Why is the U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommended protein intake much lower than BBM's?

The recommended dietary protein intake per the U.S. dietary guidelines is 5.5oz-eq of protein foods per day, which is around 50g of protein. My understanding of BBM’s general recommendation for protein intake, with the goal of maximizing muscle gain, is 1.6-2.2 grams per kg. of bodyweight for people who are gaining or maintaining weight, or 2.0-3.1 grams per kg. of bodyweight for those looking to lose weight (with exceptions to these guidelines regarding someone who is particularly training resistant or exceptionally lean). Thus, BBM’s recommendations are significantly higher.

I understand that the audience of Barbell Medicine are those looking to gain muscle, and as such, higher protein intake compared to the general public (who are mostly not resistance training) is necessary. With that said, BBM has spoken elsewhere about the importance of sufficient protein intake with regards to things such as weight loss, satiety, and preventing sarcopenia–issues which have significant prevalence in the general public. The notion I have got from reading and listening to BBM is that the current recommendation of 50g of protein per day is too low to account for these issues.

Moreover, given that the U.S. dietary guidelines are published in tandem with the U.S. physical activity guidelines which recommends resistance training, wouldn’t the guidelines want to include a range of protein intake to account for individuals who are engaging in resistance training and thus require a higher protein intake? (Presumably, these individuals are looking to increase muscle mass)

As such, what evidence is the FDA looking at (or whoever makes the U.S. dietary guidelines) to arrive at the 50g of protein per day recommendations? Why is it not a range to account for things like physical activity, age, weight management goals, training sensitivity, etc? Why does it differ so drastically from the evidence you guys have looked at and the recommendations you’ve made?

You’d have to read the guidelines to see what evidence they’re using to support their recommendations, but they have historically not been as concerned with osteosarcopenia as we are.

We have discussed the evidence we use for this at length in our content, and ultimately comes down to very clear evidence of benefit for consumption in the ranges we discuss, with no clear evidence of harm.

It should be pointed out that this is not limited to “USDA vs. BBM” recommendations either; rather, it is an active area of discussion/criticism in the literature. Two quick examples (among many others):

Additionally, several disease-specific nutrition guidelines (e.g., those from ASPEN/ESPEN) recommend higher levels of protein intake (often in the range of 1.2-1.6 g/kg/d) for certain conditions like cirrhosis and cancer, so there is certainly attention to this issue on other fronts as well.

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