It's booty season. Everyone wants a perky butt to act as a shelf for their jeans. Pancake ass doesn't look good on women or men. But training is only part of the battle. Then there's the diet that can make or break your glute gains. So, how much protein should you eat to grow your glutes?
You should eat 1.6 g of protein per kilogram or 0.8 g per pound of bodyweight to grow your glutes. This protein intake will maximize glute development.
This might sound like more protein than you're used to eating. So how can you get this protein in easily, and how many calories are you supposed to consume to get a bigger butt?
How Much Protein To Grow Glutes?
The current evidence suggests 1.6g per kilogram of bodyweight is the sweet spot for maximizing muscle growth [1]. That translates to approximately 0.8g per pound. So, if you weigh 135 lbs, you would aim for 108 g of protein daily to eat enough protein to maximize glute gains.
If you love meat, you can bump this up to 1 g per pound of bodyweight or 2.2 g per kg of bodyweight. However, this doesn’t seem to infer further growth in muscle mass [1]. You also must be aware of your other macronutrients.
Too much protein, and you must lower your carbohydrate and fat intake to stay within your caloric budget. Depending on your activity level, recovery and lifting performance could be more challenging.
How Many Calories Should You Eat To Grow Glutes?
To gain muscle, you need to be in a caloric surplus. Meaning you must eat more than you use daily. But it's not a short-term caloric load as we'd like it to be. Eating a ton for one day isn't going to help you grow your glutes if you forget to eat the following days.
Instead, think of it as a weekly average. By the end of each 7 days, your daily average should exceed your caloric maintenance. How do you know what your maintenance is? There are a couple of ways to figure this out.
First, you can track your weekly dietary intake using an app like My Fitness Pal. Weigh yourself each day to ensure there are no drastic body weight changes. Take your daily average at the end of the week, which is your maintenance calories.
The second option is much easier but will require some trial and error. Take your bodyweight in pounds and multiply by 15. For example, if you weigh 130 lbs, your estimated maintenance calories are 1950.
This could slightly over or underestimate your maintenance calories. Still, if you weigh yourself each morning, you can quickly adjust if you lose weight.
To eat to grow your glutes, you need to eat more than your maintenance calories daily by 200-300 calories initially. So, in the above example, 2250-2350 is the range. If you’re not slowly gaining weight doing that, then you’ll need to bump these numbers higher.
It will depend on many factors, like your activity level and training experience.
What To Eat For Glute Gains
There is no shortage of foods you can eat for glute gains. Here’s a table below of different sources of protein, carbohydrates, fats, and mixed foods you can eat:
Protein | Carbs | Fats | Mixed |
|---|---|---|---|
Lean Chicken | Rice | Olive Oil | Milk |
Lean Beef (Ground or Steak) | Pasta | Nut Butters | Eggs |
Canned Tuna | Bread | Avocado | Greek Yogurt |
Lean Pork | Oats | Cell | Cell |
Egg Whites | Potatoes | Cell | Cell |
If you struggle to eat enough food to grow your glutes, you can turn to weight gain supplements that allow you to drink your calories. They can be an easy alternative to get protein and carbohydrates without feeling as full.
Summary
Growing your glutes isn’t about stuffing your face with any food at the local buffet. You need to be strategic. And protein intake is one of the essential macronutrients to get right. If you don't eat enough, you'll struggle to grow your glutes regardless of how hard you train.
References
1. Morton, R. W., Murphy, K. T., McKellar, S. R., Schoenfeld, B. J., Henselmans, M., Helms, E., ... & Phillips, S. M. (2018). A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults. British journal of sports medicine, 52(6), 376-384.