This is particularly important if you’re looking to boost your recovery after tough training sessions. Protein is essential for keeping your muscles healthy and whole. But if you’re interested in continuing to put up strong numbers on the platform, you probably want to at least maintain your muscle mass. Not all strength athletes are looking to pack on a ton of extra muscle. But if you need some reminders about why protein is so good for athletes, here they are. If you’re a strength athlete or just like lifting heavy things, you’re probably already on board the protein train. You’ll get that in about 20 to 30 grams of protein from most protein-dense sources, including many vegan proteins like legumes and grains. While these are far more important than worrying about leucine, it seems that about three grams of leucine per serving is ideal for keeping MPS maintained. Now, MPS is just one piece of the muscle gain puzzle: total daily calories is hugely important, as is total protein intake, one’s exercise regimen, sleep, and many other factors. Video can’t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: BCAAs vs EAAs – Is Either Helpful for Your Workouts? () It’s a complicated process, but the basic gist is that well-exercised muscles grow when enough protein is available to provide the amino acids needed for hypertrophy. Those can then be used by your muscles to repair exercise-induced damage. When you digest protein, they break down into the amino acids that they’re made of. Amino acids are the building blocks your muscle fibers need to grow. First things first: proteins are made up of amino acids. To best understand why you even need all that tofu to begin with, let’s start off with some science.

Speak with your physician if you have any concerns. The opinions and articles on this site are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. To sort through all these murky waters, we talked to multiple experts and look at a ton of research to land on the formulas used in our protein intake calculator.Įditor’s note: The content on BarBend is meant to be informative in nature, but it shouldn’t take the place of advice and/or supervision from a medical professional. Avoiding a deficiency is a lot different than growing muscle mass. The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) suggestions for avoiding a protein deficiency are a lot lower than what the average, visibly muscular person will tell you they eat. Credit: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV / Shutterstock How much protein is too much? How much is too little? And once you figure that out, you’ll probably want to know what kinds of protein work best for your goals. When it comes to building muscle and losing fat, few queries can be as confusing as that of how much protein you should consume. If you’re a physique athlete or have particular aesthetic goals, you’ve probably got some questions about nutrition.

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