One big misconception many people have when they switch over to a fat loss diet is how much protein needs to be consumed. Usually individuals get the impression that you should be taking in more protein when trying to build muscle since they think that more protein will enhance the muscle building process.
It doesn’t quite work this way, however.
Protein Intake For Muscle Building
When it comes to building new muscle tissue, all you essentially need is enough protein to meet your daily needs. This is often around 1 gram per pound of body weight.
Anything over and above this value is then just going to be used for energy or converted into body fat depending on how many calories you are taking in total.
Taking in additional protein then is not going to improve the rate you synthesize new muscle tissue, provided your needs are already being met.
Protein Intake and Fat Loss
Moving over to the fat loss side of things, this is where factors change.
It is a smart idea when on a weight loss diet to increase protein intake over and above that for maintenance due to the fact that you’re not eating enough calories to maintain body weight (thus causing weight loss to take place – what’s known as a hypocalorie diet).
The reason behind this is due to the fact that because you are taking in less energy, your body could start turning towards your muscle cells for energy, thus causing muscle breakdown.
When this happens you will begin to lose muscle mass tissue, which causes a slowing of the metabolic rate and further weight loss becomes more difficult.
Therefore, to prevent the loss of lean muscle mass, you should be eating an elevated intake of protein, somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 grams per pound of body weight, assuming you are taking part in an exercise program.
This will help to ensure that if your body does start to use incoming protein for fuel, it will still have enough protein left over to repair the muscle tissues and maintain them.
So, if you’re trying to lose weight and are worried about muscle mass loss, it’s in your best interest to increase your protein intake.
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