I'm wondering if anybody here can honestly say, they have tried doing the exact same workout routine, EATING THE EXACT SAME AMOUNT OF CALORIES (or well almost) and try to see if eating 1g protein per lbs of bodyweight (or even more) really helps them gain muscle a lot more quickly than for example just eating 50% of protein more than the average person usually needs to maintain his weight which would be like 0.6-0.7g per lbs of bodyweight or so I guess (I just know it in g/kg and did a rough conversion).

Have you really tried that for a 2 months or longer and could notice, that you didn't gain muscle as quickly as opposed to taking 1g per lbs of bodyweight?

I've been working out for 6 to 7 years..and at the beginning i just believed that stuff so I did it like that. Then I thought to myself, I should try if I REALLY need those amounts of protein. So what did I do? Instead of drinking 3 liters of milk (thats how i got my protein at the time lol...) i only drank 1 liter. It seemed to me that I could hardly increase my strength anymore...it was obvious to me.

However, what I have to say, now, looking back at that, is that obviously I was getting around 900 calories less per freaking day. YES 900. So that alone could have been the reason why I had a harder time increasing my strength.

(Also: I always read when doing a cutting phase, one should increase the amount of protein one eats to even higher levels, etc. ...however, whenever I did a cutting phase (have done like 4 successfully) I actually consumed quite a bit less protein, no more than say 0,6g per lbs of bodyweight AND through working out the same way I did before, using the same weights the reps I could do decreased by mostly 1 rep after a cutting phase of 2 months (and being able to do that 1 rep more, again didnt take but 1-2 weeks of 'bulking' again)....so needless to say - at least in my case, maybe its true that everybody is different - the assumption that one has to consume even more than 1g protein per lbs of bodyweight during a cutting phase if one wnats to keep his muscle (because eating so little calories) is nothing but an illusion/exaggeration).

SO. PLEASE ONLY ANSWER TO THIS THREAD IF YOUR HONEST:

Are you just taking in high amounts of protein (1g per lbs of bodyweight or more) because virtually every bodybuilder/weight lifter/etc. says it and you've always figured they must be right, because they obviously know their stuff and are successful OR have you

- tried doing the same workout routine
- consuming the same amount of calories (THIS POINT IS THE MOST CRUICIAL ONE TO ME...because I think just like me many might have neglected this point)
- done this for at least 2 months

and saw it didn't work and that's why you're consuming so much protein?

P.S.: This is really not a diss- or flame-thread saying you guys should stop eating a lot of protein or whatever....ive been eating a lot of protein so far, too and I'll try to see what happens when I eat quite a bit less protein than I do currently but still get enough calories. So in other words, I'm just curious if anybody has tried something similar like this before (remember: you only qualify if u lowered the protein intake BUT consumed still as much calories ;-)).

So i replace protein with what? carbs? fat? alcohol?

Seems to me that boosting one of those up in lieu of protein would just cause more fat gain. One of the advantages of high protein is the metabolism boost.

big, muscular people eat a lot of protein (aside from some genetic freaks). people arguing the merits of low protein diets are usually a buck sixty and change (aside from some genetic freaks).

(that's the short answer.)

I could write at a significant length about this subject, but there's no point. madgame, some people are genetically gifted and can build muscle on two meals a day - if you're one of these then it doesn't matter what you eat, you'll still grow.

You'll never know until you've tried it yourself, so, while keeping your training the same, do 3 months low protein or whatever you want, and then 3 months high protein and compare the results, and there will be your answer.

@Ruckus: I can only speak for myself but I'll replace quite some protein with other types of food and thus eat a more diversified diet. And not have to focus on eating almost strictly meals that have lots of protein (which I've become tired of lately)

@WarbossAlex: Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do. I don't really plan on bulking up anymore, anyways (because I'm satisfied with the muscle I've build until now). So now I'll be able to try that out for like 2 months and see if it works or if it doesn't and how big the impact really is. I'm pretty interested in that, actually...and now I can do it without being worried as I'm not really looking to build much more mass anyways.so Ill see..ill get back to you guys with the results ;-)