You DON’T need more protein in energy deficit

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

00:34 Protein requirement increases in energy deficit?

02:00 About muscle protein synthesis and breakdown in energy deficit

04:09 The data in untrained individuals

05:22 The data in trained individuals

10:35 Conclusion

Transcript:

You’re being lied to. Well, sort of. You’ve probably heard it said that protein requirements increase in energy deficit. Therefore, you need higher protein intakes when you’re cutting, when you’re trying to lose weight than when you’re bulking, where you’re putting on muscle mass and where you’re in a positive energy surplus. However, there is no direct research supporting this theory and direct research refuting it. In this video I’ll explain what the research really says about how much protein you need on a weight loss diet to maximize your gains.

The theory that protein requirements increase in energy deficit is largely attributable to a 2013 paper by Eric Helms et al. This was part of his Ph.D. thesis. He performed a systematic literature review and found six studies, only six at the time, then he concluded that if you look at these studies it kind of seems like the studies with higher protein intakes had better results. However, there was no formal statistical analysis, there was no direct study actually showing that protein requirements are higher in energy deficit, and there was also no indirect evidence showing benefits of protein intakes that were higher than the benefits we observe at energy maintenance or in energy surplus.

So basically, the entire theory rested on, well, theory. And that’s perfectly reasonable because this paper was basically the introduction of his actual research, which was an actual randomized controlled trial comparing different protein intakes in weightlifters that were cutting. So we had two groups of weightlifters. One had a protein intake of 1.6 grams per kilogram per day, and the other had a protein intake of 2.8 grams per kilogram per day. And they were in 40% energy deficit. There were no differences after the study in body composition outcomes nor were there significant differences between the groups in strength development. However, a notable limitation of this study is that it was only two weeks long. So people generally didn’t put a lot of faith into this study and instead stuck with the theory that protein intakes do actually increase in energy deficit despite the direct study not finding any benefits of higher protein intakes than what we observe in energy surplus or at maintenance.

So let’s look at this theory. It sounds very plausible. In energy deficit, there is more protein breakdown, therefore you consume more protein to ward off the protein breakdown. That’s basically how the theory goes. While it sounds intuitively plausible it does not actually make logical sense. If you think about why you need protein it’s to fuel protein synthesis and to reduce or replace broken down proteins that were oxidized. Now, if you look at muscle protein breakdown and synthesis levels in energy deficit versus an energy surplus, we see that in energy deficit, there is actually no change in the majority of research in muscle protein break down levels. It’s only a very high energy deficits that you probably shouldn’t be using anyway, that we see increases in muscle protein breakdown. Why is this? It’s because muscle protein breakdown is something that happens in the body, because it must. It’s like when you’re building a house and you want to tack a balcony onto your house. You can’t just tack the balcony right on there. You have to break down the walls and then you can put the balcony on there and then you have to integrate it. That’s the function of muscle protein breakdown. It’s mostly remodeling and repair of damaged proteins. It’s not just randomly throwing out proteins that the body just doesn’t like anymore.

So muscle protein breakdown is not something that happens voluntarily or just because. No, it happens because it has a function. It must. And that function is also there in maintenance and energy surplus. It takes a large amount of energy deficit to stimulate undesirable excess muscle protein breakdown. And that’s probably just the result of excess energy deficit. And that is going to cost you muscle mass no matter how much protein you consume. Even if we take at face value that muscle protein break down levels increase in energy deficit we also see a massive decrease in muscle protein synthesis. Because muscle protein break down levels are relatively static, they don’t change much because muscle protein breakdown is a rather essential function that’s mostly used for remodeling, muscle protein synthesis levels vary much, much more. That’s because the body is very efficient. It’s much more efficient to reduce synthesis levels than to increase break down levels and in general it’s the protein synthesis that varies a lot when you eat, when you don’t eat. The differences in muscle protein breakdown are very marginal. The differences in protein synthesis are huge. So in energy deficit muscle protein synthesis levels decrease significantly.

What does that mean? Well, if there is a lot less synthesis and only maybe a little bit more protein break down, that means that the total demand for protein logically decreases. Theory aside, what do the data say? In untrained individuals we have very good hard data showing that protein requirements do not increase in energy deficit. We have multiple studies showing that increasing your protein intake beyond the level required to maximize body composition outcomes in energy maintenance does not improve anything when you go into energy deficit. We also have very nice research comparing different protein intakes at maintenance and in energy deficit and then concluding that the effects at maintenance and in energy deficit are the same. Even at the caloric intakes of 440 calories per day research has found that increasing your protein intake does not protect you from the muscle loss from the massive energy deficit. It seems that energy deficit and protein intake occur rather independently. We can also look at research of extreme muscle loss during bedrest, when people are hospitalized even untrained individuals lose muscle at a very rapid pace. Even in that scenario, we see that protein intake does not protect you from the muscle loss. Again, protein intake has an independent effect of the effect of this use.

All of this research is confirmed by a 2020 meta analysis which confirmed there is no significant effect of protein intake higher than the recommended daily allowance, which is only 0.8 grams per kilogram per day, on lean body mass with or without energy restriction in untrained individuals. Unfortunately, there were not enough data and trained individuals to do the same analysis. Of course, we care mostly about trained individuals and it’s possible that in trained individuals there is a triple interaction effect because that’s what you’re arguing here. if you’re saying that protein requirements increase in energy deficit but only in strength trained individuals, then you are arguing for a triple interaction effect. You’re saying that there is an effect of protein intake on muscle growth, and this effect is different in trained and untrained individuals, and this effect is different only in the trained individuals when they go into energy deficit. That is very, very, very rare. Triple interaction effects, biologically speaking, simply do not occur much. Of course, they can occur. And in this case it might even be plausible that they do. So let’s look at the few research studies we have directly looking at the effect of energy deficit on protein requirements. In 2023, a study by Larsen et al. looked at the dose response effect of protein intake, comparing protein intakes of 15 grams, 35 grams and 60 grams. and it did that exact same protocol after a workout when the women were energy deficit and when the women were at energy maintenance. They found that energy maintenance or deficit made no difference in the dose response effect of protein intake. So, at least on a per meal basis, there was no effect of energy deficit on protein requirements.

Similar findings were reported earlier in a study by Gwin et al. in 2021. They found that in energy deficit they could get similar results of the dose response effect of protein. as previous research had found in energy maintenance. The researchers concluded: “Mixed muscle protein synthesis appears to be optimally stimulated in young subjects after ingesting 8 to 10 grams of essential amino acids, an amount delivered in 20 to 30 grams of high quality protein, regardless of whether an individual is in a state of energy balance or moderate energy deficit.” Unfortunately, we don’t have such studies on a total daily basis. However, we do have a study by Walberg et al. which found that in cutting weightlifters 1.6 grams per kilogram per day of protein was enough to maintain positive nitrogen balance, which is a measure of protein balance. If your protein balance is positive, theoretically you should even be able to build muscle, let alone preserve it during the cut. And that is pretty much it in terms of direct research that we have on the effect of energy deficit on protein requirements.

However, what may be even more interesting is to look at indirect evidence on the effect of long term protein intakes on muscle growth and strength development. We have multiple such studies. One study in 2014 by Jose Antonio et al. looked at two different protein intakes in strength trainees that were losing fat. The protein intakes were 1.9 grams per kilogram per day of protein, which is a little bit below one gram per pound and a whopping two grams per pound, 4.4 grams per kilogram per day. After eight weeks, there were no significant differences between the groups in body composition or strength development. A subsequent study by Jose Antonio et al. in 2015 found no significant differences between groups in body composition or strength of development between protein intakes of 2.3 grams per kilogram per day and 3.4 grams per kilogram per day. Looking at somewhat lower protein intakes we have a study by Pasiakos et al. that looked at military personnel strength training 3 times per week. Although it should be said that the strength training was kind of light, their overall activity level was very high. They found no significant difference in body composition changes between protein intakes of 1.6 grams per kilogram per day and 2.4 grams per kilogram per day. Were also no differences between the groups in nitrogen balance and resting metabolic rate, which are strongly correlated with total muscle mass. If we look at somewhat less serious trainees we see that even lower protein intakes are completely fine. We have four studies showing that in middle aged adults that are strength training, say, three times per week protein intakes as low as 1.2 grams per kilogram per day are actually already enough to optimize their body composition changes and strength development.

One particularly nice study, for example, is by Campbell et al. from 2015. they had 117 subjects and the study lasted nine months. And they found that consuming protein intakes more than 1.2 grams per kilogram per day offered no benefits compared to consuming 1.1 to 1.2 grams per kilogram per day. Now, I personally don’t recommend such low intakes to my students and clients, but there are actually also two studies showing that at least in the short term for military personnel and female athletes protein intakes around that level are actually enough to ward off muscle loss at least during 1 to 2 week diets. So we have a wide variety of lines of research in very different contexts with very different populations all converging that 1.6 grams per kilogram per day is about the optimum protein intake for body recomposition and strength development. That is exactly the same optimum intake we find in individuals that are not in energy deficit. In a meta analysis of the literature that I co-authored on exactly these subjects we found that the break off point at which protein intake cease to provide further benefits for fat free mass gains was exactly 1.6 grams per kilogram per day. There’s also a practical reason why you probably don’t need more protein intake when you’re cutting than we are bulking. If you’re bulking on 4000 calories a day or something, a very substantial part of your protein intake comes from grains, if you’re on a high carb diet at least, or other sources. When you’re cutting that is not the case. You get some protein from your veggies and the like, but typically a larger percentage of your total protein intake come from high quality protein sources such as chicken breast, white fish, egg whites, that sort of stuff. So in practice, we often see that your protein quality increases when you’re cutting versus when you’re bulking. That might offset any potential increase that is necessary in the first place.

In conclusion, the available research does not indicate any differences in protein requirements in energy deficit versus an energy surplus. The available research also does not find significant benefits of protein intakes over 1.6 grams per day, and sometimes far lower intakes even for more general population type clients, for muscle growth or strength development. Thus, I recommend that you generally consume a protein intake of at least 1.6 grams per kilogram per day. And if you want to really be safe to maximize muscle growth or your gains then I recommend 1.8 grams per kilogram per day for most individuals. That’s 0.82 grams per lb in freedom units. The lower protein intake corresponds to 0.73 grams per lb per day. This protein intake assumes that you get at least 50% of your protein intake from high quality sources, meaning animal sources for the most part, meat, poultry, dairy, eggs. I recommend that you spread the protein intake over at least three meals per day.

I hope this information helps you with your fat loss because protein is typically not the most palatable food and it’s also expensive. So the less we have to eat, the better. If you like this type of evidence based content, I’d be honored if you like and subscribe.