eli5: How come gorillas are so muscular without working out and on a diet of mostly leaves and fruits?

Question

eli5: How come gorillas are so muscular without working out and on a diet of mostly leaves and fruits?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Put a human on anabolic steroids, feed them 2500kcal of broccoli per day (that’s 200g of protein) and they would be able to gain a lot of muscle.

With adequate protein supply our muscle mass is limited by hormone levels and sensitivity to hormones. Humans evolved the levels we have because apparently it was just the right amount of muscle to have. For gorillas it seems to be advantageous to have more muscle mass.

Things like bamboo shoots contain surprisingly much protein per calorie.