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

How many grams of protein were you having on Olympia? Prep 600 grams of protein. Wow. Protein shakes are really bad. Takes three 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 digestibility. 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 digestibility 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. Plant 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 grams of protein from whole eggs or 18 grams of protein from egg whites after a workout. Researchers analyzed 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 aimed to answer that question. They assigned one group to eat 20 grams 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. The 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 about 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 investigate further by comparing the effects of a vegan diet versus a primarily animal based diet. Over the course of a 12 week training program, the vegan group supplemented with soy protein and also made an effort to vary their protein sources throughout the day and 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 we'll 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 meta analysis that analyzed 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 pounds 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 grams per pound of body weight per day failed to help build any additional muscle. So for the average 180 pound individual, this would come up to around 130 grams 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, but so don't get discouraged if that target seems really high. That said, in all the studies analyzed, 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 calorie deficit, such as 0.8g per pound body weight vs 1.2g per pound body weight vs but there is some speculative evidence suggesting that the leaner 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 grams 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 grams per pound of body weight, since by that point those additional calories may be better used towards carbs to help fuel 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 intake to 1 gram 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 grams per pound recommendation, you can take your height in centimeters and simply eat that amount of protein in grams per day. Okay, so before we move on to how to eat your daily protein to maximize this 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'd also add protein value to this. Despite its rising cost, if you buy it in bulk and you calculate the cost per gram of protein, it comes in cheaper than ground beef and Greek yogurt And actually ends up comparable to eggs, milk and canned 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 at built with science.com, which is a little bit more pricey, but it is the highest quality protein and it delivers 29 grams of protein per 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 grams 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 grams more protein per day on 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 this 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 4, 5 or even 6 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 intake evenly across either three or six meals per day. After eight 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 hitting your daily protein target more manageable. Alright, 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 Watch next for a five dollar a day cheap high protein meal plan designed for fat loss or or give this video a watch for the bulk 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 builtwithscience.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.