Protein Intake and Long-Term Hypertrophy

[ColorLock]

So I've seen around here and some other places that around 1.6g-2.0g/kg of protein daily for most people would be sufficient protein to maximize muscle gains. If you ate less protein, assuming it is not too low, obviously you could still build muscle, although it may be a bit less, right? So could it be that over a long enough period of time, you would eventually "catch up" as everyone reaches their peak, but it would just take you longer to get there? Like you build less muscle during the same period of time, but then you could just keep building a smaller amount of muscle year after year until you caught up, or would you be limited significantly before your peak because you simply need more protein to go beyond a certain FFM for your body? Like once you get to a certain weight and muscle mass, you need more protein to gain more muscle mass even though you are only adding 1 more pound, but maybe because it is a pound above a certain weight, your body needs more or something?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

CL,

Thanks for the post.

I don't think if someone is eating ~1.4g/kg/day of protein they're likely to gain less muscle than someone eating 2.0g/kg/day. If you're < 1g/kg/day, you are likely to build less (or no) muscle and never catch up to someone eating more. If it's much lower than 1g/kg/day, you may lose muscle even if in a Calorie surplus.

Additionally, people don't need more protein per kilogram bodyweight as they gain more muscle.

-Jordan