Often you will hear people question how much is enough protein, and how much is too much

First of all, why do people ask this question?
It’s a common old wives tale that lots of protein will kill/make you ill. No doubt as you’ve been munching away at work, or even just out (or maybe even family!) you’ll have people stop you and say too much of that is bad for you, you’ll damage your kidneys, hurt your bones etc etc.

Clearly there is a large amount of misinformation out there making people believe one will fall ill if following a bodybuilding diet. We thought it was time to clear up a few common misconceptions and back this up with cold hard science.

I’m a bodybuilder, how much can I eat?
In a review of 41 studies examining the purported adverse affects of high protein diets in athletes, it was shown that protein intakes of 2.8g/kg did not impair kidney function in the short term.

Furthermore, a later review of 111 studies looking at protein intake and kidney function of athletes who consumed over 2.0g/kg of protein showed no impairments in renal function.

Clearly this is showing one can consume relatively large amounts of protein and still have no effect on health and in some cases that “it was found that high protein intakes when fat was controlled actually reduced the risk of ischemic heart attack.”



I’m not a bodybuilder, I train for fun, lightly!
In recent studies, it has been shown that there were no negative effects on kidney, liver or bone health after one year of consuming protein intakes of 2.2g/kg of lean body mass.

On another study elsewhere it showed that a diet consisting of 25% protein with an additional 50g of supplemental protein daily (e.g. protein shake), had no negative impact on health (it also happened to be the best for maintaining a healthy weight after dieting).

Ok, we’ve established protein is safe. How much for muscle growth?
In a 2009 study, Dr Layne Norton (yes, the one you’ve probably watched video on YouTube read his articles online etc.) has suggested from his studies for protein synthesis to be switched on (e.g. build muscle) one must consume at least 4g, up to 9g in some individuals of dietary leucine found within a protein meal, which means one must consume a meal a meal containing 30g to 50g protein, dependent on protein type (e.g. chicken, beef, lamb, fish etc etc).

Based on this figure Norton suggests a figure of somewhere closer to 2.5-3g per kilo of body weight (e.g. 100kg man between 250-300g of protein per day).