How Much Protein Do You Need to Gain Muscle
As a growing bodybuilder it is important for you to know how much protein you need to gain muscle. There are many reports on how much protein a bodybuilder needs to grow new muscle in the vicinity of 1 gram or protein per pound of body weight up to an immense 3 grams of protein per pound of body weight every day. Personally I believe 3 grams is just way too much even if you could eat that much which I doubt many people could.
From my 20 years experience as a bodybuilder I would suggest somewhere in the vicinity of 1.5 to 2 grams is about how much protein you need to gain muscle whether you are bulking or cutting. It also depends on just how much protein you can physically eat. Some people are naturally only light or small eaters and 2 grams of protein x 200 pounds of bodyweight is a total amount of 400 grams of protein, now that is quite a lot of protein for anybody to eat in a single day.
Since everyone has a different body type, being an ectomorph, mesomorph or an endomorph, we all need differing amounts of protein daily and for this reason the only way you will ever know how much protein you need to gain more muscle is by experimentation. Start by eating 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight everyday for a month with you daily carbohydrates and moderate fat intake and see if you gain any muscle. Of course you also need to be training hard and consistently.
I would also spread out my eating into 6 evenly sized meals per day since the human body can only digest protein at a certain rate. If you ate the same amount of food in just 3 meals per day your body simply would not be able to digest it as completely as it would if you spread your meals out into 6 servings per day. 6 smaller meals with a total of 3,000 calories and 300 grams of protein is better for the bodybuilder than just 3 meals with the same amount of calories and protein. By eating smaller meals your body can slowly digest almost all of your food but in 3 big meals your body will digest about half of the food so essentially it is a waste.
Like I said you will need to experiments to really know how much protein your body needs to gain muscle and until you know you might be wasting a lot of time and money unnecessarily. Try the same amount of protein every day for a month and if you feel you can eat more without becoming overly fat but still consistently gaining muscle, maybe you need to stock up on the beef and chicken from now on when you visit the supermarket.