How much Protein, Carbs & Fats do I need to eat to build muscle?

Protein should make up 30-to-40% of your diet because…

Your muscles are made up of mostly protein and water so you need to eat 1-to-1½ grams of protein for every pound you weigh to help your body repair and rebuild your muscles into bigger and stronger muscles after you work out and…
If you eat 1-to-1½ grams of protein for every pound you weigh then protein will usually make up 30-to-40% of your total daily calories (your diet) so if you weighed 200 pounds you would need to eat 200-to-300 grams of protein a day and…
Trying to eat TOO MUCH PROTEIN is not going to help you build muscle any faster since your body uses any excess protein for energy and…
Making protein less than 30% or your diet or… Eating less than 1-to-1½ grams of protein for every pound you weigh is going to slow down your muscle growth and…

Carbs should make up 40-to-60% of your diet because…

You need carbs for energy to help you lift heavier weights, do more reps and/or sets to make you keep continually gaining muscle and…
If carbs are less than 40% of your diet… Your body may use the protein you eat and/or burn off the muscle you already built for energy making It harder for you to build and maintain muscle so basically…
Eating enough carbs lets the protein you eat do its job which is to build more muscle on your body and…
As you get closer to or lower than 40% for carbs in your diet - You may burn more fat but… You may also feel sluggish and have less energy for your muscle building workouts and…
If you go higher than or closer to 60% on carbs - you'll still build muscle but at the same time - you may also make it easier for your body put on some fat but… You don't have to worry about TOO much fat gain as long as you're staying active & eating fat burning foods and…

Fats should only make up 10-to-20% of your diet because…

Your body needs some fat to help it produce muscle building hormones like testosterone so…
If less than 10% of your diet is fats then you body will have a hard time "naturally" producing testosterone and other muscle building hormones like Growth Hormone & Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and usually…
If you are eating the right muscle building Proteins & carbs found here - then your diet will automatically be at least 10% fat so overall…

There's no magic amount of Protein, Carbs & Fats YOU need to build muscle but usually…

You should start off by making carbs 50% of your total calories and…
You should make Protein 30% of your total daily calories and…
You should make Fat 20% of your total daily calories so basically…

You're eating all of your carbs/proteins/fats at a 50/30/20 ratio to begin with and to make things easier for you…

Go here to see how many calories you need to eat to build muscle (to go from skinny-to-big) OR to get ripped and then…
Use this calculator here to see exactly how many grams of carbs, proteins, and fats you need to eat to build muscle but like I said…

There's no magic amount of Protein, Carbs & Fats YOU need to build muscle and you should only use the ratio that works best for you so for example…

If you are not happy with the amount of muscle you are gaining - you could increase your protein to up to no more than 40% of your diet while lowering the amounts of carbs and/or fats you eat or…
If you think you are gaining too much fat - you could eat less carbs by making carbs no less than 40% of your diet while increasing the amounts of protein and/or fats in your diet or…
If you need more energy to lift heavier weights, do more reps and sets for your muscle building workouts - you can make carbs no more than 60% of your diet while lowering protein and/or fats.

To help you plan your muscle building diet…

Make sure you also see…

There are 17 comments

nana

Hi i would like. For my stomach. To be smaller. And glutes to be bigger im 5'4"

January 02, 2013

Adrian Bryant

take a look at this

January 02, 2013

Natalia

Hello, Adrian! My daily calorie intake is about 1300 every day, 110 grams protein, 40 grams fat and 100 grams carbs. What do you think about this kinda diet? too much of smth or too less??
I workout 3 times a week, i do strength circuit training. Im 26, 5'4 and 121 pounds. I want to lose about 6-8 pounds but gain some sexy muscles at the same time. Do you have any recommendations for me?
thank you in advance!

December 07, 2012

Adrian Bryant

you need to be on this plan here

December 09, 2012

MsV

Adrian,

If i'm trying to not go over 1200 calories a day and i weight 112 lbs, that means i'll need roughly 112grams of protein to build muscles. How do I stay within my calorie intake of 1200 with out going over and potentially gaining weight?

October 31, 2012

Adrian Bryant

112 grams is only about 448 calories worth of protein

November 01, 2012

Truthsayer

Please do not eat 200-300g of protein a day for whatever reason. That level of protein particuallry from animal sources is extremely bad for long term health and has been proven to cause a great deal of long term issues such as Cancer.

Please read "The China Study" to see exactly what i mean.

Protein should never excede 50-60g a day.

August 24, 2012

NICOLÁS

HI.
I was vegan and also know about China study. I recomend you to see also the data they kept out, for example, the healthiest chinies were some villagers who eat meat, drink milk, and have some vegetables and starches.
I was vegan and my health at first was ok but then start to go down badly. You get LOTS of defficiencies on vegan diet. I am recovering now for that awfull expirience. The only way you can stay alive on a vegan diet is to consume some kind of multivitamin with minerals but that can be threatend to health. So do not buy all the crap they sale, i take the time to writte you this because i want you to know my expirience cause probably you are vegan or consider it. THe first sign of health declination are your teeths and nails. Also high fiber diets are very dangerous and leads to constipation, expand all your intestinal track and leave you very screw up inside. In order to the body to digest fiber it has to create mold and funfus ( just like the one in bread) and that leads to an overgrowth of candida wich is a very nasty condition. Well there you go, it sucks soo bad. And meat is not bad for you, actually cholesterol is essential and also other nutrients like lithium to proper brain function that can ONLY be found in animal flesh. That´s why vegans and vegetarians tend to be violent and are obsese with their topics, mental disorder. So read more, there are tons of studies out there that claim what i am telling you. You can read about phitic acid in whole grains and how a studie shows that ppl were getting more nutrient from white bread rather than from whole wheat bread, and the glicemix index of the whole wheat bread is the same.

October 03, 2012

MsV

My question is: if I'm trying to only consume $1200 calories a day and weight 112 lbs, how can I stay with in my calorie goal and still get enough protein (1g per lb) to gain muscle?

October 31, 2012

you are amazing

hey, just wanted to let everyone know you are giving false information. 50-60 grams of protein is the protein intake someone who weight 35 lbs should have, which would be a little child. you see what your problem is is common, do not feel sad or bad about this, it is expected from the un-educated. all you see protein is is meat products. there are many sources of protein for example yes like you said meat so beef chicken pork, HOWEVER there are MORE SOURCES OF PROTEIN SUCH AS **BEANS****TOFU***EGG WHITES***FISH*** and many other foods supply protein such as pasta, a regular serving of pasta (60g) should provide ~~~8g protein~~~ aswell even BREAD givves protein,EVEN MILK!!!! (not that bread is a good source of protein) the point is you can get protein from many sources of food NOT JUST MEAT you MEAT HEAD. anyways adios! HEALTH IS WEALTH BABY!!! by the way marijuana is an excellent source of protein

December 10, 2012

yoboboo@gmail.com

Hi Adrian,
I got your dvd in the mail but it was missing some of the workouts like on the one where you work your butt has the one where you run back and forth.. It seems like it was recorded on the wrong one.. Can I get a new one with it all in the right order?

August 08, 2012

Adrian bryant

it's on there. did you click on the arrow for the other side?

August 08, 2012

sean

amazing article! Explained everything so great, i had to comment on this because of how well you wrote this article. Really big help! thank you so much :)

August 04, 2012

Lauren

Hi, i naturally have always had a fast metabolism but now that I'm getting into my 20's, the genetic love handles and my skinny legs are the only thing keeping me from looking curvy enough for my age. I'm 5'2'' and 100lbs. How can I make my legs/hips bigger and love handles smaller without loosing weight or getting overly muscular looking?

June 20, 2012

Adrian Bryant

go here for bigger hips

June 20, 2012

Name*

i want to gain muscle could give me a list of meals to eat day to day breakfast lunch dinner and what ever else thank you

December 18, 2011

Adrian Bryant

here ya go

December 18, 2011