Protein intake to maximize muscle gain

How much and when to consume protein to maximize your muscle gains? We explain everything!

1) Total protein intake

It is essential, your daily protein intake should be at least 1.6 g/kg/day, this is a reference value to improve protein synthesis.

If you are an elderly or trained person aiming for maximum muscle growth, you should aim for the upper range of 2.2 g/kg/day or more.

2) Breakfast

It is true that during your first meal of the day, your ability to absorb protein is generally higher. We therefore recommend a protein intake of 30 grams (depending on your size).

Even if the difference was not huge. A study showed that a high-protein breakfast group gained more total lean mass and experienced a greater percentage change in strength than the low-protein breakfast group.

(30 grams of protein for the high-protein group)
(20 grams of protein for the low-protein group)

3) Distribution of protein intake throughout your day

Avoiding an unbalanced distribution of protein such as 0.1 g/kg, 0.4 g/kg, 0.6 g/kg, 0.5 g/kg per meal is crucial.

To determine your protein needs per meal, divide your total daily protein intake by the number of meals. For example, if your goal is 1.6 g/kg/day, you can aim for 0.4 g/kg per meal over four meals or 0.32 g/kg/meal over five meals.

For most individuals, 0.4 g/kg/meal is sufficient to optimize adaptations to resistance training. However, older or trained individuals might benefit from a slightly higher intake, around 0.5 to 0.6 g/kg/meal.

4) Anabolic window

True or false? You have certainly heard everything about the famous post-workout snack.

Answer: It depends! Are you training on an empty stomach? When was your last protein meal? How long did you train?

If you train on an empty stomach or have not had protein for more than 3 hours before your workout, it is recommended to have a high-protein snack or meal within an hour.

5) Protein before bed

We recommend having a high-protein snack before bed to maximize your protein synthesis during this long period without nutritional intake.

A study shows that protein ingestion before sleep increased myofibrillar protein synthesis by 28% and mitochondrial protein synthesis by 30%, compared to placebo.

There was no difference between whey or casein protein ingestion before sleep on the increase in myofibrillar and mitochondrial protein synthesis, even though whey induced higher plasma leucine levels.

Plasma amino acid levels were higher 60 to 90 minutes after whey protein ingestion compared to casein protein. In contrast, amino acid levels upon waking were higher after casein protein ingestion.