When I wanted to bulk up in the past, I would eat meals averaging around 50 grams of protein per meal. I got the results that I wanted, so I was happy. Recently, someone told me that the human body will not use more than 20-25 grams of protein for muscle building.
You CAN digest it, but it won’t be used for muscle building - it will just get wasted and put a strain on your kidneys, regardless of whether you’re doing a low-rep, high weight workout or not.
He said you can even test for this by measuring the amount of protein traces in your urine (which is what they do for kidney disease patients.)
In the past, I would eat 50-60 grams of protein per meal and maintain a ratio of 40% protein, 30% carb, 30% fats throughout the day (totalling around 3600 calories.) If this is true about protein not being effective (and even harmful) after 20-25 grams per meal, then where should I get the rest of my calories from? Can someone please give me some insight into this?
higher protein intake leads to higher protein turnover, which means your body rebuilds itself quicker, thus recovering quicker. this higher turnover will lead to high excretion which only seems to be a problem for those with kidney disease (usually caused by eating too much grains and processed fats as they displace minerals from other foods that would prevent the kidney from being stressed in the first place).
the 20-25g per meal is a great level if you are a 100 pound female who is relatively sedentary, or a child under this weight, otherwise you are eating far less protein than what man evolved off of. kidney disease and high blood pressure are unheard of in hunter-gatherer populations as are cancer and heart disease.
here is a Berardi article addressing the issue more fully:
Statements like that drive me crazy. Can a 110 lb middle aged woman handle and utilize 50 grams of protein a meal, probably not. Can a 240 lb heavily muscled man handle it, probably so and more.
And besides if you were gaining size eating 50 grams of protein a meal then why are you even considering this?
All those studies that show high protein diets are hard on the kidneys are done on people with KIDNEY DISEASES ha. Eat your protein
I did the 20-25 gram per meal of protein for the summer.
The results… not much, as you’d imagine. I did my regular hardcore workout (4 days a week, split into chest/shldr/tris, legs, arms and back, small muscles). When I was on a true, high-protein diet, my muscle mass increased significantly. On 20-25 grams of protein per meal, it just didn’t happen.
No significant strength increase, no significant mass increase and very little noticeable fat loss. Pretty lame.
So to the doctors who said no to over 20-25 grams of protein per meal… Total BS.
(In short, you guys were right, but I wasn’t surprised when I proved it firsthand.)