This solo episode addresses whether whey protein supplements are necessary for muscle building, with Dr. Anthony Chaffee providing a definitive answer: no. He explains that whole foods like beef and eggs provide superior nutrition compared to isolated protein powders, including essential dietary cholesterol that research shows directly impacts muscle growth and hypertrophy. The episode reveals how cholesterol is needed for expanding cell membranes as muscles grow, and references how Golden Era bodybuilders like Vince Gironda achieved exceptional physiques eating 30+ eggs daily during bulking phases.
Dr. Anthony Chaffee debunks the myth that humans can only absorb 25-40 grams of protein at once, explaining this limitation only applies to whey protein isolates that pass through the digestive system too quickly. Whole foods like meat and eggs act as time-release capsules, allowing for much greater protein absorption. He emphasizes that eggs are the perfect protein source with ideal amino acid proportionality, while plants lack complete amino acid profiles and contain fiber that blocks nutrient absorption, including essential compounds like taurine and carnitine that 30% of people cannot produce adequately.
Key Takeaways
- Skip whey protein supplements entirely - whole foods like beef and eggs provide superior nutrition with better bioavailability, essential fats, and cholesterol needed for muscle growth
- Dietary cholesterol directly supports muscle hypertrophy by providing materials for expanding cell membranes as muscles grow larger
- The 25-40 gram protein absorption limit only applies to whey isolates, not whole foods - meat and eggs digest slowly like time-release capsules allowing absorption of 100+ grams of protein per meal
- Eggs contain the perfect amino acid profile in ideal proportions, while plant proteins lack complete amino acid profiles and 30% of people require dietary sources of carnitine and taurine found only in animal foods
- Why Whey Protein Isn't Necessary for Muscle Building
- Eggs as Perfect Protein and Amino Acid Requirements
- Plant Protein Deficiencies and Fiber's Nutrient Blocking Effects
- Whey Protein Absorption Limits vs Whole Food Protein
This is an auto-generated transcript from YouTube and may contain errors or inaccuracies.
[Music] is whe protein worth it to build muscle no short answer no um doing one leg squats pull-ups dips uh push-ups dips pull-ups elevated um standing uh AB wheel to failure uh eating beef eggs and apples just remove the fruit until next June good plan uh you you don't need you don't need whey protein um it's not you know you need food you know you don't just need protein you need all the nutrients that come with protein you need the fat in the cholesterol actually there was a study that came out a couple years ago that showed that dietary cholesterol had a direct effect on muscle growth and and hypertrophy interesting you know it could be hormonal could be that you're just you need more cholesterol to build up bigger uh cell membranes because if your muscle cells are growing bigger that means that you have to add to that cell membrane and that cell membrane is made of cholesterol ol could be um so for whatever reason you know dietary cholesterol seems to be important in in muscle growth and development and um you get everything that you need from from meat and eggs so I think that that's perfect you know if you want if you want more protein eat more eggs eat more beef uh things like that you know when when Vince gond in the Golden Era of of bodybuilding before just turned into these just red out Mass monsters that just don't even look human anymore um you know no offense any of these guys it takes a huge amount of dedication and work and buckets of steroids to achieve that but like it's not it's not what humans look like it's not what humans are supposed to look like you have like the golden ER of bodybuilding these guys who just had some of the most amazing physiques ever and and they did it you know with with nutrition and hard work you know and and then the steroids added on to that it just went I I think it honestly U really damage the sport significantly but in any case um you don't need that stuff and uh the Whey Protein you know isn't isn't as readily absorbed um it doesn't come with all the different you know nutrients that that you need along with the protein and you and you get it enough with with all the beef and eggs what I was going to say about Vince G is he was saying when they when they would do a bulking phase they would just eat way more eggs like 30 plus eggs a day and they said that actually gave um a similar anabolic effect as like you know lowd dose steroids you know so you and it's a perfect protein you know they sort of rate and rank the different protein sources single food protein sources eggs are number one um they they are called a perfect protein they have exactly the amino acids that you need in the exact proportion that you need them and and that's very important having that proportionality um because every every molecule that your DNA makes is a protein not everybody realizes that and so these amino acids they're not calories it's not it's like if you just need them calories then it wouldn't matter you could just have all carbs if all you needed was calories and just only carbs no you need amino acids because those are building blocks you need fatty acids because those are building blocks you need cholesterol because that's a building block carbs you don't need at all um from a dietary source because you make all the carbohydrates you need in the proportion that you need them and um you don't do that for uh proteins and fats not all of them anyway so every single molecule that your DNA makes and codes for is a protein so it's say strings of protein strings of amino acids make this big long chain of amino acids and then they fold and and bind in certain ways and they're adding different you know subgroups and you know lipids and and carbohydrates and other proteins and things like that onto it and um uh to to make it into its final protein form but it's all protein it's all amino acids so those amino acids get used as building blocks they're not used as calories you know predominantly unless you're just not eating enough of other things and then you have to sort of um cannibalize those things to to get energy but that's not that's not their main purpose their M purpose is the structural components for the molecules that your body makes and so you have to have these in proportion you have these massive proteins hundreds of thousands of Dalton a dalon is the weight of a of a hydrogen uh proton right and so you have hundreds of thousands of you know proton equivalents and ways big molecules right so you need a lot of these things if you're just low on even if you have everything else but you're just low on lysine it just stops right there when you go up to the making this big long chain of amino acids you get to the licing you don't have it it stops can't go any further so you know it's not that you know it just shuts down production on every single protein that your body's making you just don't have enough lysine so you need the proportionality it's not you just need oh you need x amount of grams of protein whatever protein no you need the proportions and so again the plant versions of these things a they're not bioavailable you can't get enough of them and they don't have the right proportionality and there's no single plant that has all the essential amino acids and there are other conditionally uh essential amino acids such as carnitine and torine that maybe people don't make enough of only 70% of people make enough carnitine and they have to get those 30% of people onethird of the globe needs to get carnitine from a dietary source and it does not exist in Plants same with torine and if you're eating fiber that can really screw up your torine as well because torine is made in the liver it's expressed in the bile and then you absorb fat with that bile and you absorb the torine at the same time whereas if you eat fiber it binds to the bile and eliminates it and people say oh that's so great it lowers your cholesterol you don't want to lower your cholesterol that's what your body's made of which all your hormones are made out of which your brain is made out of and you're going to lose your torine as well so you're going to get torine deficiency and especially if you're eating a whole bunch of nasty ass plants with a bunch of disgusting fiber that's bad for you it's an anti-nutrient and it blocks out the absorption of up to 30% of your nutrients and it strips out other nutrients and bile with torine you'll get deficiencies and you'll get deficient in torine because you're not getting in torine from your your diet because you're not eating a lot of meat and you're stopping your body from absorbing the torine that you make in your liver and Express in your bile because you need a whole bunch of horrible fiber I mean this is this is so there's so much evidence to show that this is just not good for us we should not be eating fiber it really disrupts our normal physiology like torine um the torine absorption that we have to have hey guys just want to take a second to thank our sponsor at carnivore bar I don't promote many products because honestly all you need to be healthy is to just eat meat for those times that you're out hiking road tripping or stuck at work and you want nutritious snack that is just meat fat and salt if you want it the carnivore bar is a great option so I like this product not because it's just pure meat but also because I want the carnivore Market to thrive as well and the more we support meat only products the more meat only products there will be available in the mainstream so if this sounds like something you'd like to get behind check it out using my discount code Anthony to get 10% off which also applies to subscriptions giving you 25% off total all right thanks guys whey protein in particular while it can have a lot of the essential amino acids and in better much better form uh and proportionality and um absorbability bioavailability um it's uh you know it's an isolate right and so you know this is where you know sort of looking into this a bit this is sort of where that that um rumor came from that you can only absorb you know 25 to 40 grams of protein at one time you just can't can't do anymore than that and so it's just like ah it doesn't matter you have like a big mule a bunch of steak oh you're just wasting that you're just you know um not absorbing any of that protein that doesn't make sense you know you have lions that take down you know big wilderbeast you know once a week and then they Gorge themselves on that carcass they're only absorbing 40 grams of protein a week really probably not the Mongols gasan the Mongol or these big Burly bastards took over most of Asia and most of Europe largest contiguous Empires ever existed they were carnivores and they would often eat uh once every five days it would just ravage the countryside for five days in a row not have cook fires not be slowed down by all a sudden no one knew where they were they were coming from and just bam they just come in like a thief in the night and just you know blow away their enemies and um then they eat 10 pounds of H meat in one go and do it again right so they're only getting 40 grams of protein every five days probably not um so those came from studies with whey protein and so you say oh whey protein you go in they're only absorb abbing about 25 grams of the Whey Protein because it's ni late and it just goes through when you're eating meat you're eating a whole food it's not just the isolate that's just there and then gone it's like liquid and it just goes through your small intestine too quickly to be absorbed that's the key thing there's a study that came out recently that people that eating over 100 100 grams or more of protein actually have a significant Improvement in anabolic uh and hypertrophy um uh results versus 25 grams so that sort of blew out that that idea that um you can only absorb a certain amount at a time I never I never bought that anyway um but that's those are the studies that that that came from was whey protein so so you can only really absorb about 25 grams of protein from whey isolate or from these isolates but if you're just eating meat or eggs well takes your body time to break those things down and then draw those in so it actually gives you time it's like a time relase capsule so it's not just like quick and right through you it's slow and it's slowly like ebbing off some some aminos and you're absorbing it as it's breaking down and then you get through the whole thing of it and it's you and you can absorb that so it gives your body time to absorb it and you can absorb more at a go if you wanted to take some whey protein I mean you can I don't think you need it you just eat eat more meat eat more eggs you'll get tons of protein you get hundreds of grams of protein you know if you're a big guy and eating a lot you get hundreds of grams you don't need to add in you know a 25 gram scoop of whey protein or a 50 gram scoop of whey protein you just don't need it um and you may not absorb it all that well either you're going to absorb uh the meat the eggs better much better and you're going to get the nutrients all with it so um that's what and also like the wheight protein always comes with like artificial sweeteners or even sugars and and flavorings and all that sort of garbage you just don't want any of that stuff um there are things that only have whey protein or only have beef isolate those are better you know but again you're still going to come into the not being able to absorb all that much of it and not getting all the nutrients that normally would come along with it uh and you just don't need it it's just it's an added expense that you don't need just eat meat eat eggs you cut that dish the apples and and you'll do great you'll get plainy protein what your body does I mean my asthma like massively improved I still have asthma you know it's like it's exercise induced and sort of you bit of a tiing it's not like it was it's not close to what it was um when I was eating vegetables filthy filthy vegetables but you know allergies to these sorts of things I mean that's that can be sort of a different you know different kettle of fish