Eating 600g of protein a day provides no additional muscle-building benefit over a far more moderate intake.

noli's read

Once the motivational packaging is stripped away, the implicit claim — that eating enormous amounts of protein builds an outlier physique — is clearly overstated. The reference meta-analysis (Morton et al. 2018, 49 trials, 1,863 participants) puts the plateau for lean-mass gains around 1.6 g/kg/day, with the upper confidence bound at 2.2 g/kg/day. Even for a 130kg bodybuilder, that tops out around 285g/day — less than half of the 600g claimed. Beyond that plateau, excess nitrogen is simply oxidized for energy or excreted, with no added benefit to muscle synthesis; a recent isotope-tracer study (Trommelen et al. 2023) found no per-meal ceiling on protein utilization, but that doesn't overturn the daily plateau established by lean-mass trials. The number mostly serves the champion's legend rather than a realistic or necessary recommendation — training, genetics, and decades of practice explain a physique like Ronnie Coleman's far more than protein quantity alone.

the sources

1. 1Morton RW, Murphy KT, McKellar SR, et al. 2018
2. 2Leidy HJ, Clifton PM, Astrup A, et al. 2015