Q: Can you build more muscle by eating small amounts of protein?

A: You build muscles by stressing existing muscles until they tear, and then recuperating until they build back stronger. You need enough protein in your diet to rebuild the muscles you're stressing. The more active you are, the more protein you need. But nobody's protein needs come close to the amount of protein pushed by bodybuilding mags and low-carb quacks.

Concentrate on fatiguing the muscle reasonably quickly, rather than building endurance. One of my favorite workouts is the 4-minute pushup marathon. (I've never been a pushup kind of guy, so I find it extremely challenging. In fact, on FitFam TV, there's a 4-minute video of me getting my butt kicked on the pushup marathon.)

It's 15 seconds of pushups, 15 seconds of rest, for a total of 4 minutes. Try to do the same number of pushups the last set as the first set.

And yes, you absolutely need protein to grow and repair muscle. But guess what? Vegetable protein is at least as good as animal protein for building muscles, and it comes without the extra cholesterol, fat, hormones and antibiotics.

If you're doubtful that vegetable protein grows muscle, think about the largest, strongest land animals: elephants, hippos, rhinos, gorillas. Non-meat eaters (gorillas sometimes snag insects and small mammals, but are essentially vegetarian).

And vegetable protein comes at a much lower caloric cost. You mentioned fat burning as one of your fitness goals. By choosing vegetable protein, you can reduce the amount of fat you need to burn.

Trick question: what has more protein, beef or broccoli?

Answer: Broccoli, by almost 2-1. When you measure by calories. 100 calories of broccoli has about twice as much protein as 100 calories of steak.