The MOST Important Factors in Building Muscle–Beyond Dietary Protein
Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast
Dr. Eric Berg
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2023
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Let’s talk about protein. We often think that increasing protein helps build muscle because muscle is made of protein.
But this doesn’t always work. Some people that eat more protein may even suffer from amino acid deficiency.
You need sufficient amounts of protein to build muscle, but, more importantly, you need sufficient amino acids.
The general thought is that you need .8 grams of protein per kilogram of lean body mass—not overall weight. This might look like around 50 grams of protein per day.
A moderate amount of protein would be between 1.2 and 1.7 grams per kilogram of lean body mass. High protein would be about 2 grams per kilogram of lean body mass.
It’s essential to focus on consuming quality protein from eggs, meat, fish, and dairy. It’s not ideal to rely on getting your protein from plant sources or protein powder to build healthy muscles.
Factors that influence the production of muscle protein:
1. Insulin resistance
What to do:
• Get on a low-carb diet (Healthy Keto®)
• Do intermittent fasting
2. Growth hormone
What to do:
• Intense exercise
• Get plenty of sleep
• Do intermittent fasting
3. Testosterone
What to do:
• Consume zinc (red meat, shellfish, seafood)
• Avoid refined carbs and sugar
• Lower your stress
• Avoid soy protein isolates, soy milk, beer, and alcohol
4. Stress
What to do:
• Take a look at my other videos on how to lower stress
5. The microbiome
What to do:
• Consume probiotic foods
6. Low stomach acid
What to do:
• Take betaine hydrochloride
7. Low enzymes in the pancreas or small intestine
What to do:
• Consume enzyme-rich foods
• Take an amino acid supplement
8. Lean protein
What to do:
• Consume fattier protein sources
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Many times we have this idea that we just need to increase more protein to build our muscles |
| 0:05.6 | because after all, muscles are made out of protein, right? But then when a lot of people do this, |
| 0:10.9 | it doesn't always work. So in fact, there's actually a paradox involved here. Some people |
| 0:16.3 | that eat more protein might even suffer from an individual amino acid deficiency. |
| 0:21.6 | So whether you're trying to prevent muscle loss as you're getting older, that's called sarcopenia, |
| 0:27.6 | or whether you're trying to increase more muscle, I want to talk about some other factors |
| 0:31.6 | that are not related directly to protein consumption, even though you do need sufficient protein consumption to build muscles. |
| 0:40.3 | But more than that, you need sufficient amount of amino acids. |
| 0:44.3 | Now, when you look up the minimum amount of protein you need, there's a lot of conflicting information out there. |
| 0:50.3 | But the general consensus is you need 0.8 grams per kilogram of lean body weight, |
| 0:59.2 | not your overall weight. So let's say for example you weigh like 400 pounds and you have |
| 1:04.0 | a lot of extra fat. It doesn't mean you should start massively increasing your protein. You |
| 1:08.5 | should calculate that based on your lean body mass. |
| 1:12.4 | So 0.8 grams per kilogram of lean body mass is kind of like on the low end. |
| 1:16.7 | That's like the minimum amount. |
| 1:18.6 | And that on average could be around 50 grams of protein per day. |
| 1:25.9 | Now, when I say protein, I'm talking about the protein in your food. For example, if you take a steak and you have like 100 grams of steak, right, the weight of it, that only has roughly about 26 grams of protein in that 100 gram steak. So it's the protein in the food, not the actual weight of the food. |
| 1:46.8 | Now a moderate amount of protein could be between like 1.2 and 1.7 grams per kilogram |
| 1:53.0 | of lean body weight. And then when we get into higher protein, that's roughly about like |
| 1:57.2 | 2 grams per kilogram of lean body weight. And a lot of weight lifters will do that amount and even a lot more too. |
| 2:04.4 | But I'm not going to get into whether you should do that or not do that. |
| 2:08.1 | I'm just kind of giving you some ideas on the ranges of how much protein you should have. |
... |
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