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Proteins are made of amino acids. When you eat proteins, your gut breaks them into individual, pairs, and trios of amino acids before they enter your bloodstream. Once in your bloodstream, amino acids are taken up by your organs and muscles for repair and recovery. Next to water, muscles are primarily protein. Weight lifting damages your muscles and fosters a hormonal response that favors muscle growth. In consequence, your muscles need an ample supply of amino acids for two reasons: 1. To repair and replace damaged proteins. 2. To build new ones and fuel muscle growth.

As we mentioned before, weight lifting causes reaction due to hormones that lead to muscle growth. In simpler terms, when you train, your body enters a mode to prepare for building muscle. This mode is called anabolism, an anabolic state.
However, researchers have discovered that you don’t enter this muscle building anabolic state until you eat. That is, if you lift weights and don’t eat, you’re not building muscle. If fact, you’re actually losing muscle, since weigh-lifting sessions damaged your muscles.Muscles don’t grow when you train them, they grow in recovery between session, as they feed on protein and energy.

I thought I knew the answer to that question after I did a 100-hour review of the scientific literature on this topic during my bachelor in exercise sciences. Everything I read afterward on protein intake seemed kindergarten-level, until the day Lyle McDonald published The Protein Book. I preordered my copy, and was overrun by the quality of the information Lyle distilled. Not only did he refer to studies I wasn’t aware of, but his synthesis was crystal-clear and he pointed to practical applications I hadn’t heard about. Props to him.

After reading this book, the short answer for the perfect amount of protein is 1.2 grams per pound of body weight. For example, an 150 pound person should eat 180 grams of protein to maximize muscle growth.

Try this:
Take a calculator and find the amount of protein you need per day by multiplying your weight in pounds by 1.2. Afterward, figure out what you ate yesterday, and how much protein you consumed. If you didn’t reach your goal, pick a few foods that you like to add more protein to your diet. Good sources of protein include eggs, fish, chicken, and steak. Including an animal source to each meal and adding protein-rich snacks will help you meet your protein quota each day.

I thought this answer would be clear to me after an 100-hour long review of the research on this topic while earning my bachelor degree in exercise science. Everything I read after this study on protein consumption seemed like children’s books, until the day Lyle MacDonald published The Protein Book. I pre-ordered my copy and was blown away by the detail of his information. He not only researched various sources that I hadn’t thought of, while presenting his ideas clearly with practical applications.

Researchers have shown, however, that the body doesn’t enter the muscle-building (anabolic) state until you eat. That’s right. If you lift weights and don’t eat, you’re not building muscle. You’re actually losing some, as the weightlifting session damaged your muscles.

Since your body only digests food 30 after you’ve eaten it, it’s a good idea to have a pre-workout meal about half an hour before you begin to train. Digestion will slow when you are training and many lifters have some discomfort when eat food during the workout. I recommend you drink you protein and energy instead to prevent this.

Pre-Workout:
0.2 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight;
0.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight.
During Workout:
30 grams of carbohydrate ; 15 grams of protein.
Post-Workout:
0.4 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight;
0.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight.