Macro partitioning
Increasing total protein intake from 0.5 to 3.5 g/kg body weight per day increases lean body mass in a dose-response manner, with the greatest efficiency observed below 1.3 g/kg/day.
To maximize muscle mass, increase your daily protein intake to between 0.5 and 3.5 grams per kilogram of body weight. You will see the biggest gains per gram of protein when you are below 1.3 g/kg. If you are already eating above 1.3 g/kg, adding more protein still helps, but the returns get smaller unless you are also doing resistance training. Aim for this intake consistently over several months.
Our findings suggest that slightly increasing current protein intake for several months by 0.1 g/kg BW/day may increase or maintain LBM in a dose-response manner from 0.5 to 3.5 g/kg BW/day.
Why this rating
Large-scale meta-analysis of 105 RCTs (5402 subjects), though heterogeneity was high (I2=72%).
Source
Dose-response relationship between protein intake and muscle mass increase: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Ryoichi Tagawa et al. · medRxiv · 2020
DOI 10.1101/2020.02.21.20026252
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