Protein intake

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Guitarjon
Guitarjon Posts: 204 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Right, long term goal is to be around 8% body fat with a good deal of muscle. The short term goal is to get the body fat down while preserving as much muscle as possible.

I've been tracking calories in order to loose weight but I'm worried that as I'm now lifting heavier and working out that I'm not only going to be loosing body fat. I don't actually have an accurate way of measuring body fat but I'm 5 foot 10 and weigh 119kg. My body fat weighing scales say 36% but I'm not sure how accurate this is. I do have a fairly big frame and broad shoulders.

I know a few people have commented on here that the standard goals are a little low. I was talking to a guy in a supplement shop earlier who does compete in body building conpetitions etc and is ripped. Well below 8% body fat I'd say. He seemed to know what he was talking about as I chatted to him. I showed him myfitnesspal app and he said he's used it in the past. We got onto talking about protein as that's what I went into the shop to look at as I'm not getting enough in. He then looked on his phones calculator after I told him my goals and my current weight. He said I should be eating 236grams of protein to preserve as much of my current muscle as possible.


My question is does this seem high as I'm currently set to 97grams of protein a day. I'm happy to put it up but I wonder if when I told him my weight he thought that was lbs and not kg?

Replies

  • Cortelli
    Cortelli Posts: 1,369 Member
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    The common suggestion is 1 gr of protein per lb. of lean body mass. A recent study suggests, at least for trained athletes, that somewhere between 1.1 and 1.4 gr per lb. lean body mass while in a deficit might be better to preserve LBM. Obviously you don't know your LBM exactly, but I don't think estimating is somewhere around 150 - 160 lbs would be wildly off (and if anything, probably high for someone 5' 10" without a history of lifting and largish muscle mass before letting the fat creep on).

    No expert here, but if I were in your shoes, I'd shoot for about 175 grams per day. 236 grams sounds awfully high - almost exactly 2 grs / kg of total weight - but you're unlikely to be harmed by eating a lot of extra protein, except in your wallet if it results in having to buy a lot of protein in supplement form from the guy's store :wink:

    ETA: spelling, and the thread started by QuietBloom about a month back with the study abstract and link is here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1167386-review-of-dietary-protein-during-caloric-restriction?hl=protein+study
  • terizius
    terizius Posts: 425 Member
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    I'm in the opposite situation - I'm 145lbs and working to gain muscle mass. In the past month, I've gained 8 lbs and my body fat % hasn't changed (tested weekly for last 3 weeks). My average protein is 233g for the month of January. My goal was 1.5g/lb (217 grams/day). I haven't had any issues at all with the extra protein and I credit it for the lean gains. I would say that 97 grams is way low for your size. On the other hand.. as Cortelli mentioned, protein is a rather expensive way to get calories..
  • Guitarjon
    Guitarjon Posts: 204 Member
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    The bit about him selling the stuff did get me thinking.

    I have lifted in the past and do have some muscle already. Just a lot of fat covering it. I'm strange, not your typical fat person shape if that makes any sense.
  • Cortelli
    Cortelli Posts: 1,369 Member
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    I'm in the opposite situation - I'm 145lbs and working to gain muscle mass. In the past month, I've gained 8 lbs and my body fat % hasn't changed (tested weekly for last 3 weeks). My average protein is 233g for the month of January. My goal was 1.5g/lb (217 grams/day). I haven't had any issues at all with the extra protein and I credit it for the lean gains. I would say that 97 grams is way low for your size. On the other hand.. as Cortelli mentioned, protein is a rather expensive way to get calories..

    Yeah - I haven't done any real research about suggestions when bulking (soon!) -- the common suggestion and the study I referenced is all about maintaining LBM during a caloric deficit through adequate protein intake and appropriate resistance training. May very well be advisable to significantly increase protein intake when adding mass (and I'm sure multiple threads at bodybuilding.com, if not here at MFP, could point to relevant research).
  • vanguardfitness
    vanguardfitness Posts: 720 Member
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    It might be hard eating that much protein. Protein is annoyingly (but in a good way) filling. But I think, if you're cutting calories and lifting the last thing you want to drop is protein intake!

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