Protein: Why It’s Important and How Much You Should Eat

If you’re interested in building muscle, maintaining muscle, and feeling stronger, one of the most important factors in achieving these goals is making sure you eat enough protein. Most people think they’re getting a lot more than they actually are, so this blog is going to help you understand the importance of protein and how much you should be eating.

Macronutrients make up all foods. Macronutrients boil down to 3 different categories:

• Proteins
• Carbs
• Fats

All 3 of these macronutrients serve a purpose for our bodies to be functioning at high levels and are necessary in our diets. Today we’re going to talk about protein, but if you’re interested in how the others play a role, hit reply and let me know!

Protein is effectively the food our muscles need in order to grow big and strong. Without enough of it, we risk losing muscle mass. If you lift weights in the gym and you don’t eat enough protein, you won’t see the results of all of the hard work you spent in the gym.

Protein helps our muscle mass stay the same.
Protein helps our muscles grow.
Protein helps us retain muscle as we age.

As we get older we lose muscle mass, so as you age eating enough protein becomes even more crucial in order to maintain the muscle that you do have.

But unfortunately, most people don’t eat enough protein. Most people hear 50 grams of protein and think that they’re eating a lot – but for an adult, that is actually not nearly enough to maintain your muscle mass, and definitely not enough to gain any muscle in the gym.

So, how much protein should you be eating?

Some of this depends on the type of exercise that you’re doing, or not doing.

If you do not lift weights, I would shoot for at least .7 x your body weight. So for someone who is 150 pounds, this is 105 grams of protein a day.

If you lift weights in the gym, and your goal is to put on muscle, get stronger, and maintain what you have, then I would shoot for about 1 x your body weight. So again, if you’re 150 pounds, I would shoot for 150 grams of protein.

The general rule of thumb is .7-1 x your bodyweight is the amount of grams of protein you should be consuming daily.

The more protein you get, the more you will achieve your goal of either maintaining your muscle mass or growing it. So if you don’t lift weights, and you can get more than .7 and closer to .8/.9 x your body weight, you’re going to be setting yourself up better to see muscle retention. 

I hope this was helpful and if you have any questions feel free drop a comment and ask away!

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