Protein!!

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dmfear
dmfear Posts: 24
in Health and Weight Loss
I am having problems staying under the amount of protein I am allotted everyday. By the end of the day, I'll have 300 calories remaining but I'm over in proteins. For instance, today I had 2 egg whites and 1 thin slice of turkey breast and I cant have anymore proteins. I have cut red meat out of my diet. I work out 5 days a week and I do strength training (not to bulk up but become toned).

So my question is... Since I'm doing so much strength training should I not worry about going over in proteins as much? Should I actually be consuming more? How often do you all work out and do strength training... and how much protein are you allotted? Mine is 23 a day

Thanks!

Replies

  • ErinMarie25
    ErinMarie25 Posts: 733 Member
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    Do not worry about it. Heck, that's a good thing! Protein is essential for strength training.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Dietitians suggest that your protein intake be between 10 and 30% of total calories for a balanced diet. That being said for those that workout you should not get less than 15% which is still low and is what MFP defaults to. You can double the amount MFP gives you and still be in a "balanced" protein range. You may want to change your setting and up your protein goal to 20 or 25% of total calories and lower either fat, carbs or both.

    to make the changes go to goals, click change goals, select custom, make your changes then click save changes.
  • TateFTW
    TateFTW Posts: 658 Member
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    I want to be annoyed, becasue your like the 5th person today to ask about this, but I can't be because there are no STICKIES so we can have a thread about this for everyone to read.

    Protein is GOOD. Very good, actually, and you shouldn't stay under. In fact, for some reason MFP sets your protein way to low. Go to home, then goals, then change goals, and make your protein AT LEAST 30%. Mine is 40%. Now fill up and enjoy it.
  • murf19
    murf19 Posts: 453 Member
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    Hi, I agree that your protien may be to low. A good avg is 1 gram or just under per pound you weigh. So if you weigh 125 lbs, you'd want to bi in the range of that number in Protien for the day. Get those carb numbers down and add to protien and fat.
    Remember FAT is good, if its the good fats, (Peanuts, olives....)
  • Uptopargolf
    Uptopargolf Posts: 263
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    Agreed. Jesus MFP needs to either stickie this or change the percents.

    23 grams of protein a day? I eat that in one freaking meal. If you are working out hard, you need a bunch of protein. I eat about 50 grams per meal, 3 times a day. And about 20 grams as a snack 2 times a day. It puts me right around 220 grams a day. I am on a pretty high protein intake right now.. But still 23 grams is just way to low.

    Plus protein keeps you full for a long time, and helps persevere muscle while you shred fat!
  • dmfear
    dmfear Posts: 24
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    Thanks! I went and updated my goals and it increased to 48!
  • Uptopargolf
    Uptopargolf Posts: 263
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    Thanks! I went and updated my goals and it increased to 48!

    Do you mean 48grams of protein a day? Or 48 percent? Because 48 grams is still very low. If you are lifting and only eating 48 grams of protein a day, your body will burn off your muscle before fat.

    Like someone said above, you should have at LEAST 1gram per pound of body weight if lifting weight. Maybe even more depending on you're goals.

    I retract that statement, I did not notice you are a girl. My guess is you aren't try to put on muscle.
  • dmfear
    dmfear Posts: 24
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    I went and did it manually and it went to 85. Thanks for your help!
  • Egger29
    Egger29 Posts: 14,741 Member
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    You might likely have to edit your "goals" aspect on your profile to obtain accurate needs for yourself.

    As a basic rule, The United States RDA is 0.8g/kg or 0.4g/lbs. This is 80g protein per day if you weigh 200lbs. However, that recommendation is based on studies done on average, sedentary people.

    For strength training athletes, that figure is generally increased to 1g protein per pound of body-weight (lean mass) per day. That’s 150g daily protein if you have 150lbs lean mass.

    Given there are each gram of Protein is 4 Calories, you'd be looking at your total calories from protein being roughly your lean Mass weight x 4, or for the example above - approx 600 cals / day from protein.
  • Uptopargolf
    Uptopargolf Posts: 263
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    You might likely have to edit your "goals" aspect on your profile to obtain accurate needs for yourself.

    As a basic rule, The United States RDA is 0.8g/kg or 0.4g/lbs. This is 80g protein per day if you weigh 200lbs. However, that recommendation is based on studies done on average, sedentary people.

    For strength training athletes, that figure is generally increased to 1g protein per pound of body-weight (lean mass) per day. That’s 150g daily protein if you have 150lbs lean mass.

    Given there are each gram of Protein is 4 Calories, you'd be looking at your total calories from protein being roughly your lean Mass weight x 4, or for the example above - approx 600 cals / day from protein.

    Lets me honest, the RDA numbers are stupidly low. Even the 1g per lb of lean mass, is considered low by some athletes. If you are a lifter, you may need well more then 1g per lb of lean mass.
  • Egger29
    Egger29 Posts: 14,741 Member
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    As I said...RDA is based on average sedentary people.

    General Recommendations are minimums and do not apply to each individual.

    I've noticed myself that the figures MFP calculated for me were quite low so I had to adjust manually based on my training and activity level.
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
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    I changed mine to 40/30/30. I got the numbers from Jillian Michaels Oxidizer test. The test is kind of general but I trust her judgment for the most part. You can just type it into search engine.

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