Hi, Dr. Barry,
Q: My boyfriend and I would like to know your thoughts on how to achieve increased muscle mass. Muscle-building diets say you should take 1gm protein per pound of body weight. At my current weight of 120 pounds that means I should have 6 more blocks of protein a day. What are your recommendations?
Your Zone fan, Mary
Dear Mary,
The key to building muscle mass is to have adequate levels of protein in small doses throughout the day. As I stated in “The Zone” and subsequent books, a person undertaking weight training requires about 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass (the rest of your weight is fat that doesn’t require any protein to maintain it). If you are 120 pounds and have 20 percent body fat, then your lean body mass is 96 pounds. This means you need about 100 grams of protein per day. Based on this calculation, you would need three meals each containing about 30 grams of protein per day as well as one snack of about of 15 grams of protein per day.