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Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 25, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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What’s the deal with protein dosage when you’re building muscle. Taking the broscience rule of thumb of 1g/lb means you’re eating your whole body’s worth of weight of protein in 1 1/3 of a year.

Obviously there is some efficiency curve, but what else is going on here?

Over 20 other studies have consistently failed to find any benefits of more than 1.6g/kg/d of protein. [. . .] This recommendation often includes a double 95% confidence level, meaning they took the highest mean intake at which benefits were still observed and then added two standard deviations to that level to make absolutely sure all possible benefits from additional protein intake are utilized.

The myth of 1 g/lb: Optimal protein intake for bodybuilders

Protein is used for the maintenance of existing tissue, but it can also be used for energy. The point is not that all the protein you eat is going to be turned into muscle, but that having a lot of protein available encourages your body to turn it into muscle.

100 grams of high quality animal protein is probably enough, with rapidly diminishing returns above that

Not all protein is equally bioavailable, not all protein actually gets digested, and there is a tonne of other processes in your body that uses protein, you want to publicize a value to work even under the worst case scenarios.

And finally.. Your model is weird. You eat your bodyweight in carbs in probably less than a year.... Are you strictly made out of carbohydrates?

You constantly shed protein via skin and intestinal lining sloughing off their outermost layers. That's why you don't gain 75% of your starting weight in muscle in a year when you start eating 2g/kg protein.