Protein

gingerenderly

It has been said that while I am trying to lose weight I need to increase my protein intake to 1 gram per each pound that I weigh. Unfortunately that is about 308 grams of protein right now. Yikes! Thats alot of protein. So my question is this, is three proteing shakes a day too much in order to help get that protein intake?

scottaworley

Three protein shakes isn't too much, per se, but I would recommend casein if you're not already using it. Also you might want to figure out your body fat % and eat 1 gram per pound of lean body mass rather than per pound of overall weight.

gingerenderly

Ok, great. That makes more sense. Thank you Scott.

CoderGal

First off I'd like to start off by saying that many people eat above 1g/lb and do fine, so don't be completely terrified and think you're poisoning yourself. I've never seen anyone poison themselves eating that much. However, from what I seen the highest benefit for those exercising get max out around:
~1g/kg of body mass
~.8g/lb of body mass or around
~1g/lb of lean body mass, not full body mass.
Where the above is assumed to be similar numbers

Based on the sound research, many review papers have concluded 0.82g/lb is the upper limit at which protein intake benefits body composition (Phillips & Van Loon, 2011). This recommendation often includes a double 95% confidence level, meaning they took the highest mean intake at which benefits were still observed and then added two standard deviations to that level to make absolutely sure all possible benefits from additional protein intake are utilized. As such, this is already overdoing it and consuming 1g/lb ‘to be safe’ doesn’t make any sense. 0.82g/lb is already very safe.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1031360-potential-protein-needs-and-calculating

I eat over 100g on a ~2000cal diet, and I am rather tiny (bottom end of 'healthy' on the bmi scale). Also protein has a high satiety so it can help you feel full for longer.

That being said, if your goal is health, I don't think anyone has determined that number, but it will be far above the minimum RDI value if you are overweight, or taller then average, etc etc, many factors, stay away from the minimum to avoid deficiency. If your goal is higher fat loss, and you're including exercise (and I cannot explain to you how much better I feel with exercise), and you're on a deficit, then I'd go with the .8g/lb of your weight. That's with someone for a sensible deficit. It's not a good idea to cut a bunch of calories and only eat mostly protein for example. You need fat to absorb many nutrients and carbs are great for helping repair your body. Balance.

MinnieInMaine

I agree wtih CoderGal. The formula gets confused a lot because it should actually be 1 gram per pound of lean body mass (LBM) but most people don't understand what this means so they think 1 gram per 1 pound of total weight is right. Your LBM is your weight without body fat - organs, muscles and bone - and for most women would be somewhere around 100 to 120 pounds. If you don't know your LBM you can use the formula of 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. Or you would probably be safe just aiming for 100 grams per day. Another option is to set your protein percentage to 30 by using the custom settings - at least for me this translates to about the same as 1 gram per pound of LBM.

Kelly_Runs_NC

Not at all. I weight 130 and I drink 2 shakes a day at 25 grams each. I'm usually way over on protein. It's a great nutrient so I don't mind at all. Keeps me full!

gingerenderly

Thank you for the replies. Helps me out.

scottaworley

I agree wtih CoderGal. The formula gets confused a lot because it should actually be 1 gram per pound of lean body mass (LBM) but most people don't understand what this means so they think 1 gram per 1 pound of total weight is right. Your LBM is your weight without body fat - organs, muscles and bone - and for most women would be somewhere around 100 to 120 pounds. If you don't know your LBM you can use the formula of 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. Or you would probably be safe just aiming for 100 grams per day. Another option is to set your protein percentage to 30 by using the custom settings - at least for me this translates to about the same as 1 gram per pound of LBM.

The formula does not get confused. There are differing opinions on required intake. Typically those who are actively building muscle do at least one gram per pound of body mass.

AJ_G

I agree wtih CoderGal. The formula gets confused a lot because it should actually be 1 gram per pound of lean body mass (LBM) but most people don't understand what this means so they think 1 gram per 1 pound of total weight is right. Your LBM is your weight without body fat - organs, muscles and bone - and for most women would be somewhere around 100 to 120 pounds. If you don't know your LBM you can use the formula of 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. Or you would probably be safe just aiming for 100 grams per day. Another option is to set your protein percentage to 30 by using the custom settings - at least for me this translates to about the same as 1 gram per pound of LBM.

The formula does not get confused. There are differing opinions on required intake. Typically those who are actively building muscle do at least one gram per pound of body mass.

http://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/

scottaworley

I agree wtih CoderGal. The formula gets confused a lot because it should actually be 1 gram per pound of lean body mass (LBM) but most people don't understand what this means so they think 1 gram per 1 pound of total weight is right. Your LBM is your weight without body fat - organs, muscles and bone - and for most women would be somewhere around 100 to 120 pounds. If you don't know your LBM you can use the formula of 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. Or you would probably be safe just aiming for 100 grams per day. Another option is to set your protein percentage to 30 by using the custom settings - at least for me this translates to about the same as 1 gram per pound of LBM.

The formula does not get confused. There are differing opinions on required intake. Typically those who are actively building muscle do at least one gram per pound of body mass.

http://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/

A couple things here:
The article states " If anything, you could reason the body should be able to use more protein during bulking periods." That's exactly what I was talking about. Active muscle building.
Second, though the utilization for muscle tissue might be capped at something like .82g/lb the idea that protein is only useful for building muscle is off base. Protein and the amino acids it contains are used by other tissues especially when the muscle utilization maximum potential has been reached.
Further, the question of maximum utilization, according to Layne Norton, depends heavily on the amount of amino acids contained in the protein source. What I take from this is that there is no 100% answer for the amount of protein that can be useful. How to apply this practically is by using a rule of thumb. For many that is 1g/lb, for others it is 1g/lbm, others say that .8g/lb is sufficient. What is important to remember is that there is really no such thing as too much protein, regardless of how "useful" the protein is.

ritchiedrama

Hey, you could definitely go for 0.82g per lb of bodyweight, or even 0.6 (plenty of MEN use this over at bodybuilding.com) so I wouldn't be too afraid, at all

good luck

water_coloured

If you are overweight/obese, it is recommended to consume 1g per lb LBM rather than 1g per lb weight. If you go by your body weight, the grams of protein can get pretty high - not that it's a bad thing, but you don't actually need that much.

To answer your other question, three protein shakes are fine.

CoderGal

I agree wtih CoderGal. The formula gets confused a lot because it should actually be 1 gram per pound of lean body mass (LBM) but most people don't understand what this means so they think 1 gram per 1 pound of total weight is right. Your LBM is your weight without body fat - organs, muscles and bone - and for most women would be somewhere around 100 to 120 pounds. If you don't know your LBM you can use the formula of 0.8 grams per pound of body weight. Or you would probably be safe just aiming for 100 grams per day. Another option is to set your protein percentage to 30 by using the custom settings - at least for me this translates to about the same as 1 gram per pound of LBM.

The formula does not get confused. There are differing opinions on required intake. Typically those who are actively building muscle do at least one gram per pound of body mass.

http://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/

A couple things here:
The article states " If anything, you could reason the body should be able to use more protein during bulking periods." That's exactly what I was talking about. Active muscle building.
Second, though the utilization for muscle tissue might be capped at something like .82g/lb the idea that protein is only useful for building muscle is off base. Protein and the amino acids it contains are used by other tissues especially when the muscle utilization maximum potential has been reached.
Further, the question of maximum utilization, according to Layne Norton, depends heavily on the amount of amino acids contained in the protein source. What I take from this is that there is no 100% answer for the amount of protein that can be useful. How to apply this practically is by using a rule of thumb. For many that is 1g/lb, for others it is 1g/lbm, others say that .8g/lb is sufficient. What is important to remember is that there is really no such thing as too much protein, regardless of how "useful" the protein is.

I disagree with there's no such thing as to much. That being said, to much seems to be far far far far more by leaps and bounds compared to what many people THINK is to much. And with that said the people I hear mention people who have suffered problems eating far far to much protein seem to be much more then the 3g/lb of body weight people, at which point maybe it's more to do with the fact they're eating not much of anything else (for example when protein goes up, so does calcium requirements). Or they are missing other things, or are getting it all way to quickly at a large calorie surplus.

scottaworley

I disagree with there's no such thing as to much. That being said, to much seems to be far far far far more by leaps and bounds compared to what many people THINK is to much. And with that said the people I hear mention people who have suffered problems eating far far to much protein seem to be much more then the 3g/lb of body weight people, at which point maybe it's more to do with the fact they're eating not much of anything else (for example when protein goes up, so does calcium requirements). Or they are missing other things, or are getting it all way to quickly at a large calorie surplus.

Okay, there can be too much, but any reasonable amount is not too much. To my knowledge there have not been studies on extraordinarily high protein intake diets.