Men: Protein and maintaining muscle mass.

vizsla99

Hey Gang -

Looking for some guidance from people on protein consumption requirements to maintain muscle mass. I've always carried a lot more muscle than the average male in my legs. A few years ago I worked out with a personal trainer 4 days a week and built quite a bit in my upper body as well. A change in careers and not paying attention to myself allowed me to get FAT! MFP has been a great resource to keep myself accountable now. I love the no BS support and ideas I pick up from everyone on the site....thank you.

I'm 6-2 and currently weigh 268. Given my frame size and build I think 225 is a pretty good end weight for me. That should drop me in to a pretty low body fat percentage. Over the last two months I've dropped about 30 pounds just sticking to the caloric intake guidelines on MFP (1,800 currently). I always exceed my protein by 1.5 to 2 times the suggestion by keeping my diet low-fat and lower carb. So far the pounds have just been dropping off me. It's amazing how MUCH food we eat when we don't monitor intake. Up until now I haven't worked out any, but at some point I'm going to add workouts. I plan on doing this when my loss rate starts to slow to give my body a bit of a kickstart again.

Here are my questions:

Do you think my current protein consumption is enough to maintain my current muscle mass? Currently I'm somewhere around 100 grams a day which again...is 1.5 to 2 times what MFP recommends. I've always heard you had to have 1 gram per lb of body weight but I don't know if that is true or just an urban legend. It seems almost impossible to eat 1,800 calories a day if I'm supposed to get 1 gm per lb of body weight. Also, if I do start lifting and cardio workouts...how much, if any should I add to my current protein amount? My goal is to have great muscle definition but not add a bunch of additional muscle mass. I think if I was down to between 10 and 14% body fat I would look like I want to look.

Thanks in advance for any advice on this! I really appreciate everyone's success stories, recipes, and camaraderie.

mstentz

Hey --

First, congrats on dropping the 30 lbs, that's awesome!

Second, the quick answer to your question is that nobody quite agrees on the perfect amount of protein. I've done a lot of reading on this, and it seems that most nutritionists and doctors now agree that for strength athletes, you should eat 1.4 - 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. That translates into about 0.6 - 0.8 grams per lb. So, for your target lean weight of 225 lbs, you should probably be eating 135 - 180 g of protein each day if you're actively lifting. On the other hand, if you're not looking to add a bunch of mass, you could probably be fine at about 0.8 g/kg, which translates into about 0.5 grams per pound, or a target of 112 grams/day.

There are a bunch of different websites about this, but this one has a nice chart showing your suggested intake at different activity levels:http://btc.montana.edu/olympics/nutrition/eat11.html

Also, there is good science showing that more than 2 g/kg (0.9 g / lb) does not help, so I wouldn't recommend going above that.

On a side note, Greek Yogurt has fairly high protein, it keeps you full for a while, and there was a recent study from Harvard scientists showing that yogurt is the best food to lose weight & keep it off. More on that here: http://healthland.time.com/2011/06/23/study-the-best-and-worst-foods-for-weight-loss/

Hope this helps!
Mike

vizsla99

Thanks Mike! I really appreciate your advice. I've read a lot about Greek yogurt but honestly don't like the taste of it very much. I am a big fan of Danon Light and Fit yogurt. I eat it several times a week. Any thoughts on that product?