Why do some people gain muscle in low protein diets?
I myself try to strive for 200 grams of protein a day, while weighing 208 pounds and being in very good shape.
I have several friends, 1 vegan, 1 not, who average anywhere from 130 grams a day to 200 grams a day, depending on a big cheat meal here or there. Their protein intake is highly inaccurate, but both men, who are 40 plus, are strong and dense in muscle mass.
Their diets are not bad mind you, but their protein is well below what one would think is needed for building muscle mass.
Can someone explain this? Do some people not need as much? If so, how do I find out?
I think we have overblown the need for insane amounts of protein, yes it you are an Olympic athlete or professional athlete your calories and protein need to be insane. Even if you are in really good shape and work out an hour 5 times a day, In less you are body building you don’t need 200 grams of protein to build muscle
Stronger by Science covered this a while back.
Tl;dr: 1.2g/kg is about the lower bound of what they’d recommend for hypertrophy. More might be slightly better, but probably not by a whole lot. Training is much more important.
1.2g/kg is ~108g for a 200 lbs person. 130g is probably just fine.
All of this depends on genetics and also how reliable what they’re telling you is the truth is actually the truth. Are they really eating low amounts of protein or are they actually hitting burgers and other shit? Are they natural or are they hitting the TRT or anabolics?
Gaining mass is more about total calories than macros. Some body builders would argue 1/2 gram per pound of goal body weight is more than enough to support maintenance + surplus for growth, as long as one is eating enough other stuff to make up for it.
Your body can only absorb so much protein (depending on the size and gender of a person) the rest gets turned into sugar. Most big men probably only absorb 100 grams at most. If you want to gain more muscle mass the first step is to lift weights second is to improve insulin sensitivity and the third is to EAT MORE! Your body won’t keep muscle if you’re not giving it the necessary fuel to power those muscles.