Importance of Protein Intake - How Can You Increase Protein Intake for Muscle Growth?

Protein is one of the most essential nutrients in our diet, keeping a track of the protein intake in our day to day lives is essential for our well being as well as growth in our body. The amount or the way we consume protein every day determines a lot about our health.

The ideal amount of protein needed by our body can vary based on various factors which can be age, sex, muscles, or health. Since each one of us has a different body, different weight, and different levels of activity in day to day work, thus, it is quite evident that the ideal amount of protein intake can vary depending upon these factors.

In this article, we will discuss more about protein intake, how much protein do you need in a day, and how to increase protein intake for muscles.

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More about protein and how it is important?

More about protein (Image by Drazen Zigic on Freepik)

Protein is considered as one of the building blocks of our body as it plays a crucial role in various parts of our bodies that involve the making of muscles, skin, and organs, as well as various enzymes and hormones. Thus, protein is marked as an important nutrient to consume.

Any deficiency of it or lack of consumption of it can directly impact your growth process and in the long term might affect your health. However, excess consumption can also affect you in a negative way.

It is to be noted that if you have an animal-based diet which usually incurs all the essential proteins then you won't need any other source of protein intake. However, having a plant-based diet may not check all the essential proteins, and for that one may need to look for supplements.

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Increase in Protein intake

protein for muscles (Image by senivpetro on Freepik)

A higher protein consumption is usually important if you want to increase your muscles. While you are working out a continuous breaking and building of muscles takes place, in the rebuilding phase protein plays an impactful role. Thus consuming more protein along with your workout can help you build muscles effectively.

To increase protein intake one can opt for various eating habits like consuming cheddar cheese which has a high amount of protein in it, consuming eggs for breakfast, or having a high protein food like meat, fish, or legumes with every meal.

Adding these changes to your diet can increase your protein consumption significantly. Additionally, a high protein diet can also be beneficial for pregnancy for better growth of tissue.

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How to achieve optimal protein intake?

How much protein should you be consuming on a day-to-day basis? (Image by ArthurHidden on Freepik)

For most of us keeping track of the amount of protein intake is not important while consuming a balanced diet with proper quality of protein is important. For your well being you should have a balanced diet that has nutritional food which has all the essential nutrients along with protein. Foods like tofu, meats, eggs, milk, greek yogurt, and nuts have a high content of protein.

As discussed above, the activity you do is vital for the protein you consume. For someone who is moderately active, the advised amount of protein to be consumed is 34-56 grams of protein for males while for females it is slightly lesser, 34-46 grams.

However, one should always take medical advice before adding more protein to your diet as more protein may have adverse effects in your body if you have underlying kidney problems.

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Protein is essential for our health and the growth of our bodies, consuming a balanced diet with good protein sources can ensure our health. Further, there is no specific amount for how much protein should you consume in a day. It depends on the individual's age, sex, and the intensity of activity of the individual.