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Still not sure how much protein :s help appreciated

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threnodies
threnodies Posts: 14 Member
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Hi everyone,

So I am on day 8 of keto eating 20g> total carbs and with 100g fat and 60g protein as my goals (giving me a % ratio of 5/20/75)

My activity level is pretty light; I'm a student so I spend a lot of the day walking around school and I also walk home in the evening which takes 10-15 minutes
I go out a lot on weekends as well to the mall or city with friends so I walk around a lot there, and I often fidget/aggressively tap my feet (I also walk for 1-2 hours most weekends)
So in calculations and stuff I tend to go with the lowest option but that tells me I need to be having about 40g protein a day????

I've seen a lot of different protein things, some say 0.3g protein per pound of bodyweight, some say 1.8g per kilo lean bodyweight, some say 1.3g per kilo total bodyweight and this has just left me very confused about how much protein I should be eating

At the moment it's generally somewhere between 60-70, my fat is about 80-90 and my calories are 1200, and I want to know if this is going to be ideal for losing weight

So far I've lost 1.2kg (2.6lbs) in 8 days, haven't experienced keto flu (so idek if I am in keto and I haven't managed to find any ketostix + I hear they're really inaccurate anyway) and am in a crisis as to how much protein/fat/everything I should be having ;w;

If I do really need 40g protein a day as some of these calculators have told me (one other said 103g, one said 70g and one said 63g also I think) am I able to decrease my fat (since I almost never fully meet the goal on 1200 calories a day and there's no way I'm going to raise it) and increase protein so I'm having, say, 80g fat and 60g protein and still be able to lose weight and stay in ketosis?

Thanks for the help everyone I've been very conflicted over this recently uvu

Replies

  • FIT_Goat
    FIT_Goat Posts: 4,224 Member
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    The keto calculator recommends 1.3g-2.2g per kg of lean body mass. If your activity level is as low as you've listed, then you're better off sticking to the low end. That would be 1.3g / kg (0.6g / lb).

    BUT, and this is a big but, for the first couple weeks of keto, the recommendations are a minimum of 150g of protein a day to preserve muscle mass while your body adapts. When you have adapted, you can lower the protein to a more appropriate level. This all depends on how much lean body mass you have.

    60-70g is probably low (if you are male) even after adaptation. But, for the next week or so, you should up it to 150g/day.

    That would be, 150g protein / 20g carbs / 58g fat -- IF you're trying to stick to 1200 calories. Why are you trying to stick to 1200 calories? What is your weight/age/gender/height?

    Lyle McDonald -- The Ketogenic Diet
    Therefore, regardless of bodyweight, the minimum amount of protein which should be consumed during the initial three weeks of a ketogenic diet is 150 grams per day.
  • threnodies
    threnodies Posts: 14 Member
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    The keto calculator recommends 1.3g-2.2g per kg of lean body mass. If your activity level is as low as you've listed, then you're better off sticking to the low end. That would be 1.3g / kg (0.6g / lb).

    BUT, and this is a big but, for the first couple weeks of keto, the recommendations are a minimum of 150g of protein a day to preserve muscle mass while your body adapts. When you have adapted, you can lower the protein to a more appropriate level. This all depends on how much lean body mass you have.

    60-70g is probably low (if you are male) even after adaptation. But, for the next week or so, you should up it to 150g/day.

    That would be, 150g protein / 20g carbs / 58g fat -- IF you're trying to stick to 1200 calories. Why are you trying to stick to 1200 calories? What is your weight/age/gender/height?

    Lyle McDonald -- The Ketogenic Diet
    Therefore, regardless of bodyweight, the minimum amount of protein which should be consumed during the initial three weeks of a ketogenic diet is 150 grams per day.

    Thanks for the reply! I'm female, 45kg, 5'3 and 18, and just want to stick to 1200 to lose as much as I can and also because I'm not comfortable going above that (I have weird eating patterns ahah and I gain very easily ^^; )

    But thanks for the advice on increasing the protein, I'll definitely do that :)
  • FIT_Goat
    FIT_Goat Posts: 4,224 Member
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    45kg total body weight? At 5'3"? That's a BMI of 17.6! Are you sure that losing weight is appropriate for you? If that's lean body mass (say you actually weigh 56kg @ 20% body fat), that's different. You are a small person. I can see why 1,200 would make sense for losing weight. Just don't push yourself too hard.
  • sljohnson1207
    sljohnson1207 Posts: 818 Member
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    Wait! What? You're 99 lbs at 5'3" and trying to lose weight? Is your body fat very high or something? I'm literally asking this question seriously because that puts your BMI at 17.5 and underweight.
  • threnodies
    threnodies Posts: 14 Member
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    I don't know my exact body weight but it's somewhere between 23-25% so I definitely have weight to lose ahaha the BMI is rather misleading in that aspect because I'm nowhere near as small as a 17.5 BMI might lead you to believe ^^;

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