How much daily protein in needed?

ironanimal

Most recommendations you will see are based around the average sedentary individual who isn't looking to gain or lose weight. Protein is more important to people gaining or losing weight to retain or build muscle. The most common recommendation in the fitness community is 1g per lb of bodyweight.

Arkhos

First it will depend on whether you are strength training. If you are then consume more protein. You can also consume more protein to feel more satiated throughout the day. There is not really a downside to having higher levels of protein.

A more scientific look at how much protein is beneficial points to 0.64 g/lb, or if totally on safe side, 0.82 g/lb (body weight not lean body mass). But you may not even be at those elite levels. http://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/

The only people that may actually need more protein than 0.82g/lb are people with unusually high levels of anabolic hormones. Androgen or growth hormone users definitely fall into this category, but I don’t exclude the possibility that some adolescents do too. If you reach peak testosterone production while still growing (in height), your unusually high levels of growth hormone and testosterone might increase your protein requirements. Or not. There’s no research to support it. Those rare individuals with amazing bodybuilding genetics could also qualify, but unless your father happens to be a silverback gorilla, you are most likely just like other humans in this regard.


On a final note, there’s nothing inherently wrong or unhealthy about consuming more protein than your body can use to build muscle. The excess will simply be used as energy. However, protein sources tend to be expensive compared to other energy sources and variety generally beats monotony with regards to your health, so satiety and food preferences are the only reasons I can think of why somebody would want to overconsume protein.



Take Home Messages
• There is normally no advantage to consuming more than 0.82g/lb (1.8g/kg) of protein per day to preserve or build muscle. This already includes a very safe mark-up. There hasn’t been any recorded advantage of consuming more than 0.64g/lb. The only exceptions to this rule could be individuals with extraordinarily high anabolic hormone levels.
• Optimal protein intake decreases with training age, because your body becomes more efficient at preventing protein breakdown resulting from training and less protein is needed for the increasingly smaller amount of muscle that is built after each training session. The magnitude of this effect is unclear.



This article in 6 words: Consume 0.82g/lb of protein every day.

sijomial

You might find this article by Lyle McDonald interesting....

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/protein-intake-while-dieting-qa.html

annemw333

I get between 90 and 140 grams a day. I had gastric bypass surgery nearly 4 years ago and it's one of the things one has to commit to when having the surgery. It's super important during the recovery period and after that, it's important while losing weight so you don't lose too much muscle mass.

As far as too much goes, so long as you have healthy kidneys, you don't really have to worry about too much protein. Most normal healthy people (unless they are doing those gross protein shot things all the time), cannot consume enough protein in a day to affect the health of their kidneys. If you do have kidney problems, it's best to talk to your doctor about how much protein you should be consuming so as not to aggravate your condition or cause you any harm.