Is Protein Overrated?

Feel free to disagree but I'm starting to think protein is overrated. Don't get me wrong I eat lots of the stuff just because I really enjoy fish, meats, eggs and the usual veggie option quorn to name a few and protein is essential for growth and repair but all this stuff about 1-1.5 grams of protein for every lbs of bodyweight to put on muscle is over hyped. In addition to cutting carbohydrates in conjunction with a high protein diet leaves us with no energy what so ever. This might be ok if 'muscles' is your full time life but let's be honest everyone else works, and let's face it having no energy in work can only be a bad thing as without work there's nothing really, unless you'r lucky enough to not need to work! This is why I try to make sure that I eat enough to fuel me for the day as well as cover whatever training I've done that day so that I'm not lethargic, grumpy, sluggish and bascially useless because of too much protein and not enough carbs.

Secondly, I'll use myself as an example, I'm 72kgs at the moment - Thats about 100g of protein to put on some muscle, I'll say 120 even 150g to be safe which can easily be achieved by eating enough food without having to do all the high protein low carb stuff. Most gym guys eat way too much and could substitute some of the protein for carbs which would leave them mentally and physically in much better shape. Granted you will lose weight on the high protein diet because you generally eat less calories so lose weight leaving you very lean if you do a reasonable amount of training but lean doesn't always mean best possible shape!!

Here's an example of what I mean - 75g of dry pasta would give someone about 8-10g of protein, that's without say some tuna which would pump it up a lot. Another is bread - 1 slice of wholemeal toast has about 4g of protein. If you have a sandwich thats 8g for two slices, let's face it we sometimes have 4 so that would be 16g without the filling. Milk - A pint has not far off 20g of protein. So say your average bowl of cereal is also full of protein. Same in other foods such as vegitables, which don't have much but all adds up. Basically protein isn't only in animal products which people seem to have a perception of. Looking at that a 100g a day, even 150g is easily achievable so long as we eat enough without leaving us low on energy from some carb cut.

On top of this the extra carbs in you'r diet will take there fitness to the next level - end of story, so don't get SPORTS training confused with the bodybuilding mindset thast going around!

Eat healthy, eat enough and train hard then the so called 'look' will take care of itself.