Hitting my protein target

sojcherb

I find that I have trouble hitting my protein target. I am 61, 5'6", weight 193 and my first goal weight is 180. I have been weight training for many years and my trainer would like me to have about 150 grams of protein a day. I just started back on MFP this past week and see that I'm only hitting about 100-120g a day and I'm going over on the carbs, especially because I eat a lot of vegetable. But I am hitting my calorie target so I need suggestions of how to boost my protein.

Wiseinwellness

We are in the same boat and on a very similar journey!

I have been working with a naturopath on macronutrient goals, also because I am weight-training while losing weight, and have encountered the same issue as you. My naturopath recommended I do a double scoop of protein powder in a morning smoothie (this is a green smoothie I already have as part of my routine) which will add 46 grams of protein for 220 calories, in particular she wants me to hit my target within 24 hours of the time I weight-train. I just bought flavorless whey yesterday to try this, so I am about to explore the impact of this.

Otherwise I was focusing on lean meats like chicken and it still wasn't enough.

Good luck!

sojcherb

@torontojulie I know, right? What kind of protein powder are you using? I have tried the pea proteins and hate them so I'm using whey - but I find that some whey powders also bump up my carbs too much.

neanderthin

sojcherb wrote: »

@torontojulie I know, right? What kind of protein powder are you using? I have tried the pea proteins and hate them so I'm using whey - but I find that some whey powders also bump up my carbs too much.

Whey protein isolates have almost no carbs. Also you say your carbs are high because you eat lots of veg and most veg have few carbs, starch of course is a different thing. Maybe look at where your adding carbs in your diet. From there it's easy to make adjustments and of course the best source of lower calorie protein are from animal products. Cheers

Retroguy2000

You seem to be really hardcoded into thinking because your trainer suggested X grams carbs and Y grams protein that you must hit exactly those targets. I really don't think you need to fear going over X grams carbs because of vegetables. And if you do, won't your fat calories be lower, unless you're loading up salads with tons of high calorie dressing? So that should balance out wrt total calories.

Are you training hard with weights multiple times a week? If you are then 150g protein is a good amount. If you aren't, if your main exercise is some walking or cardio say, then the 120g protein you're currently getting is just fine.

EDIT: A quick glance at your diary suggests the issue isn't vegetables, it's a significant chunk of total calories from high calorie snacks and spreads.

AnnPT77

I don't completely agree with the post above that your carbs are all about snacks, but that's certainly a factor. You're also eating relatively higher amounts of grain, which is of course healthy food, but it has quite a few calories (mostly from carbs) for the amount of protein (which you're trying to increase).

If you find the grains really filling, then they may be worth the calories. For me, reducing those portions to create some calorie room was one of the ways I got my protein up. For example, I like oatmeal and find it filling, but I cut my serving to 30g (about 1/4 cup) and add a nice dollop (112g) of plain nonfat Greek yogurt (66 calories, 11.9g protein) among other things. I don't know whether that's a good strategy for you or not, because satiation is very individual, so tradeoffs are individual, too.

Compared to what I eat, I'd say - based on a glance at a few days of your diary - you're tending to choose higher-sugar (higher carb) fruits, like bananas and pears. No question, those are tasty and nutritious. As with the grains, I don't know how important those specific foods are to you. But 100g of pear has 15.2g carbs and 57 calories, where 100g of strawberries have 7.7g carbs and 32 calories. On the one hand, that's a small difference . . . on the other hand, small differences add up over the course of a day.

I'm not seeing, in looking at your diary, that the carbs from veggies are a big factor. Obviously, that's just opinion, and it's coming from a biased source. (I make it a point to get 800g of veggies and fruit daily, if possible - and it usually is. From that bias, you don't eat all that many veggies. )

Many of the things in your diary that are double-digits carb grams are bread, crackers, sweet fruit, treats. Yeah, carrots and beans are in there with double digits, too - but not the main pattern-maker, IMO.

What I'd recommend, if you want to increase protein from food, is a method:

Take a look at your diary over a few days, so you're analyzing patterns (routine habits), not just single foods. This works for other goals, but since your goal is increasing protein, scan for foods you eat regularly that are relatively high in calories, but relatively low in protein. Then, ask yourself some questions:

* Is this food in this quantity/frequency important to me for feeling full?
* . . . for other nutrition that's important to me?
* . . . for tastiness, practicality, affordability or other compliance-influencing factors?

If the answer is "no" or "not necessarily in that quantity/frequency", those are foods you can reduce or eliminate. Then, replace those in your rotation with other foods you enjoy eating that better help you meet your goals. This can be a way to change routine eating habits to reach personal goals.

Since the goal is protein in this case, this thread should be helpful:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also

For sure, protein powder is an option, and it can be a good one. Personally, I prefer to get most of my nutrients from foods rather than supplements - just a taste/preference thing, not a religion - so if I want to modify my eating patterns, I use the approach I've outlined above to tweak my routine habits in the direction of those goals.

I'm not as convinced as others that your protein needs to be as high as 150g daily. It really depends in part on your current body composition, fat vs. muscle.

If you've been strength training regularly - or doing some other strength-challenging exercise/job - you may be more muscular than the average 5'6" woman. That matters. Estimating lean mass is complicated, but 1-1.2g of protein daily per pound of lean mass ought to be adequate.

I'm 5'5", age 67, lift only a little, but carry slightly more muscle mass than most women in my demographic mainly from 20 years of a strength-challenging sport. I figure I have something slightly less than 100 pounds of lean mass, so now - at maintenance calories - target a minimum of 100g protein daily, usually hit 115-130g (as a vegetarian), and figure that's fine. Doing that for 7+ years now, I haven't experienced any difficulty with strength performance.

You could consider looking at this evidence-based protein calculator for another viewpoint:

https://examine.com/protein-intake-calculator/

This is a site that is generally regarded as a sound source of unbiased, evidence-based nutrition information. They don't sell supplements. (They sell summaries of nutrition research, which puts a premium on reasonable accuracy in their public offerings, I would think.) They explain their reasoning about protein in this document, complete with footnotes to the relevant research:

https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/

I understand that you do trust your trainer, which makes sense, and that several people above seem to endorse that higher goal. I'd observe that some of them are males, and may not have an intuitive context for evaluating your current weight and weight goals. Truth in advertising: I started losing weight around your current weight (SW 183) at 5'5", and am now in the lower 130s, which IMO is not stupid-thin at my level of muscularity (it's actually a few pounds heavier than I'd prefer, post-holidays). It may be thinner than some women would prefer to be, though.

Clearly, I don't know your ultimate goals or anything about your current body composition, and that matters.

Best wishes!

Retroguy2000

Ann, this is the second thread where she says veggies are the reason she's going over the daily carbs goal (as if that needs to be set in stone anyway, it's the total calories that are more important). She said (in the other thread in the health forum) she's worried about having a larger salad. Her number one concern in two threads has been about veggies and my point is that worry is misplaced.

I looked at yesterday e.g., something like 83g out of 231g carbs were veggies, total just over 400 calories out of 2,000. Those are not the problem. Meanwhile there were 300+ calories from ice cream and almond butter. One less ice cream and she could have 25% more veggies and still be at the same calories.

I suggest have a larger salad if you want, and if that puts you over X grams carbs for the day, don't worry about it so long as you're under your daily calorie target and with enough protein.

AnnPT77

Retroguy2000 wrote: »

Ann, this is the second thread where she says veggies are the reason she's going over the daily carbs goal (as if that needs to be set in stone anyway, it's the total calories that are more important). She said (in the other thread in the health forum) she's worried about having a larger salad. Her number one concern in two threads has been about veggies and my point is that worry is misplaced.

I looked at yesterday e.g., something like 83g out of 231g carbs were veggies, total just over 400 calories out of 2,000. Those are not the problem. Meanwhile there were 300+ from ice cream and almond butter. One less ice cream and she could have 25% more veggies and still be at the same calories.

I suggest have a larger salad if you want, and if that puts you over X grams carbs for the day, don't worry about it so long as you're under your daily calorie target and with enough protein.

I agree with that conclusion, absolutely. I eat ridiculous amounts of veggies/fruits, don't worry about carbs at all. I do make it a point to get what I consider to be adequate protein, and I also need to go for a fats minimum, because I tend to under-eat that if I don't pay attention (that's not very common a problem IMU).

Reviewing a few days of her diary, I saw that day (Saturday) but it was somewhat unusual. I agree that salad is seriously not the problem. Even carrots, which she mentions, are not as big a contributor of carbs as bread/grain type stuff and fruits, over a period of days. Bread/grain isn't evil, nor is fruit - quite the contrary - but that's the pattern I was seeing over days. Even on that one day (Saturday) with ice cream, bread/grains were 74g of carbs (not even counting the tortilla chips), the ice cream and chocolate were 54g, if I did the math right. She does eat the chocolate chips fairly often, but those are only 3g carbs.

I agree with you about the veggie concern being misplaced. She does eat beans regularly (IMU that's what the "cholent mix" is), and those are high in carbs, but do also contribute some protein and good fiber. I'm not sure what the source of 16g carbs in the kale salad is, but it's not likely kale (which has 20g carbs in a whole pound!).

Only she knows which foods are important to her for satiation or other important reasons, but there's theoretically room in there for lots more veggies, and veggies aren't the heavy hitter in carbs, as a pattern, IMO. I believe in looking at patterns over days when possible - that's a picture of eating habits. The Saturday ice cream looked like a day with unusual treats, not the routine pattern over the last few days.

That's why my main recommendation was a review/analysis process, to look at her patterns through her eyes . . . though I did point out choices I might've made differently (filtered through my own personal preferences).

kshama2001

sojcherb wrote: »

I find that I have trouble hitting my protein target. I am 61, 5'6", weight 193 and my first goal weight is 180. I have been weight training for many years and my trainer would like me to have about 150 grams of protein a day. I just started back on MFP this past week and see that I'm only hitting about 100-120g a day and I'm going over on the carbs, especially because I eat a lot of vegetable. But I am hitting my calorie target so I need suggestions of how to boost my protein.

I'm also female, 5 years younger, same height, similar weight. I think 150 g protein/day is needlessly high for someone with our stats.

I also endorse the reputable protein calculator mentioned above:

https://examine.com/nutrition/protein-intake-calculator/

I shoot for 500 calories of exercise per day, and when I achieve that, using the MFP default of 20% protein aligns with the protein recommendation from examine. If I were completely sedentary, I'd need to bump it up to 30%.

sojcherb

@AnnPT77 and @Retroguy2000 I am so sorry that I missed your comments and analysis of my diary from back in March! I am new to these discussion boards and neglected to look back for more comments. I really appreciate the time that you both took to read through my diary. (I wouldn't even know HOW to look at anyone else's). Since March I have made some more changes in my eating. I've cut down a lot on the ice cream that I was eating way too often and I believe I've cut down a lot on bread as well. Weekends are a challenge for me since I am Jewish and Sabbath observant and we tend to have more lavish meals on Friday night and Saturdays but I'm trying to pare down those meals as well. I also cut my daily calorie target from 1800, to 1750 and, recently, to 1700 hoping that if I make slow decreases in calories that I will adjust to it eventually.

AnnPT77

sojcherb wrote: »

@AnnPT77 and @Retroguy2000 I am so sorry that I missed your comments and analysis of my diary from back in March! I am new to these discussion boards and neglected to look back for more comments. I really appreciate the time that you both took to read through my diary. (I wouldn't even know HOW to look at anyone else's). Since March I have made some more changes in my eating. I've cut down a lot on the ice cream that I was eating way too often and I believe I've cut down a lot on bread as well. Weekends are a challenge for me since I am Jewish and Sabbath observant and we tend to have more lavish meals on Friday night and Saturdays but I'm trying to pare down those meals as well. I also cut my daily calorie target from 1800, to 1750 and, recently, to 1700 hoping that if I make slow decreases in calories that I will adjust to it eventually.

This may not work for you, but some people go with a slightly lower calorie goal on weekdays in order to have a few more calories to work with on the weekend. Even 50-100 calories less on 5 days creates some decent wiggle room for the weekend.