Research
Macro partitioning
High protein intake (1.7–2.3 g/kg/day) improves lean body mass retention during low-energy diets, but evidence for its benefit during very-low-energy diets (VLEDs) is conflicting.
Eat more protein (around 1.7-2.3g per kg of body weight) if you are on a low-calorie diet to help keep your muscle. However, if you are on a very strict very-low-calorie diet, extra protein might not help as much as you hope, and results vary. Check with your doctor if you have kidney issues.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
an increase of dietary protein to between 1.7–2.3 g/kg/day has been shown to result in improvements in LBM retention... The current evidence concerning the effects of additional protein supplementation in the context of VLED has to date yielded conflicting results.
Why this rating
Narrative review highlighting discordant outcomes in literature.
Source
The Effects of Very Low Energy Diets and Low Energy Diets with Exercise Training on Skeletal Muscle Mass: A Narrative Review
Arash Ardavani et al. · Advances in Therapy · 2020
DOI 10.1007/s12325-020-01562-0
narrative_reviewCited 27×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
Related findings · Macro partitioning
- Total daily protein intake of 1.6 g/kg/day is sufficient for maximizing resistance training-induced muscle gains, with an upper confidence interval of 2.2 g/kg/day.Strong
- Resistance exercise training combined with sufficient dietary protein intake acts synergistically to maximize skeletal muscle hypertrophy, with protein intake saturating around 1.6 g/kg/day for general populations and potentially requiring 2.0-2.2 g/kg/day for resistance-trained individuals.Strong
- Trans fats should be completely eliminated from the diet, as they increase LDL cholesterol, decrease HDL cholesterol, and are directly associated with increased coronary risk.Strong
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