too much protein help...

adunkin22
adunkin22 Posts: 47 Member
edited September 21 in Health and Weight Loss
I find that a lot of times I eat a little to much protein. I don't even eat a lot of meat. Sometimes it's just from having some tuna or a little bit of peanut butter throughout my day. Overall, how bad is it for me to eat more than my protein deficit on some days?

Replies

  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    How much are we talking. There are a few loose rules to shoot for. The one I most often turn to is 1 gram per pound of goal body weight. If not that, I'll shoot for 1 gram per pound of estimated lean body mass.

    I don't use MFP's nutritional tools, but I think I've seen others say it's goal for protein is a bit low.
  • adunkin22
    adunkin22 Posts: 47 Member
    so if my goal is to weigh 150, i should eat 150 grams of protein?
    i usually eat 15-20 over what mfp tells me to. they give me 42 daily
  • aippolito1
    aippolito1 Posts: 4,894 Member
    42g is not enough. Go to My Home / Goals / Change Goals / Customize and change to 50/30/20. 50 carbs, 30 protein, 20 fat, and set your fiber to 25-30g if it's set lower than that.
  • lreed
    lreed Posts: 348 Member
    The setting for protein on MFP are low in most people's opinion (mine included) I have been told to also shoot for 1 gram of protein for every pound that you weigh (which is really hard) I usually shoot for 100-150 grams (depending on if I am exercising and eating additional calories) you can change it as noted in a prior comment. You will stay fuller if you are eating more protein as well! If you do amp up your protein you definitely want to be sure you are drinking a minimum of 64 oz of water a day, and slowly add your protein, i.e. 10-20 grams per day (especially if you are starting at 40 ish. Goal yourself at 60 daily for a week, then add another 10-20 each week. Also, be sure you are adding lean protein, i.e. tuna, turkey, chicken, and some peanut butter :)
    Good luck!
  • david1956
    david1956 Posts: 190 Member
    I doubt if some tuna and a little peanut butter is too much protein.

    For pushing weights at gym I'm deliberately after a fair bit of protein, and have found that even with proetein shakes, meat or fish, and tuna in a day my diet is still only just what I'm after. Just saying, and my trainer agrees, most diets are almost certainly carb-rich unless you deliberately target a lot of good sources of protein.
  • deannawebb
    deannawebb Posts: 1
    Im under going WLS Lapband procedure, my surgen insists on me taking in 50-60 gms of protien daily. My goal weight is also 145-150
    Good luck!
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    so if my goal is to weigh 150, i should eat 150 grams of protein?
    i usually eat 15-20 over what mfp tells me to. they give me 42 daily

    Yea, that's way too low in my opinion.

    Unless you're very obese, which I can see that you're not, having adequate protein is one of two primary drivers that are in our control that help to preserve muscle mass while dieting. The other is resistance training.

    If you don't establish a "healthy" pool of amino acids (proteins) in your bloodstream by eating enough, your body, in the face of energy shortage, is likely to tap into its existing stores (muscle).

    Losing muscle is out of the question if you're going for the lean or toned look.

    Even the RDA, which is very conservative in my opinion, puts recommended intake at .8 grams per kg.
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    Im under going WLS Lapband procedure, my surgen insists on me taking in 50-60 gms of protien daily. My goal weight is also 145-150
    Good luck!

    Did you ask why?

    I'm not well versed or researched in all the ins and outs of that surgery as far as nutrition goes... but I find it odd that they're recommending such a low intake.

    Back in the day, in an attempt to cure obesity, they'd put people in fasted states consisting of low protein intake. The protein quality was low too, which didn't help, but long story short is the subjects would become very ill. Some would die. Reason being.... they lost muscle. Losing skeletal muscle is one thing... but when you start losing cardiac muscle something is a bit wrong if you ask me.

    Later things such as the protein sparing modified fast were "invented" where docs would recommend MUCH higher protein intakes to stave off muscle loss and thus preserve a modicum of health in the face of very strict energy intakes.

    Now there might be a very specific reason for your doctor to be recommending this to you, which I'm sure is the case. But it wouldn't hurt to ask for a recommendation.

    I also wouldn't expect what's being recommended to you to apply to "normal" folks who are attempting to lose weight naturally.

    Good luck.
  • stroutman81
    stroutman81 Posts: 2,474 Member
    And one more thing. Sorry for the triple post!

    Suppose you're 175 lbs. A very generic estimate of maintenance calories, assuming you're active in exercise most days of the week, would be something like 14 calories per pound.

    That means if you were to eat roughly 2450 calories per day, you'll maintain your weight.

    If you only consume 50 grams of protein, given that each gram of protein contains roughly 4 calories (which can be argued), you're only eating 200 calories worth of protein.

    This leaves approximately 2250 calories left to fill!

    We only have a few other nutrients to choose from - namely carbs, fats and alcohol.

    Carbs contain 4 calories per gram.

    Fats contain 9 calories per gram.

    And alcohol contains 7 calories per gram.

    It's recommended, in very general terms, that no more than 30% of calories come from fat. In this example, that would mean that 735 calories would be coming from fat.

    With the protein and fat combined, this would still leave roughly 1500 calories to fill.

    If it were to come from all carbs, that would total 375 grams of carbs. That's fine for some folks, but overweight folks tend to be insulin resistant, so scarfing down lots and lots of carbs probably isn't the best bet.

    Applying some logic and math to this tends to put things into clearer perspectives. Hopefully you followed me. If not, feel free to ask.

    This is all neverminding the facts we know about protein being the most satiating of the nutrients as well as offering the highest thermic effect, meaning a *slight* bump in metabolic rate.
  • peggy60
    peggy60 Posts: 40
    I asked that when I first started and everyone that replied that was fine...better to have more protien than too many carbs or fat!!! The protien is a little low on here....I go over almost everyday....GOOOD LUCK!
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