How to Build Muscle on a Low-Protein Diet

You’ve been trying to build more muscle mass for a while now. However, you’ve been eating a low-protein diet, and things just aren’t going your way.

With the way you’re training, you should have arms the size of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. But instead, your forearm is creeping up for first place in size.

A low-protein life can be a tricky one, so let’s take a look at the whys and the hows.

Why Consume a Low-Protein Diet?

This topic is almost as controversial as Trump’s presidency and possibly controversial enough that the article is being printed in the fictional universe as we speak. The Daily Planet headline reads, “This just in: Build Muscle Low Protein Diet.”

A low-protein diet can be defined as one where you consume below the minimum recommended daily intake of protein. The only reason to be consuming a low-protein diet is due to pre-existing conditions, such as nephrotic syndrome. (A larger protein intake is a potentially pivotal factor in a decrease in health with this disorder).

A low-protein diet can be recommended for those suffering from certain disorders that interfere with protein metabolism, impaired liver function, or kidney disease.

In perfectly healthy individuals with optimally functioning kidneys, a high-protein diet shouldn’t be cause for concern or fear. Therefore, we shouldn’t be avoiding protein for the wrong reasons when we don’t have to.

The Science Behind Protein

Every single cell inside the human body contains protein. Thus, proteins are the building blocks of life, and each protein is made up of amino acids.

When it comes to exercise — specifically resistance training with progressive overload — and muscle growth, there’s no better nutrient for damaged tissue repair than protein.

It also has the ability to create new proteins within the body, so the circle of life goes on (queue the Lion King theme song).

Foods considered to be “proteins” include beef, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, soy, legumes (beans, chickpeas, and lentils), nuts, and seeds. Of course, the amino acid profile varies in each of these individual foods.

Animal proteins tend to have a higher concentration of essential amino acids, meaning there are more complete proteins in animal foods than there are in plant-based foods. Combining certain plant-based foods and mixing amino acids can make a complete protein.

How Much Protein Do We Need?

General guidelines for protein intake are as follows:

• 1.2 grams per pound of body weight per day for weight loss
• 1 gram per pound of body weight per day for weight gain

There are also specific metrics on how much protein each individual needs, recommended by the American Diet Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization. These recommendations can be calculated specifically to your needs.

Let’s Talk About Muscle Protein Synthesis

Protein intake is required for proficient muscle protein synthesis (MPS). MPS is the metabolic process that involves amino acids synthesizing mitochondrial proteins that produce energy and skeletal muscle proteins.

These muscle proteins are contractile myofibrillar proteins and have names that could very well be Gen-Z rappers, such as actin, myosin, troponin, and tropomyosin.

Part of me wishes I could go back and read out those names in front of my spelling bee judges, letter for letter, and say, “Look at me now” while deadlifting 700 pounds with a smile on my face.

There are two things that work in synergy to maximize and stimulate the process of muscle building (MPS). These things are resistance exercise and protein ingestion. In order for there to be light, there must be darkness.

Let’s look at MPS as the light.

If this is the case, then muscle protein breakdown (MPB) is the darkness. When MPB is exceeded by MPS, we’re blessed with the result of muscle mass gain. Therefore, the net muscle protein balance (NBAL) determines changes in muscle mass.

Changes in MPS have a larger influence over net muscle gain than changes in MPB do … in healthy people. So we know that protein intake is highly important.

However, if you’ve adopted a low-protein diet — whether the reason has to do with food preferences, dietary needs, or a medical condition that leads to muscle protein breakdown — there are various things you can try to succeed in building muscle and increasing your lean body mass.

If we’re on a low-protein diet, then we’re going to have to manifest a whole lot of grit to walk into the hardship of building muscle mass rather than merely adopting the idea of building it.

• So how can we build muscle on a low-protein diet?
• Do we need to treat recovery differently?
• Should we take supplements?

We know that amino acids make up proteins, and we know that there’s a specific physical and metabolic response to exercise and nutrition.

Let’s take a deep dive into how what we know can benefit those that have adopted a low-protein diet and attempt to answer the questions above.

Step 1 – Focus on the Basics

Control what you can.

Sleeping, resting, and recovery are important, and so are exercise and nutrition. There are certain caveats and nuances, of course. For example, the stress and external environmental factors in a person’s life have an effect on their sleep, and overtraining can cause them to be over-fatigued.

Sleeping and proper rest aid in the maximal recovery of skeletal muscle, especially after exercise-induced muscular fatigue. Loss of sleep can reduce the recovery process and have potentially detrimental effects on muscle repair.

You have the power to make adjustments within your life. The phrase “sleep like a baby” isn’t what we’re looking for here. Babies hardly sleep, and they wake up at sporadic periods throughout the day and night.

What you want to do is sleep like an adult, and if you aren’t, then the first thing you should do is make the necessary adjustments within your life to do so.

This can look different for each individual; a few tips include:

• Minimize screen time the closer to bed you get. Try reading in bed instead.
• Avoid stimulants later on in the day. Try to take your coffee and pre-workout in the morning rather than late afternoon or night.
• Count sheep … seriously, it works for some people.

If you want to build muscle, then the two most important factors that you need to know about which stimulate muscle growth are protein intake & resistance training.

Considering we’re looking at things that can potentially increase muscle tissue on a low-protein diet, we’ll take out the first and focus on resistance training.

Now, this training should be done with weights, which are gradually increased over time (progressive overload), in order to force the skeletal muscle to grow by adapting to increasing stimulus gradually.

Granted, protein is also a key factor in MPS.

But if you’re continually forcing your muscles to adapt with little protein intake, you’ll have to focus on ingesting as many alternate sources of nutrition that will adequately fuel your training. That includes branch chain amino acids, essential amino acids, carbohydrates, and fats.

Step 2 – Load Up on BCAAs & EAAs

If you’re on a low-protein diet and you’re looking to build muscle, then you need to make every bit of nutrition count. So loading up with branch chain amino acids and essential amino acids will be a vital part of your diet.

As we’ve discussed, maximizing muscle protein synthesis is best done through the intake of high-protein foods and optimal resistance training with progressive overload. Although, when we’re on a low-protein diet, the next best thing would be to maximize BCAA & EAA intake.

We know that the more protein we eat, the more likely we are to gain muscle mass. Therefore, the ideal goal would be to ingest amino acids equal to the number of grams of protein you’d be eating in order to gain muscle mass.

A few things to note:

• When taking BCAA & EAA supplements, avoid taking too much, as it can cause unwanted side effects, such as nausea and an upset stomach.
• Ingesting 20g BCAAs & 15g EAAs per day is the recommended limit for the average BCAA & EAA supplement.
• Leucine is arguably the most important amino acid in promoting muscle growth, so making sure that you consume the recommended daily dose in order to maximize MPS is crucial on a low-protein diet. This study suggests that the current recommended dietary intake of leucine can be increased from around 6.3 mg/pound bodyweight/day (14 mg/kg) to a minimum of around 20.5 mg/pound bodyweight/day (45 mg/kg) “for sedentary individuals, and more for those participating in intensive training in order to optimize rates of whole body protein synthesis.”
• Eating foods that have protein in them but are also higher in fiber and carbohydrates (lentils, black beans, chickpeas, seeds) could be another alternative option.

Step 3 – Perfect Your Calorie & Micronutrient Counts

Overall, we need to consume sufficient calories to fuel the demands our bodies accumulate during exercise and general activity. Total caloric intake involves everything we put in our mouths, as everything we eat is composed of macronutrients and micronutrients — both of which are made up of calories.

Each macronutrient has a different number of calories per gram:

• Protein = 4 cal per gram
• Carbohydrates = 4 cal per gram
• Fats = 9 cal per gram

If we’re eating a low-protein diet (not meeting the minimum recommended daily intake – 0.4g per pound bodyweight/day for a healthy adult with minimal physical exercise), then it’s vital that we’re meeting our carbohydrate, fat, and micronutrient needs. We also need BCAA & EAA supplementation to be sufficient in our training and goal of gaining muscle.

To build muscle, we also need to be in a calorie surplus. This means consuming more calories than we expend each day. Focusing on total calorie intake can help us achieve this.

Although we don’t have to count our calories, it does help to know how many we should be consuming to put ourselves in a calorie surplus.

We can do this by finding our total daily energy expenditure and making sure that we’re eating within a safe range above this each day (no more than 500 calories above TDEE).

Try out this TDEE calculator to see what your total daily energy intake is.

Now that we’ve found our calorie intake and we’re taking into account the fact that we’re on a low-protein diet, we need to consider how many carbohydrates and fats we’re consuming.

These macronutrients can both be an amazing source of energy for the body and brain, although just like protein and anything else, they can lead to weight if consumed in excess.

Fats are higher in calories per gram, so they shouldn’t be consumed in excess.

Also, minimizing highly processed foods, junk foods, and sugary drinks would be a good idea for any diet. Meanwhile, vegetables and whole foods have high levels of micronutrients, so increasing these foods is another good idea for any diet.

Look at us … having two good ideas, all in one day.

You can find reference intakes for macronutrients and fiber here.

How to Build Muscle on a Low-Protein Diet Conclusion

If you’re living a life that lacks dietary protein, but you’re still looking for things to support muscle growth, focus on the things you can control.

That means supplementing adequately with BCAAs & EAA, sleeping like an adult (AKA: 8 hours a day), and eating like an adult — which mainly means replenishing your glycogen stores with carbohydrates.

You should also train like a machine (16-20 sets per muscle group per week, including progressive overload) and maintain a calorie surplus while adding more whole foods and limiting junk foods and sugary drinks.

To build muscle on a low-protein diet, all you need to do is:

1. Focus on the basics
2. Load up on BCAAs & EAAs
3. Perfect your calorie & micronutrient counts

If you respond well to challenges, then this is great for you. If you don’t, then you’re going to have to channel your inner Bane now more than ever.

Either way, there is hope. I would say there is light at the end of the tunnel, but remember, we’ve embraced the dark.