Protein recommendation for CURRENT WEIGHT- not ideal weight.

MzDontStop

Protein

How do I make sense of the protein recommendation? Please help.

Protein recommendation for CURRENT WEIGHT- not ideal weight... Please help

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-diet/NU00200

Protein is an important nutrient, essential for growth and development. All the cells of your body include protein. Protein is also an important source of calories and energy. Both plant-based and animal-based foods provide protein.

Recommendation: Get 10 to 35 percent of your total daily calories from protein. Protein has 4 calories a gram. Based on a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet, this amounts to about 200 to 700 calories a day, or about 50 to 175 grams a day. Emphasize plant sources of protein, such as beans, lentils, soy products and unsalted nuts. Include seafood twice a week. Meat, poultry and dairy products should be lean or low fat.

dancingdeer

I generally try to eat my weight in protein - so for me around 130 grams.

What kind of mix do you have your "goals" set to for a ratio of protein/carbs/fats? You can play with the numbers so you have the amount set for protein - then you'll easily be able to tell whether you are where you need to be.

MarieNevada

it seems pretty straight forward to me. look at how many calories you are eating now. say 1600. work out your percentage, say 30% of calories from protein. 1600 x 30% = 480 cals. so 480 cals shoudl be protein. remembering that one gram of protein has 4 calories, divide the calories by 4. 480/4 = 120. so you should be eating 120 grams of protein per day if you're eating 1600 cals. i dont know what your calories are now but just plug that into the formula and work it out that way.

ArtificiallyBalanced

The best thing I ever read was to eat (in grams) the amount of protein of what your goal weight is. So every day I aim to eat between 120-135 grams of protein. This makes my total calorie count lower and carb count lower as well! I eat a lot of egg whites, natural peanut butter, lean grilled chicken and salmon to get my protein up and it results in eating less carbs. I have nothing against GOOD carbs since im a runner, and the good carbs have protein in them too! I eat Flatout brand whole wheat wraps and they have 9 grams of protein in them alone. I LIVE on egg whites! They are my favorite things ever :-)