If you follow the trends with protein and carbohydrates, you may find yourself scratching your head over the carb, protein macronutrient mumbo jumbo that a lot of people are throwing around like it’s the secret to everything. It’s much simpler that it gets made out to be.
It’s the age old question, how much protein should I take in? I have a lot of my clients before we get started on a program tell me they are taking gobs of protein powder. It’s easy to be misled in our society that if we simply take protein powder we are going to see our muscles bulge and pop. While protein is important to muscle gains, just taking scoops of protein is not going to magically transform us into a version of Dwayne Johnson.
Our muscles need amino acids which are essentially the building blocks of protein. This is what feeds them, so when we tear down our muscles by working them out we need to replenish them with protein.
So while protein is important it is only a small piece of the puzzle. If you are lifting regularly then you should be consuming 1 to 1 1/2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. Now before you break out the calculator and start doing math don’t let this over complicate things.
Typically I recommend 30% of your diet should be coming from protein. But again this isn’t an exact figure that has to be followed. I would prefer you to eat a well rounded nutritious diet that consists of lean meats, beans, and other healthy proteins, as well as whole grain and whole wheat carbohydrates, fresh veggies, fruits and healthy fats like avocados, olive oil, almonds etc.
So don’t overthink the protein craze, eat healthy, eat balanced, eat enough, and lift hard.