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Analysis v1
Strong Support

If you eat enough protein (like 25g per meal), your muscles will grow even if you eat almost no carbs—carbs aren’t needed for building muscle.

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Pro
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Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

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Community contributions welcome

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Carbohydrate intake and resistance-based exercise: are current recommendations reflective of actual need?

Narrative Review
2016 Dec

This study found that even if you eat very few carbs, your muscles can still grow as long as you get enough protein—because carbs don’t control the main signal that tells muscles to grow.

Contradicting (0)

0

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Carbohydrate intake and resistance-based exercise: are current recommendations reflective of actual need?

Score: 1
DOI: 10.1017/S0007114516003949

Similar Assertions

Eating more carbs doesn’t make your muscles grow bigger when you’re already getting enough protein and calories — your muscles respond more to lifting weights than to how many carbs you eat.

45
0
81%

If you're lifting weights and want to build muscle, eating at least 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight every day is the most important thing — and eating even more protein (like 0.5 extra grams per kg) helps you gain a little more muscle on top of that.

67
1
78%

If you're lifting weights and want to build muscle, eating at least 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight every day is the biggest factor that helps — more protein means better results, and when you eat it doesn't matter as much.

67
0
77%

Adequate protein intake preserves muscle mass, which maintains metabolic rate.

50
0
77%

When athletes are trying to lose weight by eating fewer calories, eating more protein (about 2.3 grams per kilogram of body weight) helps them keep more of their muscle compared to eating less protein (about 1 gram per kilogram).

38
0
75%