Increasing Protein goal

dlkverobeach

It was recommended to increase protein while on my current med to 0 .7 times my current weight. This would be 123 gm for me. The MFP calculated goal is only 60, 20%. Do I need Premium in order to adjust this in my goal? And if I increase the protein what other part of my goal has to decrease ?
Thanks for your help!

AnnPT77

No, you don't need premium to adjust your goals.

But in free MFP - at least last I knew - you could only adjust your macro goals in 5% increments. When I used free MFP, I just adjusted my percents to come close to my gram goals at base (pre-exercise) calories, and kept a round number of grams in my head (around that number) that I wanted to treat as my minimum, and ran with that. If my MFP totals were over/under on the app, but I was close to where I wanted to be, I didn't fret about it. That has worked fine for me.

A few other things, partly about the "what to decrease":

• Protein and fats contain essential nutrients, so we need to eat some for best health. For myself, I figure 0.35-0.45g fats per pound of body weight as a minimum, though men might get away with a bit less, maybe 0.30g? Carbohydrates are more flexible in that technical sense, since our bodies can manufacture their own carb-equivalents from other intake. (Some people need to manage carbs because of a health condition, or have an individual experience that keeps them in a certain carb range for best personal satiety and energy level - I'm talking generically here, not about special cases.)
• It's fine to be over even your own goal for fats/protein, within reason, IMO. Personally, I use carbs as the variable to balance calories. If you feel better with more fats, or more protein than whatever you decide is your desired minimum, that's OK, too. Something's got to decrease to balance calories if another is going to increase, but it's up to you.
• Here, you don't mention your current body weight or weight goals. IMO, the 0.7g/lb idea is reasonable for someone relatively close to healthy body weight, but can be seriously overkill for someone currently severely overweight, making it very difficult to get good overall balanced nutrition on a reasonable calorie goal. Since we don't need bunches of extra protein to maintain our fat mass - it's mainly for maintaining lean mass - it makes sense to base protein gram goals on a healthy goal weight. Here again, though, that's a generic comment. If it's your doctor telling you to eat more protein, eat more protein. Similarly, if someone's significantly underweight, 0.7g/lb could be lower than ideal. I'd usually suggest 0.6-1.0g minimum daily per pound of healthy goal weight, with where to fall in that range depending on current weight and personal goals . . . maybe a little higher in some unusual cases. For myself, for a variety of reasons, I'm shooting for around 0.8g minimum, and usually exceeding that; that's also just a bit over 1g per pound of estimated lean body mass.
• If your protein advice is coming from someone other than a doctor or registered dietitian, this may be a useful resource: https://examine.com/guides/protein-intake/. . It is evidence-based, and offers links to the relevant research. If you're over 55-60, as I am, here's another resource, one that discusses medical conditions in addition to generic needs: https://www.jamda.com/article/S1525-8610(13)00326-5/fulltext
• You mention the MFP goal coming out much lower than the rule of thumb you're applying. That's not surprising. If you look at sources like USDA, they often recommend lower amounts, too. ( https://www.nal.usda.gov/human-nutrition-and-food-safety/dri-calculator ) The resources linked above will discuss some of why that might be so. MFP's default values tend to be based on mainstream advice. Those defaults may reasonably be modified for individual circumstances. (USDA says I need 48g; I shoot for a minimum of 100g; I usually average 110-120g daily over a week.) Another possible pitfall with MFP's or any other percent-of-calories estimate: If a person tries to lose weight aggressively fast, adequate nutrition becomes impossible. I'm assuming that you may have a medical source for your calorie goal as well as your protein goal? If so, like I said, run with that. But if you have a personally expert-recommended protein goal but are asking for a weight loss rate you yourself choose, that's another consideration. Fast loss isn't necessarily better loss: It can also be higher health risk. A medically supervised situation can vary from what's self-directed, when it comes to being a good plan.

Best wishes for success!

P.S. Truth in advertising: I'm not a credentialed expert, just a regular person who's done some reading to improve my own nutrition. Other than the resources linked, the above is my opinions based on that reading. I do try to follow science-based sources.

nossmf

@AnnPT77 let me wow you with a little math in public…

If .7g/lb is 123, working backwards means current BW is 175
If 60g protein (240 kcal) is 20%, then the daily calorie goal is 1200

Daily 1200 calories at BW 175 sounds pretty extreme to me, but I'm not a woman.

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48626024#Comment_48626024

Good point.

Hard to tell whether 1200 is too low, though. Depends where it's coming from. It's the lowest MFP will recommend for women, as you know.

1200 is also the classic that many doctors still recommend to women, even when it's not a good plan: Some people think that some doctors lowball the recommendation down to 1200 for all women assuming people won't comply accurately.

For me, at 5'5", current age 69, and if I weighed 175, and were sedentary, Sailrabbit thinks my TDEE would be 1600-1700, so in theory with those numbers, 1200 would maybe be OK, or on the only slightly aggressive side of OK depending on other factors. We know nothing about OP's activity level or other demographics.

All that said, I tried eating 1200 when MFP suggested it was right for me, when I wasn't far off that 175, and when I was 10 years younger. It was way too low, lost too fast, got weak and fatigued - no one needs that kind of thing. But I know I'm a mysteriously good li'l ol' calorie burner, and many women in my demographic need to eat 1200 for a moderate and sensible loss rate.

Also, I still don't know exactly what "It was recommended to increase protein while on my current med to 0 .7 times my current weight." means, i.e. recommended by whom, because of what med. That's possibly important. High protein intake is recommended when healing from something quite serious, high sarcopenia risk, during some cancer treatments, when using a GLP-1 drug, among some other cases.

1200 always worries me, gotta admit. But sometimes it's the right number. 🤷‍♀️