Eric Roberts says the standard 1 gram per pound rule is overkill. For fat loss, multiply your goal weight by 0.7g per pound. For muscle gain, use current weight times 0.8g to 1.2g per pound. If you're losing more than 20 pounds, use the fat loss formula; under 20, use the muscle gain one.
You need to be eating 1 gram of protein per pound of your current body weight. You've probably heard some butt sniffer on the internet tell you this before, but is it actually true? Don't worry, because by the end of this video, I'm going to give you the answer to how much protein you should be eating if your goal is to lose fat, build muscle, or lose fat and build muscle at the same time. First, let's start if your goal is to purely lose fat and lose weight on the scale. And I mean, if you're looking to lose more than 20 pounds, you are going to use this very simple equation. Take your goal body weight in pounds and multiply that number by 0.7. So if you currently weigh 200 pounds but you want to weigh 150 pounds, you would do 150 times 0.7, which would give you 105 grams of protein per day. And yes, 105 grams of protein per day is all you need. Now, could you do more? Sure, but really the research shows us you don't need more than 1 gram of protein per pound of your goal body weight if your goal is trying to lose fat. So you might eat anywhere from 105 grams to 150 grams of protein per day, and you can give yourself a range as opposed to just trying to hit one number. And the reason you would use your goal body weight instead of your current body weight in this situation is the protein requirements based on the research that we have is on your total lean body mass. So if you're somebody who has a lot of body fat you're trying to lose, your total lean body mass would be much less than your current weight. So you don't need to use your current weight, you would use your goal weight. And this doesn't have to be perfect, just give yourself a rough guesstimate of what you think you'd like to weigh around. Now, if your goal is to build muscle, which let me be very clear, you are looking to gain weight, gain muscle size, if this is your main goal, you are going to take your current weight in pounds and multiply that by at least 0.8. So again, if you currently weigh 150 pounds, you would multiply that by 0.8 and eat at least 120 grams of protein per day. And again, the reason we're using your current weight is because if you're looking to gain weight and build muscle, you probably don't have much more body fat that you would like to use. So you are closer to your lean body mass, which is why we're using the current weight this time. And again, you might ask me, well, can I eat more than that? You can, but I don't think you need to go more than 1.2 times your current body weight. And in fact, if you do go more than this, it might actually detract from your muscle building because you might not be eating enough carbohydrates to fuel your workout performance if you're eating so much protein. So in a situation like this, your protein per day would be somewhere around 120 to 180 grams per day. Now last but not least, if your goal is to lose fat and build muscle at the same time, there are going to be 2 different scenarios that you're going to follow depending on which one you fall into. The first, if you have 20+ pounds of fat that you would like to lose while still building muscle at the same time, you're actually going to use the same equation that we used earlier. Your goal body weight in pounds multiplied by 0.7 And the reason this works is because since you have more body fat you'd like to use, your body is going to be able to use some of this body fat as energy since it is stored energy that can get put towards building muscle. So you don't need as much protein right now the more body fat that you have to lose. But the second scenario, when you have less than 20 pounds of fat you'd like to lose, I would use the second equation, which is your current body weight in pounds times 0.8. And again, the reason being is the less fat you have to lose, the more protein you are going to need in order to build the amount of muscle that you would like to build. And by the way, this scenario often is what we call that skinny fat, where you don't have a lot of weight that you want to lose, but you don't look the way that you want to look. So if that's you, I would definitely fall into this scenario, scenario number 2 right here. But now you might be like, well, Eric, how do I actually eat more protein? How do I hit that protein goal you just told me? Don't worry, because I already made a video on how to do that that you can watch right here. Just click this link above and it'll take you right to the video. I really hope this helps.
