{"id":425476,"date":"2026-02-14T14:19:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T14:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425476\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T14:19:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T14:19:21","slug":"why-2g-of-protein-per-kilo-is-the-muscle-building-formula-that-works-and-the-trick-to-make-it-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/425476\/","title":{"rendered":"Why 2g of Protein Per Kilo Is the Muscle-Building Formula That Works \u2013 and the Trick to Make It Easy"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Morehen caters to an unusual clientele. The rugby<\/a> players he advises range from around 75kg to 135kg, meaning he\u2019s required to meet the nutritional needs of players who are almost double the weight of their teammates \u2013 a peculiarity in team sports, which tend to produce fairly homogenous bodies.<\/p>\n

Working in tandem with England Rugby\u2019s chef, Thomas Kirby, the double act prepare huge volumes of food<\/a> to keep players fuelled and on the pitch. He explains that the internationals he works with can consume 6,000 to 7,000 calories on a match day, and anywhere upwards of 3,000 calories on a \u2018recovery\u2019 day. <\/p>\n

So what can us regular folk learn from the behemoths who play the game? For one, Dr Morehen says, if you have any ambition of building muscle<\/a>, then you should be eating protein like an England international does. Or in his words, eating like a king.
<\/p>\n

Why You Should Up Your Protein Intake<\/p>\n

\u2018The World Health Organisation guidelines on protein intake are 0.8g per kg of body mass. So if you weigh 100kg that means you need 80g of protein<\/a> a day.<\/p>\n

\u2018But every single person that reads the literature around this agrees that actually the minimum should be 1.6g. So, now, if you\u2019re 100kg, you actually need 160g of protein a day. What we\u2019re seeing is that in the general population, people are just not eating enough protein and protein is that master regulator of building muscle mass<\/a>.\u2019<\/p>\n

Dr Morehen explains that he advises his players to hit 2g per kg of protein per day. \u2018So now, if you\u2019re 100kg, that\u2019s 200g of protein,\u2019 he says. If you\u2019re someone who\u2019s strength training or ripping the gym four or five times a week, then this is an approach you should be taking, too.<\/p>\n

But how to do that? If you consider the average chicken breast<\/a> contains around 30g of protein, a 100kg man would need to eat seven of them a day to reach his protein need. That\u2019s difficult to do if you\u2019re eating a regular breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. The answer is to increase the \u2018windows of opportunity\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018A lot of people in the UK will just have breakfast, lunch, dinner,\u2019 says Dr Morehen. \u2018But if you\u2019re genuine about building muscle mass, you need to have multiple intakes of protein throughout the day.<\/p>\n

\u2018We go breakfast, mid-morning, lunch, mid-afternoon, dinner, pre-bed. We\u2019ve got six windows of opportunity to get protein<\/a> in, and if you did 30g of protein times six, that\u2019s 180g of protein a day. All of a sudden, it\u2019s quite easy to increase that total amount, providing that you increase your windows of opportunity to consume it.\u2019<\/p>\n

There is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to the macro, says Dr Morehen, and anything above 3.5g \u2018just becomes a really expensive food bill\u2019. But increase your protein intake to around 2g per kg and you\u2019ll feel the benefit in everything from the appearance of your skin to your cardiovascular health, not to mention the size of your guns.<\/p>\n

Post-Match Menu<\/p>\n

Dr Morehen explains what players eat in the minutes and hours after a game.<\/p>\n

After the Game<\/p>\n

Post-match, Dr Morehen\u2019s first thought is what can he get into the players before they enjoy a celebratory beer. To put them on the path to recovery, he\u2019ll make sure finger foods and drinks are plentiful, including sushi, chicken goujons, chocolate-flavoured milk<\/a> and protein shakes. \u2018If a player gets that into them, I\u2019d be like, \u201cHappy days we\u2019ve started well,\u201d\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n

At the Hotel<\/p>\n

The recovery process continues as players return to their digs, with foods such as chicken burgers, sweet potato wedges and loads of vegetables. \u2018I\u2019ll make up recovery smoothies for the lads, which will have mixed berries and cherry active [supplements], milk, protein powders<\/a>, etc,\u2019 he says. \u2018I\u2019m just trying to get all of those antioxidants into them.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Following Morning<\/p>\n

The morning after the game, players are encouraged to eat omelettes made from three to four eggs and loads of veg, as well as things like bacon medallions, avocados and poached eggs. There\u2019ll also be berries, yoghurts, milks and bread on offer. \u2018At Pennyhill Park [England Rugby\u2019s base], they have an award-winning bakery, so we enjoy quality breads that are home-made,\u2019 says Dr Morehen. \u2018I\u2019ve got no problem with the boys ripping into slices of sourdough on that recovery day for gut health, as well.\u2019<\/p>\n

Related Stories\"Lettermark\"\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Sam Rider is an experienced health<\/a> and fitness<\/a> journalist, author and REPS Level 3 qualified personal trainer. Having covered \u2013 and coached in \u2013 the industry since 2011, he’s road tested every workout concept, training accessory and diet plan<\/a> you could dream of, while quizzing titans of the industry and reporting on the physical and mental exploits of Olympic athletes, World Cup winners and CrossFit<\/a> Games champs. In 2016, in the name of science, he underwent a clean bulking transformation, packing on 10kg of lean mass in 10 weeks, before promptly dropping 10kg in two weeks after tearing his ACL on the football pitch.Sam graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in History and completed his NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at News Associates in Manchester.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Morehen caters to an unusual clientele. The rugby players he advises range from around 75kg to 135kg,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[156168,379,156166,381,102,1156,6636,156165,156167,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-425476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-collection-nutrition","9":"tag-content-type-news","10":"tag-contentid-7aaaacbe-56b7-4cb9-8346-8cd0747c4fcb","11":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-locale-gb","14":"tag-nutrition","15":"tag-shorttitle-youre-undereating-protein-this-is-how-to-fix-it","16":"tag-subsection-food-drink","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}