Protein Requirements for Each Fitness Goal

There are going to be times for some of you where the goals that you’re striving for may change. For example: initially you may be set on seeing great fat loss success from your diet and workout plan, but over time that may change to where you become more focused on building lean muscle mass.

Or, maybe you don’t even have any body weight changes you want to make, but rather you want to promote overall good performance and health.

Whatever the case happens to be, it’s important to understand how your protein requirements will change as you go about your goals so that you can structure your diet properly for success.

Let’s go over what you need to know.

Protein For Fat Loss

Let's address the most popular goal first: fat loss. If you want to shed the excess fat from your body, your protein needs will actually be higher. Logic may have you thinking that your protein intake would come down since you want to consume fewer calories. But, really, the opposite is true.

Why do you want to eat MORE protein while striving for fat loss? Because, if your diet is structured properly for your goal, your carbohydrate and/or fat intake will be on the lower side. That means that protein will undoubtedly be used for some energy purposes. Taking in a higher protein intake will ensure that there will still be plenty available to maintain your lean muscle mass.

This is absolutely critical if you hope to maintain a higher metabolic rate over the long term.

Protein For Muscle Building

If you’re someone who is seeking to maximize your muscle building, you may not need as much protein as you would for fat loss.

The body can only build so much muscle each day, so once your protein requirements are met, any additional protein taken in over and beyond this really isn’t all that helpful. You’d be better off putting the calories towards a higher intake of properly timed quality carbs and/or healthy fats.

.75 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight is more than sufficient in most cases.

Protein For Performance

Finally, if you’re looking to achieve maximum performance with your workout or sport, you want to be somewhere in the middle ground.

You won’t need as much protein as you do when you’re striving for fat loss since you’ll be eating more calories overall, but you do still need plenty of protein so that you are always in a fully recovered state.

Aim for around 1 to 1.25 grams per pound a day and you shouldn’t have any problem seeing success.

(Note: Does this sound like a high amount of protein? Do you think it's problematic or unhealthy? It shouldn't. I covered the subject of "Protein Controversies" in this very blog on the Brookfield Patch. If you need a refresher, go check it out)

With all of this, you'll also want to make sure that you are taking in high quality sources of protein such as chicken, fish, lean red meat, low fat dairy products, and egg whites/eggs so that you are feeding your body all the amino acids that it needs.

Keeping these tips in mind will ensure that you stay on top of your protein requirements all throughout the course of your diet plan. If you like tips like this, you can get more just like it over at my website: jimcipriani.com