@primary0 I'm trying a cut now with 1.6g/kg. That said it's not like I have a ton of gains to lose anyways. lmfao. But I don't measure absolutely
everything so I tend to err on the side of eating more on most days. Why 1.6g/kg? Because meat and meat by-products are expensive in Canada and carbs like bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, oatmeal, cereal, pancakes and sugars are
way cheaper. Maybe the situation is different in the Mid-West USA or wherever meat, dairy and eggs are cheap. It's not just whey protein powder that is expensive. In fact whey protein powder is cheaper than a lot of meat and meat by-products in terms of grams of protein per CAD. A 1kg carton of egg whites (100g protein) at No Frills is $7.99 CAD! Great Value or President's Choice Greek Yogurt is also more expensive than whey protein and the name brand Greek Yogurt never goes on sale for cheaper than the store brand shit.
My 7-day average weight was 155.83 lbs @ 167cm tall in late December/early January. And I'm down to 149.4 lbs 7-day average (150.8 lbs this morning because on Saturday I had a cheat day eating out with friends with lots of carbs and fats. So I'm carrying more water, glycogen, waste than usual. I probably went into a calorie surplus that day too). I haven't noticed any loss of muscle yet. My smart scale says that I'm 16.6% body fat this morning @ 150.8 lbs. Visceral Fat 9 rating. And I was down to 15.9% body fat @ 148.1 lbs on Friday. Visceral Fat 8 Rating. Take the smart scale body fat readings with a grain of salt. But looking in the mirror I definitely don't think I'm less than 15.9% body fat. If anything my biceps look better than ever. I might even be making some gains in a ~500 calorie deficit (I was in a smaller deficit up until two weeks ago). Because I made a lot of mistakes with my first bulk to begin with.
I feel like eating 1g/lb with my physique is like majoring in the minors. The fact that I do as much scale (both kinds) and macro tracking as I do is already majoring in the minors. lmfao. Training effectively is far more important than macros for gains. The moment that I started to get compliments on my physique is not when I upped my protein. Because I didn't. I was eating 1.8g+/kg since Nov 2022 until recently and I looked DYEL for the first 8 months of that easy on a bulk. It's when I swapped out heavy dumbbells for lighter dumbbells and curled the dumbbells properly close to failure instead of using momentum and whatever else to cheat. And lowering the weight on the stack for tricep extensions and doing them properly close to failure. It's the same principle with lateral raises, leg curls, leg extensions, etc. My goal is to just be aesthetic, fit (and I'm already in better shape than the vast majority of men my age at 38) and maybe become a personal trainer one day. Unfortunately personal training is a market that is over-saturated and doesn't make a lot of money.
If your plan is to step on stage, then yeah maybe you need 1g protein/lb or more. Competitive bodybuilding is an expensive hobby to begin with. So the expensive grocery bill may be the least of your worries once you get to that level.
YouTuber Natural Hypertrophy says that he eats about 100g protein per day on his bulk on upper body days (and he's 215-220 lbs). And the dude is jacked. That said he is bulking, not cutting. At the end of the day though, if you are producing micro-tears in your muscles from your training, why wouldn't your body prioritize taking away your body fat over your muscle in a calorie deficit even if your protein isn't high? The human body is adaptive af. Hunter-gatherers didn't always have access to meat. They ate lots of wild plants too. And they needed to preserve muscle mass to fight off predators. I mean hunter-gatherers probably aren't as jacked as their portrayal in movies but still. Unless you're very lean then yeah the body wants to keep those body fat stores.
