:28
that might just surprise you i want to
0:30
point out that i'm not recommending any
0:32
particular protein supplements what i am
0:33
going to do
0:34
is talk about how protein works in
0:35
general and why the amount matters
0:38
let's get started
0:39
[Music]
0:41
let's start off with clearing the air
0:43
around the recommended daily intake for
0:44
protein which is advised by the world
0:46
health organization
0:47
and most governments the recommended
0:49
amount depends on your body weight
0:50
because if you're bigger
0:51
with more muscle you'll need a little
0:53
more to maintain it
0:54
now in this video we're going to mention
0:57
a lot of numbers but don't worry
0:59
i'll explain how to apply them to
1:00
yourself when i talk about body weight
1:02
i'm talking about people who don't have
1:03
a large amount of body fat if you do
1:05
have a lot of body fat and you calculate
1:07
your protein intake based on your weight
1:09
you may get a very high number so
1:11
instead you can just roughly calculate
1:13
your
1:13
healthy or lean weight using your height
1:16
and a healthy body mass index of 25.
1:19
the reason i say healthy in air quotes
1:21
is because your weight doesn't dictate
1:23
your health
1:24
but bmi is a very common used metric and
1:26
useful for this calculation
1:28
so how do we calculate your lean weight
1:30
simply multiply your height in meters
1:31
squared by 25. so if you're 170
1:34
centimeters tall that's 1.7 meters
1:36
and your lean weight is 1.7 squared by
1:38
25 which is 72.25 kilograms this is what
1:41
i use to calculate protein intake for
1:43
all of my clients
1:44
now when i talk about how much protein
1:46
to take i'm going to mention grams per
1:48
kilogram of body weight
1:49
and the world health organization which
1:51
i mentioned earlier recommends 0.8 grams
1:53
of protein
1:54
per kilogram of body weight per day how
1:56
much is that well if you weigh 70 kilos
1:58
just multiply your weight
1:59
by 0.8 and that's how much you should
2:01
eat that works out at 56 grams of
2:03
protein and i bet a lot of you would eat
2:04
that in a single meal right the reason
2:06
the recommendation is so low is because
2:08
it's not a recommendation for muscle
2:09
gain it's a recommendation to prevent
2:11
protein malnutrition to make sure you
2:14
don't become deficient
2:15
in protein a lot of government
2:17
recommended nutrient intakes are
2:18
designed with that in mind
2:20
to prevent deficiencies so they may not
2:22
be optimal for getting you gains
2:24
in reality most rdis are perfectly
2:26
adequate when maintaining health
2:28
but when it comes to protein we can do
2:31
better
2:34
there are two ways we can think about
2:36
protein intake and the most common is
2:38
grams of protein per day
2:39
according to a recent meta-analysis by
2:41
martin ital and including researchers
2:42
like brad schoenfeld eric helms
2:45
meno henselman james krieger and stu
2:46
phillips 1.6 grams of protein per
2:49
kilogram of body weight
2:50
seems to offer the maximum benefit for
2:52
muscle growth so if you weigh 70
2:53
kilograms that works out at about 112
2:55
grams per day so technically
2:57
if you eat more than that you probably
2:59
won't see any further increases in
3:00
muscle mass now a lot of you
3:02
probably think this sounds really low
3:05
it's important to remember that this is
3:06
just
3:06
one meta-analysis and isn't necessarily
3:09
the final word so before i give any
3:10
final recommendations
3:11
i want to talk about another way of
3:13
thinking about protein intake
3:18
protein per meal may be a more useful
3:21
way of looking at protein intake because
3:22
of something called
3:23
leucine threshold simply put leucine is
3:26
an essential amino acid that stimulates
3:28
muscle protein synthesis
3:29
the process we use to build new protein
3:32
from amino acids if we get enough
3:33
leucine in a single meal we can
3:35
maximally stimulate mbs
3:36
and eating more protein probably won't
3:38
stimulate it anymore it turns out that
3:40
if you eat a mixed meal with about 0.4
3:42
grams of protein per kilogram of body
3:43
weight
3:44
that's probably enough to reach leucine
3:46
threshold and maximally stimulate muscle
3:48
growth so
3:49
if you have four meals with 0.4 grams of
3:51
protein per kilogram of body weight
3:52
that's a total of 1.6 grams per kilogram
3:55
per day
3:56
bear with me if four meals are good
3:58
maybe more meals could be better this is
3:59
where we need to look at what's called
4:01
mechanistic data or biochemical
4:03
explanations for how
4:04
mps happens we know that after we
4:06
maximally stimulate mbs we have to wait
4:08
a certain amount of time before we can
4:10
stimulate it again with more protein
4:12
this is called the refractory period and
4:14
it lasts about three hours
4:16
that means that technically we could
4:18
stimulate mps with a dose of protein
4:20
every three hours or so assuming you
4:22
sleep a solid eight hours which you
4:24
should be doing if you want to build
4:25
muscle
4:25
that means you can probably fit in six
4:28
protein doses
4:29
one every three hours while you're awake
4:31
in that case if you eat 0.4 grams per
4:33
kilogram at each meal
4:34
the total works out at 2.4 grams per
4:37
kilogram of protein per day
4:38
there is some evidence that this much
4:40
protein can be effective in
4:42
young bodybuilders so it's not too much
4:44
of a reach from the theoretical
4:45
principles
4:46
of mps so here are my thoughts on what
4:48
you could do
4:49
if you're serious about building muscle
4:51
as an absolute minimum you should be
4:52
eating 1.6 grams per kilogram per day
4:55
spread over
4:56
four meals of 0.4 grams per kilo that's
4:58
as easy as
4:59
breakfast lunch post-workout and dinner
5:02
to be honest this is probably going to
5:04
be a very close to optimal strategy
5:06
however
5:06
if you want to do everything you
5:08
possibly can to milk every
5:10
last drop of gains you could increase
5:12
that to six meals
5:14
of 0.4 grams per kilogram each day which
5:16
works out at a total of 2.4 grams per
5:19
kilo
5:19
it takes a lot more organization of your
5:22
eating schedule to space out the meals
5:23
by about three hours each
5:25
here's what a day's eating schedule
5:27
might look like
5:29
remember though there's not a lot of
5:31
real world evidence that this much
5:33
protein will make
5:34
much of a difference but if you can fit
5:36
it in why not try
5:37
personally i think four meals a day is a
5:40
good balance between optimizing muscle
5:41
growth
5:42
and having an actual life that doesn't
5:44
revolve around your food schedule that
5:46
sweet spot is probably somewhere between
5:47
1.6
5:48
and 2.4 grams per kilogram per day
5:53
finally you may have heard somewhere
5:54
that you can only digest 20 to 25 grams
5:56
of protein per meal and any more is a
5:58
waste of protein just like many myths in
6:00
nutrition there is a grain of truth to
6:01
it we do know that in young healthy
6:03
people
6:04
about 20 grams of protein per meal is
6:06
enough to maximally stimulate muscle
6:07
protein synthesis
6:08
eating twice that amount of protein 40
6:10
grams won't double your mps
6:12
but it can increase it a little by
6:14
another maybe 20
6:16
according to some studies however that
6:18
doesn't mean that the rest of the
6:19
protein is wasted
6:20
yes some will get oxidized for energy
6:22
but it can also be used for building
6:24
other
6:24
non-muscle tissues in the body or
6:26
forming hormones enzymes and antibodies
6:28
which are
6:28
all protein based on top of that
6:31
resistance exercise increases the mps
6:33
response to protein
6:34
so you can stimulate mps a little more
6:36
with a higher dose of protein and that
6:38
should apply to everyone watching this
6:40
so don't worry if you eat more than 25
6:42
grams of protein per meal
6:44
your body can digest it and you will use
6:46
it just maybe not all for building
6:48
muscle
6:48
so now that you know how much protein
6:50
you need to get big i want to leave you
6:52
with one last warning
6:53
it doesn't matter how much protein you
6:55
eat if you're not putting in the work
6:57
in the gym the stimulus for muscle
6:59
growth comes from exercise
7:00
and if you don't have that stimulus no
7:03
amount of protein
7:04
is going to get you jacked trained hard
7:07
so what do you think did that clear up
7:09
the protein confusion
7:10
as always if you have any questions let
7:12
me know in the comments below and
7:14
remember to like and subscribe to the my
7:16
protein youtube channel
7:17
for more great evidence-based nutrition
7:22
[Music]
7:27
information
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