Anyone understand how to calculate the protein you need to build muscle

[Giggsie]

I have been dieting and working out with weights. I’ve nearly hit my target weight but not really built visible muscle. I thought I was eating high protein but I’ve just seen an article that says eat 2g protein for ever kg you weigh. That’s a lot of protein!!! How on earth do you eat that much without eating too many calories?

for info I’ve been sticking to 1700 calories on this diet. I tend to eat two poached eggs for breakfast with half an avocado and a sliced tomato. Salmon sushi for lunch and a miso soup. Either chicken breast or salmon steak and salad for dinner. Berries or edamame beans for snacks. I’m averaging 70g protein a day but I am 5foot 10 inches and weigh 68kg so I should be nearly doubling my protein intake. How??? If I ate four eggs, two trays of sushi and two chicken breasts a day that would be hard to digest and above my calorie allowance.

Have you been working out with heavy enough weights? To get visible muscle is extremely hard as a woman, and you need to be using much heavier weights than women normally use.

For example. There’s another thread on here with a woman using 3kg weights to build muscle. That will do absolutely nothing.

Eating lots of protein won’t make you build muscle. Lifting heavy weights will, and having very little body fat will make them visible.
Unless you are an elite athlete then 2g of protein per kg of body weight is not necessary. The additional calories will just be stored as fat.

Have a listen to the ‘What’s up Docs?’ podcast about protein on bbc sounds.

My gym has a series of weight machines you log into and they regular strength tests you and up your weights if you can lift any more than before. On each machine the weight I am set to is heavy enough that 3x sets of 15 is really, really hard by the third set.

I go tot the gym 4 times a week and do 15 mins on the bike at high resistance high speed and then do 30 mins weights. On Sundays I swim 1.5km front crawl in a local lake on top of the 4 times a week gym.

I’ve done this for 3 months exactly wothout fail, and the diet for the same period, before that it was a little hit and miss but I tried to do similar. In 3 months I’ve lost 4kg and I feel I have loads more stamina but not more muscle.

I should add I’m 50.

You have more stamina because you are doing a lot of cardio! You could try increasing your weights but reducing the reps to build muscle - 8 to 10 reps per set. But as a pp said, it is hard for women to build muscle and get much definition, and it gets harder once you get into menopause. You do need to eat enough so that you have the resources to build muscle (look up ‘bulking’) but it doesn’t need to be all protein.

If you look at pictures of top women athletes they rarely look muscled in the same way that men do, even though they are really strong.

It’s a bummer that you can put in loads of work but have very little to show for it!

The most common reason why it seems like you haven’t built muscle is just that you can’t see it. This is especially true on the abdomen. Our muscles are obscured fat.

It depends why you want to develop muscle. If it’s because you want them to be visible then you are going to have to lose a lot of weight at the same time as weight training. This is hard! If it’s because you want to become stronger and support your joints then just trust the process and stop trying to find muscles in the mirror!

A study I saw said between 1.2 - 1.6g per kilo is sufficient for most people. Your reps and sets are hypertrophic so you will be able to achieve visible muscle but the reality is for most women it does take a long time to see visible difference.

I eat 1550 a day on a deficit and manage 100-120g protein. Usual days food is something like
b - overnight oats made with Skyr and 20g protein powder
l- eggs x 2 and 100g egg whites scrambled with sourdough
D - some kind of chicken or fish dish, lots of veg and either rice/new pots

snack - Greek yoghurt bowl with berries
or maybe a protein smoothie

on average I hit 120g of protein.

I find building muscle really hard despite lifting heavy. It’s even harder if you’re in a calorie deficit. After going to the gym for a year I have visible muscle on arms, shoulders and back but nothing on lower body. I suspect I would have to eat at a slight surplus plus loose more bf for any to become visible on the bottom half.

So have now researched what hypertrophic means and that is helpful.

I hadn’t thought of adding egg white to normal eggs to increase protein without too much fat. Also v helpful.

there is so much to learn for someone whose never thought about muscles building on nutrition before.

i don’t want to look super muscly but i want to be stronger and look stronger and have a much firmer body. I had spinal surgery a few years ago and have struggled with strength and stamina since that injury meant I barely moved for most of one year. My main goal is to be strong and protect from injuries.

It’s not the protein you eat that builds muscles it’s the exercise you do

and most people other than Olympic athletes will eat enough protein to cope with an hour a day weight training

you probably need to work harder not change what you eat

if you are dieting it’s extra hard to build muscle because muscle is calorie expensive and I think that’s why body builders tend not to diet during the build phase - they will aim to maintain only during a diet stage ( which they do so that the muscles can be shown to best advantage)

Oh and when counting protein - count it all - it’s amazing how the few grams in your normal food adds up - mushrooms, milk , peas and beans, spinach, onions - that could give you 20-30g

Drinking bone broth is a good way to up protein without adding fat and carbs. I aim for 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fat. I eat 1500 cals a day. That’s around 150g protein. You could try a protein shake and 2x cups of bone broth on top of what you’re having

I agree with pp that it is really hard to build enough muscle to look shredded. The female instructors that lead the kettlebell and pump classes at my gym are tiny women without noticeable muscle definition even though they’re super strong and lifting heavy weights with lots of reps, multiple times a week.

I’ve been weight training regularly for over a year now and my arms and legs feel firmer but you probably wouldn’t tell it to look at me.

It takes a long time to build muscle, and menopause can make it harder. 3 months isn't long. Do you have a proper program with progession on the weights? ChatGPT is pretty helpful for this kind of thing.

Lidl and Aldi have some great high protein ranges at the moment - yoghurt drinks which are 60kcal for 8g protein and some really tasty puddings for 160kcal and 20g protein. You could also look at adding in a whey protein powder shake - you can get a good 30g protein for less than 200kcal

3 months isn't long and 70g protein isn't enough. Just stick it up to 100g. I do the egg white thing to 1 yolk. But I use protein powder with powdered collagen to bump it up.

It took me a few years before I was happy with my muscle gains though. We're not men with their steady man hormones. We don't have the right type of hormones for quick gains.

5ft 10 and 1700 calories isn't enough to build muscle sorry. That is more of a fat loss or recomp calorie intake.

For reference I'm 5.6 and I weighed 9st 3 and I was eating 1950 - 2100 calories a day to gain muscle. I gained 9lbs in weight. I then did a calorie deficit of 1850 calories and lost 5lbs.

My body fat % Was 29% at the start and 22% at the end. So the additional 4lbs I gained was muscle.

The whole process took 5 months : 12 weeks to bulk and 10 weeks to cut. I did it with a personal trainer. 3 full body weights sessions a week and 10k steps a day. Some cardio but was a bit crap at that.

I highly recommend it as it changed my body composition.

It was not for the faint hearted though - watching the scales deliberately go up was hard! And the cut was hard too.

But eating in a calorie surplus was highly enjoyable lol.

I was 42 then and am now 45.

It’s hard to build significant muscle in a calorie deficit once you get beyond beginner’s gains. It could be well worth your while paying for a few sessions with a PT who can advise on nutrition with a specific focus on body recomposition.

Op if you are already in the routine I highly recommend giving a PT a go.

I was like you- had got in the routine then saw a free PT session and thought what the heck.. First session they had me lifting more than I thought I could do!

Over 5 months I got to about 60kg back squats and 200kg on the leg press.

I was doing 40% carb, 30% fat, 30% protein . That level of protein is hard at 1900 cals but I managed it with meat/fish, 2 eggs a day, 120g cottage cheese every day, lots of yoghurt, and about 15g unflavoured pea isolate powder (not my favourite thing but was just protein fluff so that I didn't put on too much body fat when I was bulking).

I went down a real rabbit hole once trying to find the actual evidence for this 2g per kilo protein requirement, because it seemed insane to me. Long story short, there isn't any. It's probably being pushed by the makers of protein powder, and is now all over the bloody internet thanks to bloggers mindlessly repeating it.

As you've realised, it would be extremely difficult, expensive (and unpleasant) to eat that much protein from natural sources. You can only really do it through supplementation.

I manage to build muscle without protein shakes, or eating a dozen eggs a day. There is so much fitness bollocks out there.

Body recomp is way harder than cut and bulk. Lose the weight and then think about increasing the muscle size to make them more visible.
You might have to change how you lift, maybe go for 6 sets of 12 reps with a 2 min rest between sets. It mustn't feel hard at the end, it must feel impossible.

Also, given your age, don't go crazy on animal proteins and saturated fats. Add some plant proteins, and no I don't mean powders. Tofu, legumes, quinoa. A ripped body is pretty, but not with a broken heart or brain. And you can absolutely get ripped without going crazy on proteins.

Here you have a protein calculator.
https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/

120g-150g protein for me would something like :

overnight oats and Greek yoghurt and nuts and protein powder

2 eggs (1 being egg white only) and cottage cheese on seeded sourdough

Tuna and lentil salad more cottage cheese

Yoghurt snack (Greek 10% protein)

Chicken wrapped in parma ham , new pots and veg

For extra protein, chuck prawns on things - they go with most things.
Or adding smoked salmon to eggs.

Having a second breakfast for me is the way to go , otherwise I'd struggle as I just don't eat huge portions per meal.

Agree - I'd be careful of relying on any protein shakes, they aren't meals.

I actually ended up with folate deficiency once because I'd been eating protein bars as lunches years ago, that felt fucking awful.----

I aim for 100g per day I usually get around 75 in food and I have a protein shake to make up the rest.

I don’t know will this help but 1 tin tuna is 28 g protein, 1 chicken fillet is 28g & 3 large scram eggs is also 28 g protein.. Greek yogurt not natural with mixed seeds is good source of protein also . These are the foods I eat every day really, especially days I’m in the gym ..
You should only lift heavy weights tops 3 days , I was doing when I joined first, everyday & went backwards ! .
Muscles growth only happens with adequate rest .. Don’t know if any of that is helpful, just sharing what I do & come to learn ..