Had a talk today with a guy who was sort of offended for some reason about me not eating animal products and lifting weight. He said I’d never get enough protein (never heard that one before!!!). Because lentils aren’t a thing in a world of steaks.
Anyway he said that you need at least 200 grams of protein each day when you lift but that’s of course nonsense. Not saying you shouldn’t do it, but you don’t need to either.
I’m averaging around 110-140 grams a day and I’m doing fine at ±80kg body weight.
Also want to point out. You pretty much can’t over eat on protein. If you say, eat too much fat or carbs your body stores what it doesn’t use. Especially carbs. For example, if you eat say 15k calories of fat, you MIGHT absorb half of that before it all passes because fats harder to digest right? If you had the same amount as simple carbs/sugars you are looking at putting away almost all of it. But back to protein. The body doesn’t store protein. Any excess you have gets burned off as fuel. It you are 15k calories of actual protein ( it saying this is possible just as an example) you would take what you could for building muscles etc. Then burn the rest off as either exercise, as heat, or just poo it out. This is where the “meat sweats” comes from. So if you are trying to put on muscles and not bulk and gain weight… Just eat more protein.
between 120 and 160 at 72kgs, honestly you can still get results as long as you eat SOME of it. Most of my growth happened when i wasn’t tracking macros and consuming way less of it
It also depends on frequency of working out and the speed you want to build. Lift a couple days a week? You body has more time to get the protein you need from food without having to eat drastically increased amounts. Lift several days a week? Gonna need that protein. I’m a larger individual and I try to get around 100-120 grams a day when I’m pushing myself. Usually I will have a higher intake the day of and the next day or two after a hard lift session. Otherwise it’s around 80-100 tops.
I don’t count anything by grams except cannabis
Not a body builder here, but I think I read somewhere that the average American eats twice the suggested amount of daily protein (which makes sense when over a third of USians eat fast food every day). As a vegan I mostly get my protein from plant based meat subs, nuts, and broccoli. I recently read the CriticalResist fitness article on prolewiki, and I’m pretty sure both of you are in the healthy protein range for weight lifting (though the meat-eater is a little high).
Actually due to the kinds of processed foods Americans eat they typically get less protein than what is recommended and this causes overeating. Your body focuses on protein and macronutrients first as these are the most important. The body doesn’t want to stop eating until those needs are met. Since so much or our food is processed and thus low in macronutrients and consists so much of empty carbs it causes people to naturally over eat in calories in order to meet those protein and macronutrient needs. This is why whole, unprocessed, high protein foods are so important. Regardless of if it’s meat or vegetable.