Quote Originally Posted by OakLeaf View Post
There's "need" and there's "need." I know that a person can survive and be healthy on less than 1 g protein per kg bodyweight per day. But if I'm not getting at least 1.75 g of quality protein per kg, I'm sore and tired all the time and I can't build muscle. That's not something I read or a conclusion that I reached when I was thinking about protein; it's something I discovered accidentally one day when I ate a tuna sandwich at lunch and miraculously wasn't sore for the rest of that day and the next day. Any time I did that, the soreness stayed away and I got stronger.

Another thing I learned is that if I'm not eating adequate calories in a day, it doesn't matter if I eat protein only (yes, an exaggeration, because there is no such thing!), I will not build muscle. All that protein will go toward fulfilling my base caloric needs and not be used for muscle-building purposes. In order for the protein (or any other nutrients for that matter) to do that work, I have to be fulfilling my base caloric needs first and foremost. Just learned that from my doc a couple months ago . . .