Protein- Your body uses protein to build and repair body tissues and muscles it can be described as the building blocks of the body. In Greek the word protein has the meaning "of primary importance."
Important Points:
So protein is what our body uses to build new cells and repair old ones, when a person wants to become stronger or gain larger muscles they will usually undergo weight training. Weight training essentially tears and damages the muscle under the stress of a heavy weight, the body then takes protein from the blood stream and uses the amino acids (found in protein) to repair the tears and damage caused by training, the body will then uses a little extra protein and build new muscle tissue over the previously damaged muscle thus making the muscle slightly larger and altogether stronger for next time.
To repair muscles thoroughly and to allow the body to construct bigger more powerful muscles the right amount of protein must be consumed throughout the day. The right equation for an average person who undergoes little exercise is 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight or .36 grams per pound of bodyweight. This amount is what the average, person should consume to obtain what is known as nitrogen balance. The Nitrogen Balance means that a person is consuming the same amount of protein that is being used by the body to repair body parts such as skin, teeth, and all other living tissues.
Now for a 180 lbs man who part takes in little to no exercise, the optimum amount of protein to be consumed would be 65grams a day this would give a nice nitrogen balance and the body would function perfectly normal, However if the same man was undergoing a weight training routine to gain muscle and power for his/her sport then he should be consuming around 260-270grams of protein a day, this is a staggering increase from the average man.
The statistics above seem a little extreme, but when we think about how many individual muscles we have in our body that will need repairing and rebuilding after exercise, now think about all our organs and how big each organ is (especially the small intestines), also think about our skin, teeth, hair and bones all these require copious amounts of protein so they can be replaced and repaired every single minute of the day- do you think that 65grams is going to cover that demand? It becomes clear that an athlete looking to gain muscle is going to need well over 200grams per day that’s almost 4times the amount of an average man. Without this extra protein a person will not seen any strength or size increase in their muscles!