Protein goals

vlnielsen519

I just started using MFP after several years away. Wow! Things have really changed. I am using the free version. After I started tracking I noticed that my goal for protein is set to over 100g per day. The recommended amount for women is 46 g/day and men 56 g/day. Why is this goal so out of whack? Please advise.

DallasFilby

According to both my dietician and personal trainer, the RDI for protein is the minimum amount needed to survive rather than thrive. They both suggest for males to have at least 1g per kg of body weight and more if you are doing large amounts of physical activity or particularly if you're older. They told me that generally the only people that get too much protein are those who are sedentary and eat large amounts of processed and fast foods. I have found the recommendations on MFP for myself leans towards the lower end of my protein requirements. I'm over 60 and work out 6 days a week. MFP is recommending to me to have around 80g a day, however since i took my trainers advice and upped it to around 110g per day i have noticed a reduced rate of muscle loss over the last couple of years as well as better muscle recovery after a workout.

chicbuc

I don't know if that's the actual recommended daily amount because it definitely seems low. I always aim for 100 grams or higher during weight loss to mitigate muscle loss.

vlnielsen519

Thanks chicbuc. I have seen various recommendations from various sources but most are around 50 g for my weight. That is for normal circumstances and probably needs to be adjusted if one is trying to lose weight. I could shoot for 75 and see how that works re weight loss. How much muscle loss is there per pound of weight lost? I also thought that doing weight bearing exercise during weight loss would increase muscle mass and mitigate possible loss.

Corina1143

When I weighed 260 years ago, my dietitian set my minimum protein goal at 60 grams. It was very easy to hit and surpass. I'm a lot older now, thinner, less muscle. I've upped my protein goal a little, but not nearly as much as lots of people do these days. It's still easy to go over most of the time.

AnnPT77

I believe MFP's default protein goal is 20% of calories. If your calorie goal is 2000, 100g would be 400 calories of protein, which would be the default goal at that calorie level. If your calorie goal is not 2000, but your protein goal is 100g, your goals have been reset from the default values somehow, some way, at some time.

I see that you first joined MFP in January, 2015. I joined in July, 2015. The default protein goal has been 20% since I joined, to the best of my knowledge.

You can set your goal in free MFP to any percentage you prefer, in 5% increments. (In premium, you can set macro goals in grams or percents, in smaller increments.) If you don't want it to be 100g, reset it.

Estimating macronutrient needs as a percentage of calories is one very standard, common way to do it (inside or outside MFP).

Estimating by grams is another. There are more and less nuanced ways of setting by grams. The USDA method is (I also agree) a minimal amount for good nutrition based on quite generic estimating parameters. Research suggests many people can benefit from more protein than the USDA values. Some of those groups are people who are 55-60+, athletically active (even recreational athletics), losing weight, and some other categories. You can read more about that here, if interested:

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

(That's from a site that sells research summaries, not protein supplements. They have a good reputation.)

Personally, I like estimating my protein needs in grams. I've run the calculator at the site I just linked, and it gives me a value range that overlaps the results from a common rule of thumb around here, 0.6-1g per pound of healthy weight, for an athletically active person in weight maintenance like me. For convenience, I aim at a minimum of 100g daily, and usually exceed that. When I was using free MFP, I just set my protein percent at the 5% increment that got me closest to my minimum at base calories, but aimed at that easy-to-recall gram number.