HOW MUCH PROTEIN DO YOU NEED PER DAY

synnglemommm

I've also noticed that MFP has me on needing 70 grams of protein a day, it increases if I exercise. Does anyone know if MFP adds the correct number of protein needed when you add your exercise? Or how do you know how much you should have per day? I know that I need more protein if I'm going to be working out more, but it's all new to me and don't know which way to go or how to figure out what is needed?

To give a little background, I started healthy eating and exercising on 2/24/13 and so far have lost 68.7 lbs. I was doing an outdoor functional fitness routine with a friend who is a trainer and did it as a group 2-3 times a week as well as going to the gym on the other days doing cardio and now and then some stationary weight machines. But the yard workouts gave us functional, power days and endurance days. That stopped the end of August with them opening up a new gym (Powerhouse Gym) and so I just started going to that gym this week and stopped the other. I do about 45 mins of cardio (mix of elliptical and ARC machine) and then will do some functional stuff with sand bags doing walking lunges, upper body, and arm exercises, box jumps, push ups on tires as well as rope whips. If I don't do that it's strictly about an hour of cardio. I haven't started using the free weights or machines there yet as it's a bit new to me.

My question is when I start doing more of the weights, how do I know how much protein to eat each day. I am trying to still lose another 28 lbs and become a bit more toned and really change myself. Any suggestions, comments and ideas would be greatly appreciated.

cdahl383

I would think somewhere between 0.5 to 1.0g per 1lb of bodyweight would be about right, depending on your goals and current weight. If you're wanting to lift weights to put on some muscle, I'd try to eat around 0.7 to 1.0g of protein per lb of bodyweight. Try to get this from just regular foods (meat, dairy, nuts, etc). If you come up short protein powders are convenient ways to add in some protein.

I weigh around 200 lbs currently and I've been aiming for 150-175g of protein per day and its pretty easy to do even on a calorie deficit. I'm just trying to retain the muscle I have while I lose some fat.

70g per day is probably the RDA minimum which is pretty low and more for sedentary people. If you're active you want to ramp that up a bit, and if you're trying to add muscle, you'll want to add even more into your diet.

wilmnoca

.8-1g per lb of LEAN body mass

1capybara

average or typical = 2.5 oz/day = 71/g per dfay, but I gotta agree, that varies per your size and exercize

AnabolicKyle

minimum 90g of protein per day if on a calorie deficit

http://www.fasebj.org/content/27/9/3837.abstract