BRAND NEW Study on How Much Protein During Fat Loss to Maintain Muscle: Dr. Martin Refalo
Optimal Protein Podcast with Vanessa Spina
Vanessa Spina
4.5 • 758 Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2025
⏱️ 77 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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In this episode of The Optimal Protein Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Martin Refalo to discuss his brand-new study:
Effect of Dietary Protein on Fat-Free Mass in Energy-Restricted, Resistance-Trained Individuals: An Updated Systematic Review With Meta-Regression (Refalo, Trexler, & Helms, 2025).
This research provides an updated analysis of how dietary protein intake impacts muscle retention during fat loss in resistance-trained individuals. If you’ve ever wondered how much protein you really need while cutting to preserve muscle mass, this episode is for you!
What We Cover in This Episode:
-What does the latest meta-regression reveal about protein intake and fat-free mass during caloric restriction?
-How does protein intake affect lean muscle retention across different levels of caloric deficits?
-Does going above the commonly recommended 1.6 g/kg improve muscle retention?
-What are the potential upper limits of protein intake for maximizing muscle preservation?
-How does resistance training influence protein requirements during a diet?
-Differences between male and female subjects—should women aim for different targets?
-Practical recommendations for athletes, bodybuilders, and general fitness enthusiasts looking to optimize fat loss while keeping their muscle gains.
Dr. Refalo, along with co-authors Dr. Eric Trexler and Dr. Eric Helms, has compiled the most up-to-date evidence to help you make data-driven decisions about your diet and training.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Optimal Protein Podcast. I'm Vanessa Spina. |
| 0:05.5 | Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Vanessa. And I am so excited to be |
| 0:10.8 | here today. We have Dr. Martin Refalo joining us today. He just published a brand new study |
| 0:17.1 | on protein intakes during fat loss phases, a topic that I cannot talk about enough |
| 0:23.7 | on this podcast, as many of you know. |
| 0:25.9 | He really has some cutting edge research not only on this topic, but other areas of interest. |
| 0:32.4 | And we talk about why you potentially should be eating even more protein than you previously |
| 0:37.4 | thought. |
| 0:37.8 | So his research really lines up with my practical application to eating protein and finding |
| 0:44.7 | optimal protein intakes for every person, whether it's an average individual, an athlete. |
| 0:50.6 | We also talk about older adults and how much protein they should be eating. We also talk |
| 0:55.3 | about his research on gender differences in muscle building and as well the best way to build |
| 1:02.0 | muscle. He recently released a paper that I did a whole podcast episode on on the best ways to build |
| 1:07.9 | muscle and whether that is going all the way to failure or close |
| 1:11.7 | to failure with one or two reps in reserve. And it was so exciting to get to speak to Dr. |
| 1:17.1 | Raffalo about all of his new and latest research. So he has a PhD and exercise science. This |
| 1:24.1 | is definitely an area that he is very passionate about. He's also a fitness coach and |
| 1:28.6 | educator. And we talk about so many my favorite topics in the episode today, including |
| 1:33.4 | meal distribution, protein timing, and intake, and so much more. So I know you'll get a ton |
| 1:40.2 | of great evidence-based takeaways and practical applications from this episode. As always, |
| 1:45.5 | I would love to hear any of them. You can share them in our podcast group, which is the |
| 1:49.4 | optimal protein podcast on Facebook or tag us in your stories or posts on social media. |
... |
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