By Guy Lawrence

If somebody asked you why do we need protein? In my line of work, it seems the common stigma is to eat copious amounts after workouts, and if your surname is not “gym”, why worry. But believe it or not there’s a bit more to it than that.

Protein is an important component of every cell in the body. For example, your hair and nails are mostly made of protein.

Your body uses protein to build and repair tissues. You also use protein to make enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals. Protein is an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and blood.

Along with fat and carbohydrates, protein is a “macronutrient,” meaning that the body needs relatively large amounts of it. But unlike fat and carbohydrates, the body does not store protein, and therefore has no reservoir to draw upon when it needs a new supply. Hence muscle tissue is the first to breakdown and can begin to happen if protein intake is inadequate.

There’s a general misconception, especially with females, that if I eat protein and protein supplements, I’ll automatically get big muscles! If only it was that simple. We’d all be walking around like Goliath.

Amazingly, if people ate their daily intake of protein, and reduced the carbohydrate intake to what they actually needed, you’d find their body would find their true weight. But this message has gotten lost along the way somewhere.

So you’re probably asking right now, what’s my RDI (recommended daily intake) of protein? Well, that depends if you’re a couch potato, or you flirt with exercise on a semi regular basis. But if you are someone who is spending so much time in the gym, and is about to metamorphosis into a dumbbell, then that’s a whole new level.

Without going into detail, like what body type you are, how much fat-free mass you have, how active you are (you begin to see these questions are never simple!), a rough guide is anywhere between 1-2grms of protein per KG of body weight. I did say roughly didn’t I?

And don’t go chugging it down all in one go and eat bread rolls for the rest of the day, it doesn’t quite work like that. Spread it out over 4-6 times throughout the day, that way you body will appreciate it better. So if you want to look to increase your protein intake from the right source, Click Here.