Adequate Protein Intake?

Slacker16

There's been a lot of threads about how much protein you need. People always give what they consider optimal protein intake but this strikes me as a bit strange.

I'm certain that you do need about tree fiddy grams of protein for maximal athletic performance and muscular development, but most people here - myself included - aren't professional athletes (or even excessively dedicated amateurs), they just want to be in semi-decent shape and look good nekkid. I'm pretty sure you don't need as much protein for that.

Anyone know what would be an adequate intake, i.e. enough to largely preserve muscle mass and health?

Unknown

This content has been removed.

Slacker16

It also includes figures for endurance athletes and sedentary individuals.

Very interesting article. Thanks.

Cortelli

There is not a one-size fits all answer -- it very much depends on one's goals, one's activities, and one's energy balance (i.e., losing weight vs. gaining weight). From what I have been able to decipher for myself, without laboriously citing all the studies and articles that make up the body of work that has determined my current outlook now: (1) if one is cutting, and reasonably lean already, and a non-novice / newbie to resistance training, and perhaps is in a greater deficit than the conventional wisdom on MFP would suggest, then a significantly higher protein intake than the bayesianbodybuilding article suggests might be appropriate; and (2) if one is bulking, and resistance-trained, maybe less is OK. I think being in a deficit can really impact where one might want to target their protein intake more greatly than a number of other factors.

Here's a recent survey of studies or study of studies - I like it because it reviews existing, available studies for characteristics that are important to *me* in determining where my protein intake should fall: the study parameters include results that come from adult (≥ 18 yrs), energy-restricted, resistance-trained (> 6 months) humans of lower body fat (males ≤ 23% and females ≤ 35%) performing resistance training. Protein intake, fat free mass (FFM) and body fat had to be reported in these studies (so not just nitrogen balance, etc.).

The study suggests that optimal protein intake under those circumstances was 1.1g - 1.4g per lb of LBM, scaling up with the severity of the energy deficit and existing leanness of the individual.

Study here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24092765

JossFit

The short answer is that for the "average person" (whatever the hell that is) protein intake should be 0.8g per kg of body weight. So, if you are 150 pounds your protein intake should be about 54g per day.

Seems low, right?

Well, that is the minimum RDA for the average person, so take it with a grain of salt.

Other recommendations (and this is an average... different studies vary slightly) state that for those who are lifting weights, active, athletes, etc. the intake should be closer to 1.2 to 1.8g per kg of body weight. That same 150 pound person would then be eating 81 to 122g per day.

As Cortelli said, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. I would err on the side of caution and at LEAST consume the RDA for athletes (1.2-1.8g per Kg)

Cortelli

So was just reading another thread in a different MFP forum and a poster named PikaKnight helpfully reminded me of these two links:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/823505-research-on-protien-intake

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1158604-eric-helms-protein-research

(the later link focuses in part on the study link I posted).

FWIW I consider many of the posters active in the above threads to be knowledgeable, serious, experienced nutrition, fitness, and "sciency" folks - so not just gifs and snark. To be clear, I love gifs and snark. Just like knowledge acquisition, too.