A new study answers some questions that we have been look at in the past years. How does your diet influence muscle growth? Do you need to eat a lot of protein? Is there a limit to the amount of protein you can eat? How does changing your diet affect testosterone and other hormones that are related to muscle growth.

In the last months we have seen different research (finally!) that seems to indicate you can actually eat too much protein. If only a study would look at the relationship between testosterone in people lifting weights and the amount of protein in their diet. Now a new study has just done that!

"Relationship between dietary intake and serum anabolic hormone concentrations of testosterone (T), free testosterone (FT), and growth hormone were examined at rest as well as after the heavy-resistance exercise (HRE) in 8 strength athletes (SA) and 10 physically active non-athletes (NA). "

Now the results seem strong that too much protein will change your hormonal balance. Look at the next graph!

This seems to suggest a strong relation between protein and muscle growth. Up to about 20% protein (of your calories) in your diet will probably not influence your testosterone that much. Eating more seems to change your testosterone bringing it down to the levels of an 80 year old, ouch!

On the one hand you need enough protein when weight lifting but at some point you simply start to change other factors involved in muscle growth. If 20% is the limit then a male needing 2500 calories would be able to put up to 125 grams of protein in his diet.

The researches also looked at fat.

"The results suggest the possible role of diet leading to alterations in serum T and FT during prolonged strength training, and that diets with insufficient fat and/or excessive protein may compromise the anabolic hormonal environment over a training program. "

PMID: 15532008

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