How much protein should you have?

According to the institute of medicine: You need protein for your muscles, bones, and the rest of your body. Exactly how much you need changes with age:

Babies need about 10 grams a day.
School-age kids need 19-34 grams a day.
Teenage boys need up to 52 grams a day.
Teenage girls need 46 grams a day.
Adult men need about 56 grams a day.
Adult women need about 46 grams a day (71 grams, if pregnant or breastfeeding)
You should get at least 10% of your daily calories, but not more than 35%, from protein, according to the Institute of Medicine.

I learned to have a little protein with every meal (part of diabetic planning) so I never have to worry if I am getting enough. I only look at the MFP percentage of my total to see if I am on track. I include cheeses, yogurts, nuts of all kinds, hummus, edamame seed pods in my snacks. You remember the "dinner" proteins; eggs, chicken, beef, fish.

Increasing your protein intake helps weightloss only in the following way.

It is more satiating than carb foods so when you eat protein, you don't feel you need to keep on eating. But that's all that it stake a claim to directly as regards helping weightloss.

Other factors about protein that most people seem not to realise is that protein is a vital part of a healthy diet. It is what builds muscle, repairs tissues and i can't even remember now what else but you should look up protein on wikipedia and find out the basis of why it is important in a healthy diet.

Although protein is important, that does not mean you should eat a ton of it. Having a high proportion of protein in your diet at the expense of carbs/fats has health consequences notably on your kidneys. So do not try to follow any diet describing itself as a high protein diet. Protein is not an ideal source of energy and you must aim to meet your energy needs from either carbohydrate OR fat or both.

If you want to build muscle tissue you must eat enough protein. Its the only dietary ingredient that can help you build muscle. Building muscle alone will not make you look toned. (do sumo wrestlers look toned? ) You must also lose fat. EAting enough protein alone will not help you grow muscle. You must do the exercise. For most of us, really, being active in an ordinary way throughout the day will help us maintain a good amount of muscle tissue to look good. Sedentary people will lose muscle tone and so will older people as a matter of the aging process. ACtivities like cleaning, lifting, walking, climbing stairs, picking up your kids for a cuddle, pushing a shopping trolley, gardening all will help you maintain a good amount of muscle if you are active most of the day.

If you rely on forum posts like this one to tell you how much to eat, you will get myriad of answers as per the above. You need to do independent searches and you may need to read a few different pages to get it right. Use google. And bear in mind there are silly websites that to the unsuspecting person look fairly acceptable but they are not. That's why you need to read from a variety of sources. But even silly websites are truthful and correct about some things so keep reading until you are confident about what the latest consensus is. Unless you are into body building you do not need to bother with reading those sorts of websites for your key information. Look to see if the website is trying to sell you something or has an agenda and if so, read their info with a grain of salt. At least find out what their orientation is. Some of the medical websites and doctor websites we used to take as gospel can be a bit old fashioned. They are still useful but for my money, i do find wikipedia a good place to go for lots of info because there are a whole bunch of knowledgeable people from all over the world putting those articles together and they are kept pretty much up to date and they have ways of weeding out the false and outdated information. That said you won't find the answer to your question there I think. This is what i go with these days for this particular question: 0.8grams per 1kilogram of body weight. I believe the person directly above eating 100grams a day is completely wrong but i also do not know how muc that person weighs. I've read my".8grams etc" recommendation on numerous sites and from sites with different agendas and orientations. That makes it a pretty reliable position to adopt as far as i'm concerned.

The general rule is .8g/kg of body weight. Athletes, 1.2 - 1.7g/kg of body weight.

For me, the answer is always, "More!" I just don't like protein and never hit my numbers.

1 gram of protein per lean body mass.

I try to eat around 120g of protein daily. I will up this when I'm back to my heavy lifting though.

I usually aim for 1g of protein per pound of body weight, otherwise I feel like I'm just having too much carbs. I'm not eating as much protein as usual right now just because I'm pregnant and can't stomach that much protein. I'll up my protein intake after pregnancy though, it's usually 35% of my daily calories.

salves90 wrote: »

aribeiro659 wrote: »

According to the institute of medicine: You need protein for your muscles, bones, and the rest of your body. Exactly how much you need changes with age:

Babies need about 10 grams a day.
School-age kids need 19-34 grams a day.
Teenage boys need up to 52 grams a day.
Teenage girls need 46 grams a day.
Adult men need about 56 grams a day.
Adult women need about 46 grams a day (71 grams, if pregnant or breastfeeding)
You should get at least 10% of your daily calories, but not more than 35%, from protein, according to the Institute of Medicine.

What?! MFP put my protein goal at 90, which I struggle to meet every_single_day! I could just be eating half of it then? Great news!

Please do not.

You need 1/3 gram of protein per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 150, you need 50 grams. You would be surprised how much food had protein. My daily target is 60g and I always end up intaking (is that a word?) 80 to 90 grams per day.

Chief_Rocka wrote: »

aribeiro659 wrote: »

According to the institute of medicine: You need protein for your muscles, bones, and the rest of your body. Exactly how much you need changes with age:

Babies need about 10 grams a day.
School-age kids need 19-34 grams a day.
Teenage boys need up to 52 grams a day.
Teenage girls need 46 grams a day.
Adult men need about 56 grams a day.
Adult women need about 46 grams a day (71 grams, if pregnant or breastfeeding)
You should get at least 10% of your daily calories, but not more than 35%, from protein, according to the Institute of Medicine.

For breakfast?

Hahahaha
I have about 45 grams of protein in my lunch alone...

MrM27 wrote: »

johnnylakis wrote: »

You need 1/3 gram of protein per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 150, you need 50 grams. You would be surprised how much food had protein. My daily target is 60g and I always end up intaking (is that a word?) 80 to 90 grams per day.

What? Where did you get that from?

Hold on, I'm going to eat 55g of protein per day. As I'm doing compound lifts while training.

OP, .6-.87g per lb of bodyweight will suffice.

This is the answer you're looking for ^^^


For further information, please read this link ; bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/