Here is all the information you need to know about protein!
And if you dont want to read, you can just check out this video!
How much?
The first thing you need to know, is how much protein you should consume.
Usually, the recommended amount is 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.
Which mainly comes down to the quality of protein that you are consuming.
Because NOT all protein is the same.
Some protein sources are way better than others.
Majority of your protein intake should come from high quality protein sources.
Which means, lean meat, eggs, dairy, and protein powder if necessary.
The protein powder doesnt have to be just whey or casein, it can be an egg protein, soy protein, or even pea protein.
All of these protein powder options are considered to be high quality protein sources.
You want to utilize as many high quality protein sources in your diet as possible.
Because as the name suggets, they are of high quality, which means that if you eat for example 20grams of protein from lean meat, your body will be able to use all of that amount.
But that is not the case for other foods, like peanuts, wheat products, lentils, rice..and all the other similar foods to these.
Basically any food that does not fall under the category of lean meat, eggs, dairy, and protein powder, is considered to be a protein source of lower quality.
Your body will not be able to use the full protein amount of these lower quality proteins.
On average, your body will only be able to use roughly 50 to 75% of the total amount of the protein in these lower quality protein sources.
If you eat 20 grams of protein from peanuts for example, your body will only be able to use half of that, which is just 10 grams of protein.
So you might think that you are getting in 20 grams of protein, but in reality you are getting just a half of that amount.
And as i said before, that is because these lower quality protein sources, are not complete proteins, which means that your body cannot use their full protein amount.
You can imagine it like this:
The high quality protein sources, have all the essential amino acids in them, thats why they are complete sources of protein.
The lower quality protein sources, might also have all the essential amino acids, but some of them will be in very small quantities, or they will be just straight up missing.
So the conclusion is, if you eat a lot of high quality protein sources, then you can get away with eating less protein. (0,7 - 0,8g/lbs)
But if your diet is heavily reliant on lower quality protein sources, then you need a higher amount of protein to compensate for it. (1g/lbs)
Protein distribution
Its very important that you distribute your daily protein intake relatively evenly throughout the day.
Because every time you feed your body a good amount of protein, which is at least 20-30 grams, then you give your body an opportunity to build more muscle.
And we want as many of those opopportunities as we can get.
Because if you ate all of your protein for the day, in just one meal, then you would completely miss out on all of the opportunities for muscle growth.
Now, i will show you an example of how you can split your daily protein intake, so you can visualize it a little bit better.
Lets say that you weigh 160 pounds, and you want to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.
That would be 160 grams of protein per day.
For the best results, you should split this protein amount between 3-6 meals.
Any number of meals in this range will be completely fine, just go with the number of meals that fits your schedule the best, and that you enjoy the most.
Once you know how many meals per day you want to eat, you will divide your total daily protein intake with the number of meals you chose.
So if your daily protein intake is 160 grams for example, and you want to eat 4 meals per day, then that would equal to 40 grams of protein in each meal.
But dont worry, you dont need to have exactly 40 grams of protein in each meal for example, you can play around with it a little bit.
So you can for example have it like this, and still be completely okay.
What matters the most, is that you space out your meals, and that you dont skip any of them.
Do you need protein powder?
There seems to be a lot of confusion about protein powder, especially for beginners.
The most common misconception, is that you cant build muscle without protein powder, which is just ridiculous.
Protein powder is a supplement, which means, that its here to supplement your diet, if you are not able to get enough protein just from food.
Which means, that you can get super jacked without ever consuming a single scoop of protein powder.
Protein powder should be seen as a very useful tool.
It allows you to make various high protein recipes, like overnight oats for example.
And it might be handy, when you are in a rush, and you need to quickly get in some protein.
But it should definitely not be seen as a "must buy".
Buying protein powder will for sure make your life a lot easier, but its definitely not required.
The only exception, is if you are vegan, in that case, protein powder is as close to a „must buy“ as it gets, just because its really hard to get enough protein from only plant-based foods.
To sum it all up, i will just say this:
If you are still not sure if you should buy protein powder or not, my recommendation would be to just do it. At least once.
Then you can experiment with different recipes, and try out the convenience of having a big chunk of protein ready, whenever you might need it.
Maybe you will end up liking it, or maybe you will realize, that its not something that you need in your life.
Thats up to you to explore.
Well, thats all you need to know about protein!