Why protein supplements are unneccesary

Everyone who starts to go to the gym and get healthy immediately start using protein supplements as well. They think they will magically grow muscles this way.

But the truth is, if you want to grow muscle you need to be in a caloric surplus. When you’re in a caloric surplus your body needs to store the extra calories somewhere. If you don’t workout it becomes fat, if you do workout you burn it with cardio or use it to build muscle with strength training. If you want to grow something, you need more of the thing that makes it grow. Food grows your body and muscles.

I always compare it to a house. If you want to build a house, you need bricks, cement and someone who builds the house. The same goes for your body, if you want to grow muscle you need something to grow them with. You need to fuel them. Food is that fuel, no magic shake, pill or diet.

That caloric surplus can be achieved by eating more protein, BUT your body can only convert a specific amount of protein to build muscle. The rest of it will be used as energy for your body, just like carbohydrates are used for energy. It is only a difficult process for your body to convert protein to energy, because it needs to be convert it to sugar first. It’s much easier to use carbohydrates for energy, because that is basically sugar and can be used immediately. So the amount of protein you need can be calculated and that’s the amount you need, all the extra protein will be used for energy.

In this schedule you can see how much you need (1):

Activity level The amount of protein you need

Non-active 0,8 gram per kg of body weight

Endurance (running, cycling etc.) 1,2 – 1,4 gram per kg of body weight

Strength training (fitness, boxing etc.) 1,5 – 1,8 gram per kg of body weight

As a beginner you need a little bit more protein than an advanced athlete. This may mean you need 2 grams of protein per kg of body weight in the beginning of the process. Once you’ve build up the muscle you can lower your intake a bit because your muscles don’t grow as fast and much as they needed to in the beginning.

If you’re overweight and have a high percentage of body fat, your body will burn that fat if you start working out and eating less than the amount of calories you need because your body needs the calories to function, it doesn’t get them from food so it starts to use stored body fat. This is a great way to lose weight but you do need to do it slowly, because you need to get used to it and if you starve yourself it is not good for your body either.

So you can better eat the amount of protein your body can convert and fill the rest up with carbohydrates and fats. If you’re scared to eat fat, because ‘it makes you fat’ then you can read my other blogpost about why fats are important in a healthy balanced diet!

1: I'm a foodie (2018), Eet als een atleet (3rd edition), Amsterdam, The Netherlands: I'm a foodie Publishing.