0:01 Do you expect your muscles to grow
0:03 bigger and bigger by shoveling high
0:06 protein into your body?
0:08 But what if eating more protein isn't
0:10 just unnecessary, but actually makes it
0:12 harder to grow? Today, I'll walk you
0:14 through the new research that challenges
0:16 everything we thought we knew and reveal
0:19 the two things that actually build more
0:21 muscle than protein. But how did protein
0:23 become known as the most important
0:24 nutrient in the first place?
0:26 >> I mean, there was some diets, I'm not
0:28 going to lie, ate 140 egg whites a day.
0:30 People think it's crazy that I've eaten
0:33 200 g of protein for almost 20 straight
0:34 years. When you lift weights, you
0:36 trigger muscle protein synthesis, a
0:38 molecular message to your muscles that
0:40 says build. But building muscle is just
0:42 like building a brick house. Without
0:45 bricks, nothing gets built. Protein is
0:48 those bricks. Eat enough of it and
0:49 you've got the raw materials to actually
0:52 turn that growth signal into new muscle.
0:54 But when gym bros learned this, they
0:56 didn't just want to build houses. They
0:59 wanted mansions. Back in the golden era,
1:00 it wasn't uncommon for bodybuilders to
1:04 eat over 300 grams of protein per day, a
1:06 dozen eggs in one sitting, and pounds of
1:08 chicken breast. Fast forward to today,
1:10 and you'll still find listers chasing
1:13 200 plus g of protein per day, or
1:15 following the 1 g per pound of body
1:17 weight rule like it's gospel. I know I
1:19 did. I used to believe that if I didn't
1:20 hit my daily protein target, I was
1:23 leaving tons of gains on the table. But
1:25 it wasn't just bodybuilders. The food
1:27 industry realized that they could cash
1:29 in on this obsession. Suddenly, you've
1:31 got protein cereal, protein chips,
1:34 protein cookies, even Starbucks lattes
1:36 with extra protein. Most of it is just
1:38 cheap protein sprinkled in. But because
1:40 they can slap high protein on the label,
1:42 they charge you 20% more, and people
1:45 will happily pay for it. But here is
1:47 where things get really interesting.
1:49 Recently, a group of top protein
1:52 researchers were curious about just how
1:54 much extra muscle you build by eating
1:56 more protein. So, they got together and
1:58 they gathered every long-term growth
2:01 study they could find, 62 in total,
2:04 where participants lifted weights but
2:06 ate different amounts of protein. Then
2:08 they plotted all those results on a
2:11 graph. Protein intake on the bottom,
2:13 muscle growth on the side. The results
2:15 were not what they were expecting. In
2:17 one study, participants ate what most
2:20 lifters would call low protein. So 0.45
2:22 grams per pound of body weight. For
2:24 someone who weighs 180 pounds, that's
2:26 just 82 grams of protein a day.
2:28 Basically, two chicken breasts. This
2:30 mark in the y-axis represents how much
2:32 growth they got. Now, what happens if
2:34 you take a similar group of lifters, but
2:37 you feed them double that? Four chicken
2:39 breasts per day. Using gym bro math,
2:41 that should mean at least double the
2:44 gains, right? Surprisingly, the growth
2:47 was pretty much identical. H. But now,
2:51 let's really push it. 270 grams per day.
2:53 That's six chicken breasts. Well,
2:55 despite participants in this study
2:58 eating three times more protein, they
3:00 actually gained less muscle. But I know
3:02 what you're thinking, Jeremy. You can't
3:04 just cherrypick studies and call it a
3:06 day. And you're right. So, let's widen
3:08 the lens a bit. Here are all the studies
3:10 in the analysis that looked at moderate
3:13 to high protein intakes with just two
3:15 outliers removed because it reported way
3:18 larger than normal gains. Now, if eating
3:21 more protein really has a powerful
3:23 effect on growth, you'd expect these
3:25 dots to climb up and to the right. The
3:27 trend is basically flat. And so, what
3:29 that means is the anticipated benefit of
3:32 pushing your protein even higher is
3:33 very, very small. and and frankly so
3:35 small that many researchers aren't even
3:38 confident that a benefit exists at all.
3:40 That's Dr. Eric Trexler, a published
3:42 researcher at Duke University who spent
3:44 his career studying muscle growth. If
3:45 you're building a house and you have
3:47 more bricks than the blueprint calls
3:49 for, that doesn't mean you end up with a
3:51 bigger house. Basically, you just end up
3:53 with a bunch of leftover bricks and
3:54 eventually you're going to have to haul
3:56 them away from the construction site.
3:58 So, when you're building a house, that's
3:59 tedious. It's a waste of time. But
4:02 graphs are one thing. Let's say you
4:04 somehow managed to convince a pro
4:06 bodybuilder to not just cut his protein
4:09 intake in half, but to stop eating meat,
4:11 eggs, and fish, getting all of his
4:14 protein only from plant-based sources.
4:16 Surely, he would shrivel up and lose all
4:19 his gains, right? Well, that's exactly
4:21 what pro-natural bodybuilder Alex
4:24 Leonitis did 2 and 1/2 years ago. Alex
4:26 used to eat 200 g of protein every
4:29 single day. Now, he eats as low as 90 g
4:32 per day. And all of it comes from
4:34 plant-based sources. I've noticed
4:37 absolutely nothing. Recovery is exactly
4:40 the same. Progressive overload is the
4:42 same as it's been for many years. I
4:44 would consider myself a an elite natural
4:46 lifter. I've been documenting all my
4:49 training since 2020. I have SD cards
4:51 filled to the max. My gains have not
4:53 been affected whatsoever. I've tried up
4:56 to 220 g, including being at single
4:58 digit body fat. Comparing that to 120,
5:01 which is 100 g less, I'm just as strong
5:04 as I've ever been. 405 bench at 181.
5:06 >> So, if you're wondering how far a person
5:08 can possibly get with a low protein
5:10 diet, Alex is living proof that the
5:12 answer is pretty damn far.
5:15 >> I just feel like people need to focus
5:18 more on their health instead of just one
5:20 sole macronutrient, protein. And I'm not
5:22 the first person to report this. I don't
5:23 know if you if you've looked at Brian
5:25 Bournestein and a couple other guys, but
5:27 it's a common thing that they're now
5:29 dropping their levels to around the zone
5:31 that I'm talking about. And that's been
5:32 surprising to me, too, because now I'm
5:34 I'm saving money and I don't have to
5:36 stress about it as much. But now, you're
5:38 probably wondering, if protein doesn't
5:40 matter as much as we thought, then what
5:42 does? Well, let's take a look at a few
5:45 clues. In one study, researchers had one
5:47 group of people double their protein
5:49 intake to about 140 gram a day, while
5:52 another group stayed at 70. The catch,
5:54 neither group trained. And after 8
5:57 weeks, guess what happened? Nothing. No
6:00 muscle, no strength, no gains, just more
6:02 expensive pee. On the flip side, another
6:04 study looked at patients with kidney
6:06 issues who were forced into extremely
6:10 low protein diets, less than 50 g a day.
6:12 Now, you'd expect that would completely
6:14 shut down muscle growth. But when half
6:16 of them started lifting weights, even on
6:18 that tiny amount of protein, their
6:21 muscles still got over 20% bigger and
6:24 30% stronger. But what about your diet?
6:26 What if I told you eating this bowl of
6:28 rice could get you the same muscle
6:30 growth as eating all this extra protein?
6:32 Well, in one experiment, researchers
6:35 split lifters into three groups. All of
6:37 them followed the same lifting program.
6:40 Group A got nothing extra, just their
6:43 normal diet. Group B added a 2,000
6:46 calorie shake made mostly of carbs, and
6:48 group C added a similar 2,000 calorie
6:51 shake, but with 82 g of protein mixed
6:54 into it. After the 8 weeks, both shake
6:56 groups gained significantly more weight
6:58 and muscle than the control group who
7:00 didn't get extra calories. But here's
7:02 the kicker. the carb group experienced
7:04 similar gains as the extra protein
7:06 group, suggesting it was the extra
7:08 calories, not the protein driving the
7:10 gains. And we see the same thing in the
7:12 opposite direction. In fat loss studies,
7:15 people who train hard and eat plenty of
7:17 protein can still build muscle if
7:19 they're at maintenance calories or in
7:21 just a very small deficit. But once that
7:24 deficit gets too steep, around 500 to
7:27 700 calories per day, most people start
7:29 losing muscle even with a high protein diet.
7:30 diet.
7:32 So you put all these studies together
7:34 and the most important drivers of growth
7:37 becomes quite obvious. Number one, hard
7:39 training. Number two, eating enough
7:41 calories to fuel your training and
7:43 recovery. And unless you're severely
7:45 restricting it, protein actually comes
7:47 in for support. And number three, in
7:49 fact, there's even some cases where
7:51 protein can actually start hurting your
7:53 growth rather than helping it. For one,
7:56 protein is arguably the most filling
7:58 food you can eat, and it also burns the
8:00 most calories to digest. If you struggle
8:02 to gain weight, this can make it harder
8:04 to eat enough to grow. Not to mention
8:06 the GI discomfort and flatulence that
8:08 can come from higher protein diets.
8:09 You're not going to like it and neither
8:11 will the people around you. Second, it's
8:13 expensive. Let's say your body only
8:15 needs about 100 g of protein a day, but
8:18 you decide to push it up to 200. That
8:20 extra 100 g isn't giving you any
8:22 additional muscle. Your body just burns
8:24 it for energy. Now, if that extra
8:26 protein is coming from chicken, that's
8:28 about $5 added to your grocery bill
8:31 every single day. But if you replace
8:32 those calories with carbs, like
8:34 potatoes, you get the same amount of
8:37 energy for less than a dollar. That's a
8:40 difference of around $120 a month or
8:44 nearly $1,500 a year. And third, when
8:45 protein takes up too many of your
8:49 calories, it pushes out carbs and fats.
8:51 Too low fat can mess your hormones,
8:53 whereas too low carbs drains your
8:54 glycogen, tanking your workout
8:57 performance. Now, I'll share exactly how
8:59 much protein I'm currently eating and
9:01 the ranges I'd recommend at the end of
9:03 this video. But just because protein is
9:05 overhyped, it doesn't mean it's useless.
9:07 There's actually three situations where
9:10 protein has major benefits. First,
9:11 although you can still build muscle
9:13 without very much protein, the analysis
9:14 that I showed you earlier, it does
9:17 suggest a meaningful bump in gains when
9:19 you go from very low protein intakes up
9:22 to moderate ones. In fact, Alex
9:23 mentioned that once he starts going
9:26 below 90 g of protein per day, his
9:28 muscle recovery becomes noticeably
9:30 slower. This threshold is right around
9:33 0.55 g per pound of body weight. So, if
9:34 you take the number of grams of protein
9:37 you eat in a day and you divide it by
9:39 your body weight in pounds and the
9:42 number that you get is below 0.55,
9:44 you'll almost certainly see more growth
9:46 by eating more protein. The second
9:48 scenario is when you're dieting. We
9:49 often talk about how protein can
9:51 backfire because, you know, it has such
9:53 a satiating effect. It can reduce
9:55 appetite, but that becomes really a big
9:57 game changer when we're dieting down,
9:59 right? So, being able to attenuate
10:01 hunger and increase fullness on a high
10:03 protein diet becomes really helpful when
10:06 we're trying to lose weight and restrict
10:09 calories. Now, if you're over 15% body
10:10 fat, you know, you've got plenty of
10:12 stored energy, so you don't have to
10:13 worry too much about cutting into muscle
10:16 as you're losing weight. Um, but once
10:18 you start to get below 15% body fat,
10:20 protein becomes extra important. We
10:22 recently published a meta analysis
10:25 specifically on lean dieting people and
10:27 found that their protein needs tend to
10:28 be a lot higher than we would typically
10:30 see in people who are either not dieting
10:33 or not quite as lean. And the third
10:35 scenario is adherence. Some people just
10:37 enjoy eating protein. I'm Filipino and
10:39 for me, rice without some kind of
10:41 protein on the plate, it just feels
10:43 incomplete. And that's also why I still
10:45 use protein powder. I even sell my own
10:47 brand. And while this video probably
10:49 isn't the best marketing for it, I still
10:51 use it almost every day. Not because
10:53 it's magic, but because it's a quick,
10:55 tasty, and versatile way for me to get
10:57 30 g of protein in just a single scoop.
10:59 But let's get to what you're actually
11:01 waiting for. How much protein should you
11:04 actually eat? So, for the majority of
11:09 lifters, eating 0.55 to 0.63 g per pound
11:11 of body weight will already be close to
11:14 maximizing your gains. For a 160 pound
11:16 person, that would be around 88 to 100
11:18 grams of protein per day. And remember,
11:20 protein sneaks into your diet in more
11:22 ways than just shakes and chicken
11:24 breast. Bread, beans, peanut butter. It
11:27 all adds up. I even scanned a simple
11:29 meal with my app. Just a protein shake
11:31 and two slices of peanut butter toast.
11:34 And that's already 50 g of protein. So,
11:36 hitting your protein target could be as
11:38 simple as adding one protein shake to
11:40 your day. Now, if you do want a little
11:42 extra insurance, you can go slightly
11:46 higher to about 0.64 to 0.72 g per
11:49 pound. Think of this zone as very likely
11:52 maximizing your gains. But if you're
11:55 dieting and you're below 15% body fat,
11:56 or let's just say you're somebody who
11:58 wants the reassurance that you are
12:00 definitely maximizing your gains, then
12:03 you can bump this up to 0.73 to 1 g per
12:05 pound of body weight. As for what I'm
12:07 currently doing, I used to sit at well
12:09 over 1 gram per pound of body weight per
12:10 day because I just thought it was
12:12 necessary. These days, I'm actually
12:15 closer to 0.73, right at the lower end
12:18 of this maximized range, and I noticed
12:21 no differences in my gains. If anything,
12:23 shifting some of those calories towards
12:25 carbs instead has made my training as
12:27 well as my digestion feel a whole lot
12:30 better. Plus, I used to panic about
12:32 protein whenever I'd travel. Now, I know
12:34 that even just one protein shake and a
12:36 high protein dinner, that's pretty much
12:38 covering my bases. So, next time before
12:41 you buy those overpriced protein snacks,
12:43 maybe buy a calculator to figure out how
12:46 much protein you actually need first. Or
12:48 you can just use my Built with Science
12:50 Plus app. It shows you exactly how much
12:52 protein you need and the right workouts
12:54 to combine it with. Plus, it adjusts
12:56 your plan based on how your body is
12:58 actually responding. You can try it for
13:00 two weeks completely free by scanning
13:02 this QR code or heading to builtwithscience.com.
13:04 builtwithscience.com.
13:06 But since your training is what really
13:08 drives growth, highly recommend you
13:10 check out this video next where I break
13:12 down the only two exercises you need for
13:14 a wider back. Thank you so much for
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