Had a talk today with a guy who was sort of offended for some reason about me not eating animal products and lifting weight. He said I’d never get enough protein (never heard that one before!!!). Because lentils aren’t a thing in a world of steaks.
Anyway he said that you need at least 200 grams of protein each day when you lift but that’s of course nonsense. Not saying you shouldn’t do it, but you don’t need to either.
I’m averaging around 110-140 grams a day and I’m doing fine at ±80kg body weight.
The science is clear and I have finally found it: between 1.6-2g of protein per kilogram (not pounds!) of body weight every day for optimal muscle growth. After 1.6, you start to get diminishing returns but it’s still useful up to 2 grams. After that the excess is pretty much flat.
This amount also depends on how much you train. If you go to the gym 3x a week 1.6g is enough.
I simply can’t eat 200g of protein on a calorie deficit (100kg body weight) so during my cuts I just get at least 100g and don’t worry about anything above that. 1g per kilo is pretty much the least amount you can get away with to still build muscle.