Personally, I feel like the 2g per lb of bodyweight is a marketing scheme concocted by the food & supplement industry. I've done a couple cycles and I've made it to 220lbs, at 6'2" and 7.1% bf, eating a fairly normal man's diet. Lots of meat and potatoes, but certainly nothing like 400g of protein per day (perhaps Ronnie Coleman might need that much?). I was closer to 100-200g per day.
Lift Big Eat Big: Protein Absorption: The Myth of 30 Grams
This article mentions that the body CAN ABSORB more than 30g of protein at once, but I think the argument is failing to understand what the 30g concept really means, which I believe is, the amount your body can actually USE over a period of time, not just absorb. Your body may be able to absorb more than 30, but it's not going to necessarily put it to any use in building muscle. It will be converted to glucose and used as energy.
The Ketogenic Diet for Health: If You Eat Excess Protein, Does It Turn Into Excess Glucose?
This article suggests otherwise. That the amount of protein converted to glucose is dependent on your body's needs, NOT the amount of protein ingested.
But in my personal experience on keto diets, during which I regularly monitored myself with keto sticks, I found I would boot myself out of ketosis if I ate too much protein at once. No carbs, but too much protein, seemed to be just as bad as having too many carbs! The article also fails to explain what does happen with the protein, if not converted to glucose? What if you ate 200G in one serving? Surely your body isn't going to just crap it out without using it, and there is a strict limit to how much protein your body can synthesize to muscle.
So..there you have it. I feel eating carbs does the job of "retaining muscle" and eating healthy balanced normal amount of protein (perhaps slightly higher), is enough to grow it. I've done quite well and I've never been a "protein junkie". I highly doubt I would have grown any faster by boosting the protein. My results were already quite suspicious to those who saw them.
Lift Big Eat Big: Protein Absorption: The Myth of 30 Grams
This article mentions that the body CAN ABSORB more than 30g of protein at once, but I think the argument is failing to understand what the 30g concept really means, which I believe is, the amount your body can actually USE over a period of time, not just absorb. Your body may be able to absorb more than 30, but it's not going to necessarily put it to any use in building muscle. It will be converted to glucose and used as energy.
The Ketogenic Diet for Health: If You Eat Excess Protein, Does It Turn Into Excess Glucose?
This article suggests otherwise. That the amount of protein converted to glucose is dependent on your body's needs, NOT the amount of protein ingested.
But in my personal experience on keto diets, during which I regularly monitored myself with keto sticks, I found I would boot myself out of ketosis if I ate too much protein at once. No carbs, but too much protein, seemed to be just as bad as having too many carbs! The article also fails to explain what does happen with the protein, if not converted to glucose? What if you ate 200G in one serving? Surely your body isn't going to just crap it out without using it, and there is a strict limit to how much protein your body can synthesize to muscle.
So..there you have it. I feel eating carbs does the job of "retaining muscle" and eating healthy balanced normal amount of protein (perhaps slightly higher), is enough to grow it. I've done quite well and I've never been a "protein junkie". I highly doubt I would have grown any faster by boosting the protein. My results were already quite suspicious to those who saw them.
