More protein!

Why is your goal 233? Maybe it's too high?

233?? Holy smokes. My daily goal is 60 and I already have a hard enough time hitting that.

Why is your protein goal so high? How do you have room to fit any carbs and fat and still eat a calorie deficit with such a high protein goal?

MrM27 wrote: »

I'm pretty sure you don't need anywhere near 233g of protein a day.

+1

Though I can see how it might arise at say 35% of 2660 cals.

I sometimes have a hard time hitting my protein goal also. I just try to have a decent amount of it at each meal. A protein shake for first breakfast, eggs at second breakfast, and chicken/fish/steak at lunch and dinner. Also try to make sure my snacks have it as well (Greek yogurt, string cheese, quest bar)

Justin,

First...that % of protein could be correct for you, but you may consider trying less...more on that later.

The macros set in mfp are in the goals tab. If you are finding it tough to hit the protein then track your protein intake for 4 days and see what % of the calories you are eating from protein are. For instance...if you eat 150 grams of protein that is about 600 calories. 600 / 3370 would be 16% of your calories are coming from protein. Now this isn't the end all way to look at it, but it will help you find out what % you are at now so you know how far you could stretch this.

Another way to look at this is the amount of protein you should eat per pound of weight. For myself, I don't use my current weight to do this b/c my current weight is made up of a lot of fat content. So you may want to use what weight you'd be at looking fit, say 215 pounds. It's not like you are sitting on a ton of extra muscle right now, so you may have the same muscle mass at 215 you do at 240. Assuming you have a similar muscle mass as you would after your cut to 215, why would you base your protein intake on a derivative of your fatty weight? That calorie intake number is a derivative of your 240 weight. Let's take a .8 multiple on the 215 rock solid 6'5" frame and that comes out to 172 grams. That amount of protein grams should satisfy your body in my opinion-if 215 seems like an ideal weight for you. Now if you are trying to cut out 1000 calories per day you are going to need to reduce that a little or keep it the same and really cut on the other macros, that's your choice and you could do some reading on what the best strategy would be to start on.

Also, when you take the protein is important. You may want to throw down a shake after using your muscles the most. Also, some solid research says protein intake is not helpful after 30 grams, but you are much larger than normal so I could see you at 35-45 grams per meal.

To get a nice protein kick you could just buy a pound of the 96% lean ground beef, toss the first 1/2 pound in a pan and cook then toss it in a tortilla and clobber it or just eat it with a dash of worchester sauce like I enjoy it. Then do the other 1/2 pound later so you are not putting 100 grams of protein in at once. Maybe take a half pound to work for a quick snack or meal with a tortilla.