Protein?

mbrownks77

I had a grilled chicken breast with brown rice for lunch. But, now I have only 5 grams of protein left for the day. Does anyone know if it hinders your weightloss to have too much protein? If so, how much is too much? I am so confused! I thought chicken was good for you!

meganwojo

I eat between 60-70 g of protein a day. 10 extra grams isnt going to hurt if you go over ...however, if you eat an excessive amount such as 40g added per day(atkins diet etc) eventually it will cause a lot of stress on your kidneys. Your fine eating a little bit over, I always do

pettmybunny

My registered dietician set me at 100g of protein a day. It's 25% of my daily intake. MFP sets their values according to RFD or USDA or whatever, and it's too low, IMO.

CasperO

Weight trainers eat monumental amounts of protein. Your body has to really work to metabolize it into energy, but it turns into new muscle tissue pretty easily.

When a bodybuilder is "cutting",,, trying to lose weight by losing bodyfat to gain muscle definition they (we?) eat big proteins and minimize carbs. Almost atkins really.

The cal's have to come from somewhere, and there are basically 3 choices. Fats-Carbs-Proteins. Nothing wrong with a little more protein and a little less of the other 2 once in a while. I prefer it!

kgrutch

you can go under settings to "custom" and change the percentage of fat, protein, carbohydrates for the daily totals. i used to do 40% carbs. 40% protein and 20% fat, now that i am at my goal weight i do 45% carbs, 30% protein and 25% fat. i have read various books and sources that all have different opinions, now i just go by how my body feels and how i feel with the different percentages.

SHBoss1673

My registered dietician set me at 100g of protein a day. It's 25% of my daily intake. MFP sets their values according to RFD or USDA or whatever, and it's too low, IMO.

25% is good. MFP uses the amount you would use if you were sedentary (no exercise, and a desk job for example), IMHO it's a bit low, but you can customize your goals (click goals, and redo your goals using the custom option) and just change the percentages. Anything between 20% and 30% is usually a decent percentage for protein, depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

ers1012

I have my daily intake set for 200g, usually go over by 25g or so & am not on dialysis. I've been doing it for over 2 years.

CAworkout

I also found that the standard setting is really low. It says I should have 45g, even after inputting in my exercise level- 1-2 hrs/5-6 days/week. Other sites and resources I've checked have listed more and I shoot for 100g per day. How much protein you eat really depends on what your goal is, but as long as it's lean protein you should be okay.

samseed101

Weight trainers eat monumental amounts of protein. Your body has to really work to metabolize it into energy, but it turns into new muscle tissue pretty easily.

When a bodybuilder is "cutting",,, trying to lose weight by losing bodyfat to gain muscle definition they (we?) eat big proteins and minimize carbs. Almost atkins really.

The cal's have to come from somewhere, and there are basically 3 choices. Fats-Carbs-Proteins. Nothing wrong with a little more protein and a little less of the other 2 once in a while. I prefer it!

This is what I'm doing right now. I just finished up on a nice little bulk and I'm in the middle of a cutting phase. So My protein levels are way up there while my carbs are a bit lower. I find it much easier to maintain lean mass while shedding the fat if I stick to this method.

I can't imagine EVER only getting 15% of my macros from protein. For me, that would be a sure fire way to lose weight, but it would be in the form of muscle mass. Not what I'm looking for.

mbrownks77

Thank you all for the input! MFP has me set at 74 grams per day so I'm thinking it won't hurt if I go over a little bit!

aj0831

In order to exercise you have to have protein to give you energy I am sure if you went over 30 or 40 you could exercise a little harder . You have to have protein and I know a lot of people that were servilely over weight and went on high protein diets and lost a lot of weight and kept it off. Every body is different in possessing foods. I hope you find your balance take care and God Bless

SHBoss1673

In order to exercise you have to have protein to give you energy I am sure if you went over 30 or 40 you could exercise a little harder . You have to have protein and I know a lot of people that were servilely over weight and went on high protein diets and lost a lot of weight and kept it off. Every body is different in possessing foods. I hope you find your balance take care and God Bless

your statement "In order to exercise you have to have protein to give you energy" is incorrect. In fact the body sees protein as a less than optimal energy source, especially for exercise type activities. A more accurate statement would have been, "In order to exercise your body needs energy, which usually comes from carbohydrates, without those carbohydrates, your body will use protein, which means less protein is available for building and repairing muscle, this is bad for most people attempting to lose weight." That would have been far more accurate.
And the statement " I know a lot of people that were servilely over weight and went on high protein diets and lost a lot of weight and kept it off" really has little to do with the protein, and a lot more to do with the amount of calories they are consuming (among all the other things at MFP we talk about).

I'm saying this not to tell you your mistakes, but to point out that we all need to really dig into what we are doing and have a solid understanding of metabolism and nutrition so we truly understand what makes our bodies gain and lose weight.