Is extreme protein needed?

iron addict

New member
I know and work with a lot of talented BB’ers and PL’ers and every SUCCESSFUL one will tell you the body needs EXTREME protein intake levels if you are to ever do well lifting and adding mass. Of course there are plenty of buck-sixty pound guys out there that will quote studies telling you that it is not needed.

I am constantly bombarded with posts from under 200 lb guys saying things like “I heard that the body can only assimilate 30-35 grams at a time” or the super MORONIC statement that is even more frequently heard “I don’t want to “waste” protein”. Oh really? It’s OK to drive to the gym, workout 2-6 days a week, spend countless hours lifting and prepping meals and spending God knows how much a month on mostly USELESS supplements (there are great ones, most guys buy the flashy crap ones though because of the marketing hype), and then after all that time, money and effort, they “are worried about “wasting” a bit of protein? Please, get real.

You need to understand that before a single gram of protein will be used for growth, first overall metabolic needs must be attended to. Then you need to take in to account all the micro-trauma that heavy training creates. Your body must use the ingested protein to first just synthesize protein just to heal what was damaged and get you back to square one before any additional mass will be accrued.

Now comes the big kicker that almost everyone here reading this is CLUELESS about—how little actual protein content is in the food you eat. When many see a recommendation that a 200 lb guy trying to add mass should get 375-400 grams of protein a day many flip-out. That is nuts! No one could use or possibly have a need for that much protein---WRONG! Just because 8 ounces of steak with fat has about 60 grams of protein, the average guy assumes that 400 grams of actual protein is a HUGE amount. IT IS NOT! 8 ounces of steak is mostly water and other constituents that do NOT count as the protein count.

But instead of taking my word for it, you do the math and find out how much ACTUAL PROTEIN is in an amount you would consider HUGE, and then think about what your overall bodyweight is and how tore-up a hard workout makes you feel.

http://www.sciencelab.com/data/conversions/weight.shtml

Did you do the math? What do you think now?

Iron Addict
 
Good post.

I've found that for optimum growth, I need lots of carbs to go along with that protein. I like complex carbs...not a fan of sugars.

'Course, maybe I should shut my mouth until I pass 200 pounds. But still, going 145 to 185 in a year ain't bad, and now I'm at 13 months since 145 and I'm about 195.
 
alot of carbs and ALOT of proteion work for me. at 263 lbs im still gaining weight because of my training and most importantly my DIET.
 
pretty ricky said:
well what is extreme protien intake?i dont think theres a such thing.ingest as much as you can!right?
i wouldn't say as MUCH as you can,,, there is such a thing as too much of everything ,, now, this differs for everyone,,,, but none the less, keep everything in perspective. and drink LOTS of water to aid the kidney's in processing all the protein that we are ingesting. i would stick to the 1.5-2g per lb of body weight.
 
1.25 g per lb is the number that I stuck with to put on the last 60 lb of mass... It seemed to work.
 
I eat 2-2.5 pounds of meat a day with 2 Liters of whole fresh milk (or the Omega 3 Fresh 1.5%). I've been around the same weight now for a couple years yet I get leaner and leaner.

I eat within my pocketbook.

B True
 
Show me someone who is stagnated with gains and 9 times out of 10 its diet, and more importantly the protein grams taken in on a daily basis...
 
In-Human said:
Show me someone who is stagnated with gains and 9 times out of 10 its diet, and more importantly the protein grams taken in on a daily basis...

No truer words have ever been spoken . . . Wish I had figured that out about 5 years ago
 
iron addict said:
Just because 8 ounces of steak with fat has about 60 grams of protein, the average guy assumes that 400 grams of actual protein is a HUGE amount. IT IS NOT! 8 ounces of steak is mostly water and other constituents that do NOT count as the protein count.
Iron Addict
Lean beef is about 19% protein. So 500 gr of lean beef is about 100 gr protein. I eat about 1 kg of lean beef ED, so that's about 200 gr protein from just the beef.
 
great post ia. I knew there was a reason I kept eating my protein and not listening to all the other fools who told me i was going way over board. :D
 
the_hulk said:
alot of carbs and ALOT of proteion work for me. at 263 lbs im still gaining weight because of my training and most importantly my DIET.


this is true for me too. from what i've read, carbs help shuttle protein into the muscles and provide an alterior means of energy, so the protein can be more efficiently used to rebuild muscle.
 
Xtreme57 said:
this is true for me too. from what i've read, carbs help shuttle protein into the muscles and provide an alterior means of energy, so the protein can be more efficiently used to rebuild muscle.
Insulin my freind. But thats what carbs do, they cause a spike in insulin.
 
I do whatever works. Question... with protien shakes how long do they keep in the fridge if made in advance?
 
why make em in advance when it takes less than a minute to shake in a shaker cup?i mean you dont need but 1 or 2 a day post workout,and before bed maybe.if you gonna be keepin protien in the fridge it should be whole food.and how longs it gonna be there when you eat like we do?
 
Great read as usuall, to bad most ppl nowadays dont gow with what works, they go with studies on 150pound persons.
 
Would you care to outline some of the supplements you referred to that aren't the crappy flasy ones? I'd be curious to know what exactly is worth buying, in my experience it's all useless.
 
taste better... not that that really matters. Its more because of i put eggs, yogurt and a scoop of ice cream. Sorta like a meal replacement since im always on the move. I reserve the shaker cups for after the gym with water.
pretty ricky said:
why make em in advance when it takes less than a minute to shake in a shaker cup?i mean you dont need but 1 or 2 a day post workout,and before bed maybe.if you gonna be keepin protien in the fridge it should be whole food.and how longs it gonna be there when you eat like we do?
 
There's been some articles about your body only able to intake about 50g of protein per meal. I don't believe that it's true, but it's been floating around lately.
 
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