Given the essential role of protein in body function and structure, it’s no wonder that athletes have often assumed that more is always better. This became crystal clear to Robert Wolfe, PhD, who holds the Jane and Edward Warmack Chair in Nutritional Longevity at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. After talking to body-builders at a conference, he calculated that they were getting more than five times the amount of protein recommended for a normally active person.

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These bodybuilders ate huge amounts of protein because they thought they needed it to build and maintain their muscles. Indeed, protein serves as a structural part of skeletal muscle and bone (along with many tissues, organs, blood cells, hair, and nails). In addition, two proteins, actin and myosin, compose about 50% of total muscle proteins and they are the primary proteins that enable muscles to contract.

Although protein intake at five times the recommended intake level is certainly excessive and unnecessary, there are “some studies showing that if you’re doing weight lifting or other power sports, a higher protein intake helps you gain muscle faster,” says Wolfe.

But proteins have functions that extend beyond their contractile role in muscles: enzymes catalyze chemical reactions in the body, hormones regulate nearly every bodily function, hemoglobin transports oxygen, and albumin transports a variety of nutrients. Proteins also have central roles in immunity and blood clotting. And proteins help maintain a proper balance of fluid around the body, both inside and outside cells, which wards off swelling (such as in the ankles) and supports a normal blood pressure.