Far too many people who have the goal of building muscle take in way too much protein and end up not seeing the results they'd like - not to mention burning a hole in their wallet.

Many people, guys especially since they are often the ones looking to add the most muscle mass overdo it on the protein front, thinking that the more protein they take in, the greater chance they'll have of adding muscle mass.

Wrong.

Here's why.

Basic Protein Requirements

The protein requirements to build muscle effectively are set at about one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day.

So, if you're currently 180 pounds trying to build muscle mass, you want to aim to get in 180 grams of protein a day.

If you're only 140 pounds on the other hand, you'll need 140 grams of protein per day to build muscle mass.

You don't need any more protein in proportion to your body weight regardless of how much muscle you currently have versus how much you don't (with the one exception of those who have a very high % of body fat and don't actually have as much muscle mass - they need less protein than their body weight).

Why Going Above Your Protein Needs Is A Problem

There are a couple of issues with taking in too much protein.

First, protein is expensive.

Not only does it cost more, calorie for calorie, but it's also expensive for the body to process.

When you metabolize protein, you're going to expend 25% of the energy it contains just breaking it down.

While this is a great thing if you're on a fat loss diet, it's not such a great thing if you're trying to build muscle and hence, need to be getting in more calories.

Once your protein needs are met for the day, the body is then going to just use any addition protein for energy or else convert it directly into body fat.

So, eating more protein does not mean you'll build muscle mass at a faster rate.

The Better Approach

So, the better approach to building muscle is to get enough protein - one gram per pound of body weight, and then distribute the remainder of your calories among carbohydrate and fat calories.

These will be used to supply the body with the energy it needs to synthesize that new muscle tissue, which is just as important as supplying the raw materials - the amino acids necessary to create the muscle tissue itself.

So, be sure you're not making this mistake with your mass building diet.

You do definitely want to make sure you are getting enough protein because if you aren't that will translate to a lot of problems for you, but you also don't want to go overboard.

Supplementing with mounds of protein powder when not necessary is not something that's going to get you any further towards your goal of building a good amount of muscle tissue.