Do you expect your muscles to grow

bigger and bigger by shoveling high

protein into your body?

But what if eating more protein isn't

just unnecessary, but actually makes it

harder to grow? Today, I'll walk you

through the new research that challenges

everything we thought we knew and reveal

the two things that actually build more

muscle than protein. But how did protein

become known as the most important

nutrient in the first place?

>> I mean, there was some diets, I'm not

going to lie, ate 140 egg whites a day.

People think it's crazy that I've eaten

200 g of protein for almost 20 straight

years. When you lift weights, you

trigger muscle protein synthesis, a

molecular message to your muscles that

says build. But building muscle is just

like building a brick house. Without

bricks, nothing gets built. Protein is

those bricks. Eat enough of it and

you've got the raw materials to actually

turn that growth signal into new muscle.

But when gym bros learned this, they

didn't just want to build houses. They

wanted mansions. Back in the golden era,

it wasn't uncommon for bodybuilders to

eat over 300 grams of protein per day, a

dozen eggs in one sitting, and pounds of

chicken breast. Fast forward to today,

and you'll still find listers chasing

200 plus g of protein per day, or

following the 1 g per pound of body

weight rule like it's gospel. I know I

did. I used to believe that if I didn't

hit my daily protein target, I was

leaving tons of gains on the table. But

it wasn't just bodybuilders. The food

industry realized that they could cash

in on this obsession. Suddenly, you've

got protein cereal, protein chips,

protein cookies, even Starbucks lattes

with extra protein. Most of it is just

cheap protein sprinkled in. But because

they can slap high protein on the label,

they charge you 20% more, and people

will happily pay for it. But here is

where things get really interesting.

Recently, a group of top protein

researchers were curious about just how

much extra muscle you build by eating

more protein. So, they got together and

they gathered every long-term growth

study they could find, 62 in total,

where participants lifted weights but

ate different amounts of protein. Then

they plotted all those results on a

graph. Protein intake on the bottom,

muscle growth on the side. The results

were not what they were expecting. In

one study, participants ate what most

lifters would call low protein. So 0.45

grams per pound of body weight. For

someone who weighs 180 pounds, that's

just 82 grams of protein a day.

Basically, two chicken breasts. This

mark in the y-axis represents how much

growth they got. Now, what happens if

you take a similar group of lifters, but

you feed them double that? Four chicken

breasts per day. Using gym bro math,

that should mean at least double the

gains, right? Surprisingly, the growth

was pretty much identical. H. But now,

let's really push it. 270 grams per day.

That's six chicken breasts. Well,

despite participants in this study

eating three times more protein, they

actually gained less muscle. But I know

what you're thinking, Jeremy. You can't

just cherrypick studies and call it a

day. And you're right. So, let's widen

the lens a bit. Here are all the studies

in the analysis that looked at moderate

to high protein intakes with just two

outliers removed because it reported way

larger than normal gains. Now, if eating

more protein really has a powerful

effect on growth, you'd expect these

dots to climb up and to the right. The

trend is basically flat. And so, what

that means is the anticipated benefit of

pushing your protein even higher is

very, very small. and and frankly so

small that many researchers aren't even

confident that a benefit exists at all.

That's Dr. Eric Trexler, a published

researcher at Duke University who spent

his career studying muscle growth. If

you're building a house and you have

more bricks than the blueprint calls

for, that doesn't mean you end up with a

bigger house. Basically, you just end up

with a bunch of leftover bricks and

eventually you're going to have to haul

them away from the construction site.

So, when you're building a house, that's

tedious. It's a waste of time. But

graphs are one thing. Let's say you

somehow managed to convince a pro

bodybuilder to not just cut his protein

intake in half, but to stop eating meat,

eggs, and fish, getting all of his

protein only from plant-based sources.

Surely, he would shrivel up and lose all

his gains, right? Well, that's exactly

what pro-natural bodybuilder Alex

Leonitis did 2 and 1/2 years ago. Alex

used to eat 200 g of protein every

single day. Now, he eats as low as 90 g

per day. And all of it comes from

plant-based sources. I've noticed

absolutely nothing. Recovery is exactly

the same. Progressive overload is the

same as it's been for many years. I

would consider myself a an elite natural

lifter. I've been documenting all my

training since 2020. I have SD cards

filled to the max. My gains have not

been affected whatsoever. I've tried up

to 220 g, including being at single

digit body fat. Comparing that to 120,

which is 100 g less, I'm just as strong

as I've ever been. 405 bench at 181.

>> So, if you're wondering how far a person

can possibly get with a low protein

diet, Alex is living proof that the

answer is pretty damn far.

>> I just feel like people need to focus

more on their health instead of just one

sole macronutrient, protein. And I'm not

the first person to report this. I don't

know if you if you've looked at Brian

Bournestein and a couple other guys, but

it's a common thing that they're now

dropping their levels to around the zone

that I'm talking about. And that's been

surprising to me, too, because now I'm

I'm saving money and I don't have to

stress about it as much. But now, you're

probably wondering, if protein doesn't

matter as much as we thought, then what

does? Well, let's take a look at a few

clues. In one study, researchers had one

group of people double their protein

intake to about 140 gram a day, while

another group stayed at 70. The catch,

neither group trained. And after 8

weeks, guess what happened? Nothing. No

muscle, no strength, no gains, just more

expensive pee. On the flip side, another

study looked at patients with kidney

issues who were forced into extremely

low protein diets, less than 50 g a day.

Now, you'd expect that would completely

shut down muscle growth. But when half

of them started lifting weights, even on

that tiny amount of protein, their

muscles still got over 20% bigger and

30% stronger. But what about your diet?

What if I told you eating this bowl of

rice could get you the same muscle

growth as eating all this extra protein?

Well, in one experiment, researchers

split lifters into three groups. All of

them followed the same lifting program.

Group A got nothing extra, just their

normal diet. Group B added a 2,000

calorie shake made mostly of carbs, and

group C added a similar 2,000 calorie

shake, but with 82 g of protein mixed

into it. After the 8 weeks, both shake

groups gained significantly more weight

and muscle than the control group who

didn't get extra calories. But here's

the kicker. the carb group experienced

similar gains as the extra protein

group, suggesting it was the extra

calories, not the protein driving the

gains. And we see the same thing in the

opposite direction. In fat loss studies,

people who train hard and eat plenty of

protein can still build muscle if

they're at maintenance calories or in

just a very small deficit. But once that

deficit gets too steep, around 500 to

700 calories per day, most people start

losing muscle even with a high protein

diet.

So you put all these studies together

and the most important drivers of growth

becomes quite obvious. Number one, hard

training. Number two, eating enough

calories to fuel your training and

recovery. And unless you're severely

restricting it, protein actually comes

in for support. And number three, in

fact, there's even some cases where

protein can actually start hurting your

growth rather than helping it. For one,

protein is arguably the most filling

food you can eat, and it also burns the

most calories to digest. If you struggle

to gain weight, this can make it harder

to eat enough to grow. Not to mention

the GI discomfort and flatulence that

can come from higher protein diets.

You're not going to like it and neither

will the people around you. Second, it's

expensive. Let's say your body only

needs about 100 g of protein a day, but

you decide to push it up to 200. That

extra 100 g isn't giving you any

additional muscle. Your body just burns

it for energy. Now, if that extra

protein is coming from chicken, that's

about $5 added to your grocery bill

every single day. But if you replace

those calories with carbs, like

potatoes, you get the same amount of

energy for less than a dollar. That's a

difference of around $120 a month or

nearly $1,500 a year. And third, when

protein takes up too many of your

calories, it pushes out carbs and fats.

Too low fat can mess your hormones,

whereas too low carbs drains your

glycogen, tanking your workout

performance. Now, I'll share exactly how

much protein I'm currently eating and

the ranges I'd recommend at the end of

this video. But just because protein is

overhyped, it doesn't mean it's useless.

There's actually three situations where

protein has major benefits. First,

although you can still build muscle

without very much protein, the analysis

that I showed you earlier, it does

suggest a meaningful bump in gains when

you go from very low protein intakes up

to moderate ones. In fact, Alex

mentioned that once he starts going

below 90 g of protein per day, his

muscle recovery becomes noticeably

slower. This threshold is right around

0.55 g per pound of body weight. So, if

you take the number of grams of protein

you eat in a day and you divide it by

your body weight in pounds and the

number that you get is below 0.55,

you'll almost certainly see more growth

by eating more protein. The second

scenario is when you're dieting. We

often talk about how protein can

backfire because, you know, it has such

a satiating effect. It can reduce

appetite, but that becomes really a big

game changer when we're dieting down,

right? So, being able to attenuate

hunger and increase fullness on a high

protein diet becomes really helpful when

we're trying to lose weight and restrict

calories. Now, if you're over 15% body

fat, you know, you've got plenty of

stored energy, so you don't have to

worry too much about cutting into muscle

as you're losing weight. Um, but once

you start to get below 15% body fat,

protein becomes extra important. We

recently published a meta analysis

specifically on lean dieting people and

found that their protein needs tend to

be a lot higher than we would typically

see in people who are either not dieting

or not quite as lean. And the third

scenario is adherence. Some people just

enjoy eating protein. I'm Filipino and

for me, rice without some kind of

protein on the plate, it just feels

incomplete. And that's also why I still

use protein powder. I even sell my own

brand. And while this video probably

isn't the best marketing for it, I still

use it almost every day. Not because

it's magic, but because it's a quick,

tasty, and versatile way for me to get

30 g of protein in just a single scoop.

But let's get to what you're actually

waiting for. How much protein should you

actually eat? So, for the majority of

lifters, eating 0.55 to 0.63 g per pound

of body weight will already be close to

maximizing your gains. For a 160 pound

person, that would be around 88 to 100

grams of protein per day. And remember,

protein sneaks into your diet in more

ways than just shakes and chicken

breast. Bread, beans, peanut butter. It

all adds up. I even scanned a simple

meal with my app. Just a protein shake

and two slices of peanut butter toast.

And that's already 50 g of protein. So,

hitting your protein target could be as

simple as adding one protein shake to

your day. Now, if you do want a little

extra insurance, you can go slightly

higher to about 0.64 to 0.72 g per

pound. Think of this zone as very likely

maximizing your gains. But if you're

dieting and you're below 15% body fat,

or let's just say you're somebody who

wants the reassurance that you are

definitely maximizing your gains, then

you can bump this up to 0.73 to 1 g per

pound of body weight. As for what I'm

currently doing, I used to sit at well

over 1 gram per pound of body weight per

day because I just thought it was

necessary. These days, I'm actually

closer to 0.73, right at the lower end

of this maximized range, and I noticed

no differences in my gains. If anything,

shifting some of those calories towards

carbs instead has made my training as

well as my digestion feel a whole lot

better. Plus, I used to panic about

protein whenever I'd travel. Now, I know

that even just one protein shake and a

high protein dinner, that's pretty much

covering my bases. So, next time before

you buy those overpriced protein snacks,

maybe buy a calculator to figure out how

much protein you actually need first. Or

you can just use my Built with Science

Plus app. It shows you exactly how much

protein you need and the right workouts

to combine it with. Plus, it adjusts

your plan based on how your body is

actually responding. You can try it for

two weeks completely free by scanning

this QR code or heading to

builtwithscience.com.

But since your training is what really

drives growth, highly recommend you

check out this video next where I break

down the only two exercises you need for

a wider back. Thank you so much for

watching. I'll see you next