Research
Macro partitioning
Increasing protein intake beyond ~1.8 g/kg/d does not provide additional muscle mass benefits in bodybuilders if total energy intake is already high.
Don't obsess over hitting extremely high protein numbers (like 2.0+ g/kg) if you are already eating enough (around 1.8 g/kg). Focus on your total calories and training intensity instead, as extra protein won't help if your energy balance isn't optimized.
LimitedRefutesLOW confidence
results revealed that the G1 which ingested 1.8 g/kg/d achieved a greater increase in muscle mass than the G2 consuming 2.0 g/kg/d. This finding would seem to indicate that once adequate daily needs have been achieved... additional increases do not contribute to greater hypertrophy and non-protein kcal may be a key factor for building muscle.
Why this rating
Small sample size and narrow protein variance make this a secondary observation.
Source
Effects of Different Dietary Energy Intake Following Resistance Training on Muscle Mass and Body Fat in Bodybuilders: A Pilot Study
Alex S. Ribeiro et al. · Journal of Human Kinetics · 2019
DOI 10.2478/hukin-2019-0038
rct · n=11Cited 16×
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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