The Australian Institute of Sport, who we would hope knows something about building muscle, says that for male early resistance training athletes, 1.5-1.7g of protein per kg of bodyweight is needed, and less for established ones.
Getting this amount does not require consuming vast quantities of meat, still less supplements. As an example day,
Breakfast:
2 eggs with
1 cup of chopped mushrooms
1 cup chopped spinach
tablespoon of parmesan for taste
2 tsp oil for cooking
Lunch:
Chicken 125g (about 1/2 a chicken breast)
1 cup chopped mixed vegies
2 tsp butter for flavour for the vegies
2 tsp oil for cooking
Snack:
Greek yoghurt, 4/5 cup or 200g
apple
banana
Dinner:
Salmon 125g
2 cups salad vegies (lettuce, tomato etc)
2 tsp oil for cooking
1 cup milk
All this would provide 132g of protein, which at 1.6g/kg is enough for an 83kg man (a 5'11" man at 83kg would be BMI25) or 98kg woman, or anyone smaller. It would also provide 117g fat and 111g carbs, and 17g fibre. In all 2,021kCal. It meets the government recommendations of 6 serves vegies, 2 serves fruit, 3 serves meat and 2.5 serves dairy for a 19-50yo man.
It does not include any grains, which the govt recommendations say we should have 6 serves a day of. An active person wanting to drop body fat might omit most of the grains and/or choose the lower-fat versions of the things like yoghurt, someone training very hard would include them and perhaps choose higher-fat things like more eggs, steak rather than chicken, etc.
It's a misconception that as a novice or intermediate lifter (or runner, etc) you need vast amounts of protein and must eat like a horse with intestinal worms. Much of the ideas we have about higher protein intake come from the users of anabolic steroids, whose bodies can make use of a lot more than the rest of us, and from supplement companies. Apart from that it's just lazy article writing. "This'll rile them up!"
