Protein AGAIN! Give me your thoughts

Hey bitches

When I was at university I was often aiming at 150g - 200g of protein a day. Then that trailed down to about 100g - 150g. Then I talked to people on this forum and someone mentioned that you can't absorb that much protein each day and that you don't need very much, so I went down to 60g-80g. Then I was at the gym the other day, the trainer told me to get up to 150g if I could. Other people have previously told me to just eat as much protein as possible, even up to 300g per day.

Once and for all I want to just decide on what the funk I'm doing, and which advice to follow for best effects. Eating protien for me is primarily expensive. I can take as many protein shakes as I want, that's is easy, but it's expensive. Otherwise, I'd be eating tonnes of fat / calories from food sources, and that's no good because I am trying to lose body fat. I am 5'9 about 150lbs. I'll kiss your ass if you help me. I know this topic is all over the place but everyone says something different. The 'RDA' of protein is something like 63g... but presumably that's for the 'average' office worker who sits on his BEEE HIVE/HIND all day.

Hi Richard,

Well, I guess that this discussion will go on and on... with no clear results. My opinion is that a protein intake of 150, 200 or even 300 grams is not necessary, but of course I am not an expert. At the moment I am trying to gain muscle mass again. My protein intake is between 50 and 80 grams per day. I am 176cm and 74 kgs. After three weeks intensive training I can see some muscles growing. So, I guess my intake should be ok. The question is how much more will my muscles grow with this amount of protein? I guess you can only find it out like this...

Keep your protein intake constant or at least nearly constant every day. After some weeks or month of training you will recognize if your muscles are still growing or not. If not you could increase your protein intake and watch if something is happening after a while.

You may kiss my ass now, but let me take a shower before...

As Ive understood it, there is pretty good support from science for the view that a high protein take has positivt effect on muscle growth. Not because all the amino acids are actually used to build muscle, but because of hormone responses or something like that, dont remember exactly.

I don't think you need anything close to 150 until your heavier...80 should be way more than enough until you gain 20-30lbs of muscle(if thats your goal). I think only the biggest of lifters and people that terribly stress their muscles to failure on a daily basis need to eat over 150g a day. I've been living off of 30-40g or so trying to loose muscle and it worked when I was 270lbs going down to 205 but now that enough to keep me from losing what I have...which makes me think I've gotta ride 4-5hrs a day or drop down to 20g which is pretty much impossible to do while eating a balanced diet over 1500 calories.

I don't think you need anything close to 150 until your heavier...80 should be way more than enough until you gain 20-30lbs of muscle(if thats your goal). I think only the biggest of lifters and people that terribly stress their muscles to failure on a daily basis need to eat over 150g a day. I've been living off of 30-40g or so trying to loose muscle and it worked when I was 270lbs going down to 205 but now that enough to keep me from losing what I have...which makes me think I've gotta ride 4-5hrs a day or drop down to 20g which is pretty much impossible to do while eating a balanced diet over 1500 calories.

The people at the gym aren't vegan, and I think they have a meat-mentality about protein, but I am not sure. From what I'd been told about how much protein you can actually use to build muscle, that's how I ended up aiming for 80g I still don't know for sure what to do, harr

I'd aim for about 1/2 your body weight in pounds (or your body weight in kilos). That seems a pretty standard recommendation for muscle building, without going overboard.

I'd aim for about 1/2 your body weight in pounds (or your body weight in kilos). That seems a pretty standard recommendation for muscle building, without going overboard.

1/2 my body weight in pounds... presumably you mean then converting that into grams? I'm not going to eat 75lbs of protein a day

Surely meat eaters have a tendancy to eat more...I wouldn't be suprised if its they're body telling them they need more due to bad protein absorbtion. We absorb our protein much more readily. As for too much...some people need much more if they beat their bodies to shreds on a daily basis. I was very bad at resting and I didn't like it so I had a daily goal of 300g as a vegan...surely I didn't need so much but I think 200g or a little more would have been adequate(granted I was over 300lbs). When I went vegan I really didn't change my nutrition profile at all...I simply replaced meat/eggs/dairy with beans/nuts/boca/smartdogs and higher quality grains.

around 200-300g I gain muscle mass noticeabally fast, but I also take in around 3k-6k calories daily with that. lots of carbs. it all has to do with lifting heavy and eating a lot of food. I'd focus more on calories than protein. I've gained muscle mass with as little as 50g protein daily.

find what works best for your body and then your budget.

I second that...total calories are much more important...if you eat a high calorie vegan diet its pretty much impossible to be low on protein anyway unless all you eat is oil.

I too, focus on lots of calories, and figure that the protein will just find it's way in there. I wouldn't even aim all that high for protein anyway, but a lot of my favorite foods are high in protein anyway.

I too though, like Topher, have built muscle around 50 grams of protein a day, and there are people who build it on even less.

Ah maybe I should explain my shit more sshpessifally (specifically). I am not aiming to get that much bigger, wanting to get more cut right now, so my calorie intake I don't want to go crazy with. I am aiming for about 2000 calories and about 150g of protein per day right now, and I think i'll see how progress goes. I am also following a new training routine so maybe I'll get new results with new determination.