Help! I think I'm all protein'ed out!

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atichnell
atichnell Posts: 18
in Food and Nutrition
I tried to make sure I hit my goal of 40% of my calories being protein yesterday and I went a little overkill, ended up with 54%. Usually I end up having between 15-25% of my calories from Protein... I've noticed if I have too many carbs (40-50% of daily calories) I don't lose weight/inches, even with exercise. So I know it's important for me to up my protein intake a little. Also, if I eat like 40% of my calories as protein (averages out to about 140g according to the MFP App) I feel like I can't eat anything else to round out my daily calories needed. I'm so full I can't eat anything else without forcing myself to do it. Yesterday I had to force myself to eat 300 calories of something just to make my 1300 calorie goal before exercise. I don't think that's all that healthy either. Is there some secret to not feeling like I'm doing nothing but stuffing my face with chicken, turkey or beef? I lowered my goal for protein to 35% but I don't want to go too low with it because I'm concerned I won't keep losing weight/inches.

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  • imtrinat
    imtrinat Posts: 153 Member
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    Generally speaking, you want to keep your protein around 1 gram per pound of lean body mass. That's not total body weigh. You can find a calculator online. This number could be higher or lower depending on your personal goals. After you find out how many grams of protein you need, reset your macros to reflect that number.

    Of course, you can ignore the advice above and stick with the percentages you have set in MFP. It may make your carb % too high by sticking with the protein info from above. Different strokes :)

    If you find that you end up feeling too full at the end of the day and you are under calories, reach for a more calorie dense snack. Peanut butter is a good option. Two tablespoons has a couple hundred calories.
  • atichnell
    atichnell Posts: 18
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    Thank you for your response. I looked up how to calculate how much protein you need by your lean body mass and it said I needed my body fat percentage, which I don't have. I'm going to sound completely ignorant here, but I bought a set of those pinch things gym teachers used to use but it said on the paper if you're considered obese not to use them because they won't be accurate... So I did some calculators online where you enter in different measurements... I did 3 calculators and got 3 very different answers. So I don't know what to believe. LOL But even so, with that it said my protein intake would be between 60-90 g per day. Since I lowered my protein percentage to 35% earlier today, it says I need 114 g protein, so it's not too far off.

    It's funny you say peanut butter. I love it and that's what I've been reaching for when I'm not that hungry but need to use up calories at the end of the day.
  • imtrinat
    imtrinat Posts: 153 Member
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    114 sounds about right. Most women shoot for about 100 grams per day.

    The online calculators are really bad at figuring out body fat and they always overestimated mine by several points. Calipers are a lot more accurate but you need to measure several times and it can vary greatly if they are in the wrong places. They take practice. I got mine measured using an electronic body fat calculator. You grip it with you hands and it sends a pulse through your body. The problem with it is that it will read differently depending on water/food in your body on whether you have just exercised. Body fat % is a tricky thing to figure out. I gave up and decided to start going by my measurements instead. Even the scale lies to me. I haven't lost a single pound in two months but my waist is 4 inches smaller! I'm smaller all over, actually.

    This link is just an estimate of lean body mass. It seemed to be on par with the others I checked. http://fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Lean-Body-Mass
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
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    Thank you for your response. I looked up how to calculate how much protein you need by your lean body mass and it said I needed my body fat percentage, which I don't have. I'm going to sound completely ignorant here, but I bought a set of those pinch things gym teachers used to use but it said on the paper if you're considered obese not to use them because they won't be accurate... So I did some calculators online where you enter in different measurements... I did 3 calculators and got 3 very different answers. So I don't know what to believe. LOL But even so, with that it said my protein intake would be between 60-90 g per day. Since I lowered my protein percentage to 35% earlier today, it says I need 114 g protein, so it's not too far off.

    It's funny you say peanut butter. I love it and that's what I've been reaching for when I'm not that hungry but need to use up calories at the end of the day.

    If you don't know your bodyfat percentage, target bodyweight can be used
  • PriceK01
    PriceK01 Posts: 834 Member
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    Try looking for high protein sources that aren't meat. That's what I'm trying to do. Nuts, seeds, soy, bean, whole grains, etc.

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