More protein does not necessarily mean more muscle. For most people doing resistance training, gains in muscle and strength appear to plateau around 1.6 g/kg/day. But there’s a good reason to push protein higher when the goal is fat loss or body recomposition. Higher protein intake can: - increase... satiety and make a calorie deficit easier to sustain - help preserve lean mass so more of the weight lost comes from fat - modestly increase energy expenditure through the thermic effect of food This often gets lost in debates about “optimal” protein intake. You may not need more than ~1.6 g/kg/day to maximize muscle growth, but higher intakes can still be useful when you’re trying to lose fat without losing muscle.show more

There’s no need to go higher than .8g. The amino acid profile of many protein rich foods is unfavorable, a lot of tryptophan and cysteine will slow your metabolism.

Since I can barely get to almost 150g per day (and I’m supposedly supposed to get 160-180, I have to say “Ma’am how?”

More protein means less carbs. Less carbs means less energy. Less energy means worse training. Worse training means poorer stimulus. Poorer stimulus means more muscle wasting on the diet. Personally, I’d always recommend maximizing carbs for people who are training hard. For someone more sedentary, increasing protein beyond this could make more sense.

satiety is the real cheat code for body comp

Useful distinction, I’m running around 215g a day specifically for the fat loss and recomp goal, not just muscle growth, so this actually explains why I’ve kept it higher than the “optimal for muscle” number would suggest. Satiety alone has made the calorie deficit a lot more sustainable than earlier attempts at cutting.

Rhonda, can you make a video on why combining animal protein and starches (like steak and potatoes) causes heart disease? I'd love to hear that information again.

Shoutout to @joerogan for introducing me to the best Nutrition expert! I have been intermittent fasting for a while now, it is a part of my life at this point.

Modern guides for olympic weightlifters are 1,2-1,7g/kg of body weight. I don’t believe regular people or gymbros need more or even that much.

I lost 10 kg, going from 85 kg to 75 kg in 2 months. I can say from experience that increasing my protein intake to 2g per kg of body weight really worked for me.

increasing muscle building by improving protein synthesis is often easily achieved when one ups their carb intake. On low carbs, the liver often „cannibalizes“ the amino acids in dietary protein to produce the vital sugars necessary for hormone synthesis and brain ATP.

Protein isn't a magic muscle-building switch. Once the body has enough building material, adding more doesn't necessarily create more muscle but it can still make dieting easier.

Protein intake is only half the equation—gut clearance and enzymatic breakdown dictate actual bioavailability. If systemic inflammation or compromised barrier function is present, amino acid uptake drops significantly. Optimal absorption starts with foundational gut integrity. 🔬

Can you provide a citation that supports >1.6 to preserve muscle and promote fat loss?

All covered in this episode.

I wish more people understood this distinction. Protein needs aren't fixed, they shift based on the actual goal. Worth also noting the 1.6g/kg plateau is based mostly on younger, trained populations; older adults often see benefits well beyond that for muscle preservation alone.

The actual breaking point was 1.62 g/kg/day, above that, no measurable extra gain from fat-free mass. The ceiling of 1.6 is not universal law, it seems to depend on whether you have been training seriously for some time. It is worth nuanced, not presenting it as a fixed number for everyone.

Come on. Who is so hungry that they aren't satiated at 1.6g/kg/day? Like this?

Matches what I've seen with clients. Past roughly 1.6 the extra protein does nothing for growth directly, though it's still worth it in a cut for the satiety and preserving muscle. The bigger issue is almost nobody is hitting 1.6 to begin with. Guys tell me they eat loads of protein, we track it properly and it's 90g at 90kg bodyweight.

A useful reminder that “more” and “better” are not always the same thing. Context matters — especially when the same nutrient can serve different goals.

Yeah, 1.6g/kg of protein .. ..per meal

There is also study from Stanford that prove that your body can process only 40g of protein per meal , so even when fasting you’ll have to spread your protein intake…

Absolutely. Protein is essential for tissue repair, muscle maintenance and growth, and immune function. But protein should not be considered in isolation—it belongs within a balanced, whole-food diet supported by regular exercise and healthy lifestyle habits.

Great. Does this only apply to healthy individuals? I'm working on reversing high blood sugar levels and keeping them steady. In the meantime resistance training +...

The practical job is translating it into meals someone can repeat, with a floor you can repeat for the days when dinner goes sideways. Precision is only useful after consistency exists.

Protein targets shouldn’t exist in a vacuum. Someone maintaining, gaining and dieting aggressively can all benefit from different approaches even if their goal is ultimately to keep or build muscle.

Most people can't hit the 0.5 numbers

The 1.6 is a population average and the spread around it is wide. Some people plateau near 1.2, others keep responding past 2. Which is the piece the optimal intake debates skip: your own training log over a few months answers it better than any meta analysis.

gains stall around 16 g per kg extra protein still helps a cut

Excessive protein intake may cause unnecessary chronic stimulation of nutrient-sensing, pro-aging growth pathways. Optimal protein intake remains unknown.

I have been tracking my macros for years. Focused on hypertrophy. Different calorie targets, but always equated. I don't really build muscle unless protein is 1.5 grams per pound of body weight. Many of my friends who track experience the same. These studies are all done in non trained or lightly trained individuals

This is a nuance most trackers miss, people chase a flat protein number without adjusting for whether they're cutting or maintaining. Knowing your actual numbers day to day makes it a lot easier to adjust that intentionally instead of guessing.

There's another school of thought of protein requirements at 1g/lb body weight.!

Good points doc! When in caloric stable environment carbohydrates function as a kinetic force for protein synthesis. Protein at 1:1 ratio is more than acceptable until true caloric deficit is reached.