Q about protein intake

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kelhea
kelhea Posts: 52 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Is it suppose to be 1g of protein for every pound of body weight, or 1g of protein for every pound of lean weight? And if it's lean weight, how do I figure that out!

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  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
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    The RDA for adequate protein for most adults is 0.8 grams per kilogram of ideal weight. That's about 46 grams of protein per day for non-pregnant, non-lactating women and 56 grams for men.

    Dietary Reference Intakes: Macronutrients

    The recommendation I've seen for optimal protein (especially if body building or losing weight) is 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass or 0.8 grams per pound of your ideal weight (middle of normal BMI).

    As for LBM, this should give you a good ballpark: Lean Body Mass Calculator
  • jennybearlv
    jennybearlv Posts: 1,519 Member
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    I use lean mass, because I'm about 48% body fat. If you are slimmer either will work. You need to have an estimation of your lean body weight to use the lean mass version. If you have a scale that estimates BF% you would multiply your body weight by the fat percentage then subtract from your weight. So, in my case 244 - (244 lbs * .48) = 126.88 lbs. So, I would need 127 grams of protein.
  • terbusha
    terbusha Posts: 1,483 Member
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    If you're at a lean body composition (from your profile, you are :) ), you can simply go with 0.8-1.2 g/lb of BODYWEIGHT. If you're looking to build muscle, then look more at protein distribution. Let's say that your goal is to eat 130 g or protein/day. For building muscle, it's a great thing to get 3-5 doses of protein in throughout the day (sports research suggests this is optimal for building muscle). With this in mind, split your protein up to 4 ~33g doses spread out throughout the day. That will get muscle building at a maximum level...of course when combined with a good resistance training regime.

    Happy lifting!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited December 2016
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    Lean mass (and even that is probably a bit higher than needed).

    Good proxy if you don't have an accurate estimate of body fat percentage is .8 g/lb if you are a healthy weight or of goal weight if not. Again, probably errs on the high side, especially for women, but no harm.

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