Low Protien Bodybuilding

nasty88

nasty88

Member
The human is an amazing thing.Genectics are so diverse and amazing too!Lately Ive been wondering what would happen if someone tried to avoid protien while bodybuilding.Do you think its possible to build muscle on a very low protien diet 50grams a day or less?I wish someone would try it and see what happens .I feel like there has to be someone who can pull it off
 
I feel like science says you're wrong and this is impossible...
 
Although there are studies done that change theories and scientific research, the science on protein intake has never deviated. Each study done proves that in order to build muscle, you must provide the body with adequate amounts of protein/amino acids to repair, recover, and build muscle tissue. I don't think anyone has attempted a low protein plan because it really doesn't make sense. Your muscles are made of amino acids - so you need to ingest sufficient amounts of amino acids to build muscle.
 
nasty88 said:
but science is wrong constantly.Maybe they would just be very skinny?
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very skinny... i.e. no muscle

you literally require amino acids (broken down protein) in order to build muscle. its a fact.
 
booneman77 said:
very skinny... i.e. no muscle

you literally require amino acids (broken down protein) in order to build muscle. its a fact.
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But i wonder if some people need much more or less protien .like someone mau need 2g per lb and someone else may need 1.i feel like the body should have some kind of back up survival mechanism.maybe it conserves protien if ur constantly not getting it.personally id just like to see an experiment.
 
nasty88 said:
But i wonder if some people need much more or less protien .like someone mau need 2g per lb and someone else may need 1.i feel like the body should have some kind of back up survival mechanism.maybe it conserves protien if ur constantly not getting it.personally id just like to see an experiment.
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The body doesn't require muscle. Especially in the "bodybuilding" sense of what you proposed. It's not "needed" to survive and this why it is cannibalized when one is starved.

It's been shown that you can build muscle on less than 1g/lb and I know of a few guys that do just fine at .85 or so. But to go 50g/day and expect results is just ridiculous.
 
nasty88 said:
The human is an amazing thing.Genectics are so diverse and amazing too!Lately Ive been wondering what would happen if someone tried to avoid protien while bodybuilding.Do you think its possible to build muscle on a very low protien diet 50grams a day or less?I wish someone would try it and see what happens .I feel like there has to be someone who can pull it off
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I have done it in the past when I didnt have a clue about nutrition or even supplements. I was working out a whole year and never saw any results. Add to the overall crap diet poor sleeping as well. I was for many hours in fasted state and when I ate it was mostly refined carbs and trans fats. Felt tired, drained, weak and exhausted.

Only when I became conscious of what I should feed my body I started seeing results. That is adding muscle and gaining strength
 
I strive in a lower protein diet for bulking, slightly higher for cutting and unlimited carbs... I could be "special" but I can easily Maintain/bulk on .75g per pound
 
I wouldn't really call .75/lb "low protein". It is on the lower side however, I would still say it is within range
 
booneman77 said:
The body doesn't require muscle. Especially in the "bodybuilding" sense of what you proposed. It's not "needed" to survive and this why it is cannibalized when one is starved.

It's been shown that you can build muscle on less than 1g/lb and I know of a few guys that do just fine at .85 or so. But to go 50g/day and expect results is just ridiculous.
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*cough what booneman77 said is the survival mechanism cough*
Your body will get rid of muscle and store more fat in "survival" situations. Maintaining muscle mass isn't efficient for your body, why do you think we're hungry all the time.
 
Some keto proponents believe muscle building is possible with 10-15% of kcal from protein and 80%+ from fat - believing it to be muscle sparing. There is even a site and reddit called keto gains. Bill Lagokas however is a pretty smart dude and believes (with blog entries and studies to back himself up) you can maintain muscle on keto but not build muscle.
 
ntornado said:
Some keto proponents believe muscle building is possible with 10-15% of kcal from protein and 80%+ from fat - believing it to be muscle sparing. There is even a site and reddit called keto gains. Bill Lagokas however is a pretty smart dude and believes (with blog entries and studies to back himself up) you can maintain muscle on keto but not build muscle.
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Interesting. I'll have to check that out. I can believe maintaining muscle, especially if you're going by the high fats percentage with lower protein percentage. If I'm not mistaken, healthy fats are a large proponent of natural test production in the body?
 
hvactech said:
I strive in a lower protein diet for bulking, slightly higher for cutting and unlimited carbs... I could be "special" but I can easily Maintain/bulk on .75g per pound
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I feel like i need a gram per pound with regular training and for hard core recovery i can do 2grams per lb.Honestly i think if i eat carbs beforehand i dont even need as much protien.I think of my stomach more like an I.V. drip or a furnace.I visualize it dripping glycogen and aminos.The nutritional concentration needs to be higher when i am more sore.I dont think i need more than 150 grams of protien a day to get up to 180lbs of muscle.more than that im not sure as my metabolism is very fast
 
Well one guy I know in my gym maintains his lean muscle with jus 4 eggs a day and no protein other than that ... I wonder how these people maintains mucsle with those macros..
But for me I started my gym with 4 eggs and no results for a while ... Then I added more eggs , some meat to my diet , I m growing ...
Without any knowledge in diet , thought that carbs will compensate the protein needs ... Well it's not the fact then ...
 
karthi2play said:
Well one guy I know in my gym maintains his lean muscle with jus 4 eggs a day and no protein other than that ... I wonder how these people maintains mucsle with those macros..
But for me I started my gym with 4 eggs and no results for a while ... Then I added more eggs , some meat to my diet , I m growing ...
Without any knowledge in diet , thought that carbs will compensate the protein needs ... Well it's not the fact then ...
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carbs dont replace protein
 
But why? Why would someone looking to put on muscle (especially bodybuilding) avoid protein? I assume this is purely hypothetical? It's so counterproductive to the goal (bodybuilding/muscle) that it just doesn't make any sense at all. Even a vegetarian/vegan can consume decent/high amounts of protein. There's just no reason to bodybuild on a low protein diet. I know I haven't answered your question regarding if it "can" technically be done, because it's rather pointless, as I would never advise it, and it'd be imposing a huge and unnecessary handicap on progress.
 
muscleupcrohn said:
But why? Why would someone looking to put on muscle (especially bodybuilding) avoid protein? I assume this is purely hypothetical? It's so counterproductive to the goal (bodybuilding/muscle) that it just doesn't make any sense at all. Even a vegetarian/vegan can consume decent/high amounts of protein. There's just no reason to bodybuild on a low protein diet. I know I haven't answered your question regarding if it "can" technically be done, because it's rather pointless, as I would never advise it, and it'd be imposing a huge and unnecessary handicap on progress.
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The real question is what is considered low versus high...1g per bodyweight is plenty as far as im concerned
 
hvactech said:
The real question is what is considered low versus high...1g per bodyweight is plenty as far as im concerned
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I agree. I consider 1g/lb the low-point of a high-protein diet, if that makes any sense. Between 0.6-0.8g/lb would probably be moderate, with anything less being low-protein.

The given example of 50g would definitely be low-protein; even for a 150lb person that's only 0.33g/lb. Too little protein IMO.
 
I feel best (at rest and in the gym) with at least 1 g per pound of BW in protein. Why would anyone try to bodybuild with low protein LOL. Science tells us that 0.8 g ppbw is about as optimal as it gets, however any more cant hurt and is critical for retaining LBM in a deficit.
 
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