Protein Question

Greetings, I am just starting to use my account on here, and have been tracking my nutrition for a few days now. What I am noticing is just by eating a typical day of food (healthier choices in mind), I am eating above the recommended protein daily. Is this an issue? should I be consciously trying to eat LESS protein? I feel like carbs are probably my larger concern, so perhaps I shouldn't focus on the protein number so much, as long as I am close to the target on everything else. Does anyone else struggle with this, and if so, how are you adjusting your food choices?

Thanks!

Replies

  • Hadabetter
    Hadabetter Posts: 942 Member
    MFP sets protein requirements too low, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many folks on this site. This is especially true if you do weight training, or exercise vigorously. I've got my protein requirements set at 1g per pound of lean body weight, which for me comes to about 150 grams a day!
  • julesxo
    julesxo Posts: 422 Member
    I think they have it too low. I eat about 100-115 gs per day.
  • RunForChai
    RunForChai Posts: 238 Member
    I always eat more protein. I am building muscle--and am careful to eat quality, lean organic protein. Protein helps build muscle and cuts my cravings.
  • jasonp_ritzert
    jasonp_ritzert Posts: 357 Member
    MFP is 'carb-heavy' in my opinion. I aim for 1 gram of protien/lb of body weight. Since I weight 217 lbs, I shoot for abut 200-250 grams of protien/day. You can manually change the amount of protein manually in the settings under the custom settings.
  • richardheath
    richardheath Posts: 1,276 Member
    Recommended protein intake is from 10-35% of your total calories. I forget what MFP sets it as be default, but its down at the low end. You can change your goals to set it higher. I do a lot of strength training and have mine at 30%, which is just over 1 g per lb of body weight for me (175 g/day).

    http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/protein
  • jloar
    jloar Posts: 2 Member
    Great, thank you! I thought I was nuts. I am a carbaholic, so I need to watch those and the sweets much more than I need to worry about how much protein I am eating! Appreciate you taking the time to give feedback!
  • Why on earth would eating less protein be a good thing? As long as you don't have a pre-existing kidney problem and you're still hitting your minimum fat intake, you could make your diet pure protein if you really wanted to. Just hit your protein minimum (1g per pound of lean body mass), stay in a deficit, and enjoy shredding up.