Eat clean without overshooting protein?

schlafentzug
schlafentzug Posts: 8 Member
in Food and Nutrition
My daily protein goal is 98g at the moment. I tend to under eat by quite a bit, I'm only 1,64m and 48kg so I find it hard to eat to my macros. One thing I've noticed is that I always go over on my protein. I've planned out my meals for tomorrow and currently I'm at around 1200kcal with 112g protein. What should I do? I only really want to eat whole foods as I want to keep the processed food to a minimum. The foods I eat are usually things like chicken, fish, eggs, spinach, beans, lentils and barley, etc. I want to maintain my weight and perhaps even gain some muscle.

So what to do about this? Is too much protein bad?

Replies

  • shadowfax_c11
    shadowfax_c11 Posts: 1,942 Member
    Stop looking at macros as lines to stay under. Those are goals to be met. If you go over, that's okay as long as you are at or under your calorie goal.
  • steph2strong
    steph2strong Posts: 426 Member
    I have very similar stats to you, I am 1.68 m tall and 51 kg. I eat approximately 2200 cal a day and have a protein goal of 40%, i tend to eat about 200-240 gm of protein per day, meat, eggs, yogurt, beans etc. There is nothing wrong with your protein consumption, but why are you eating so lo-cal??? if you want to gain some muscle like you stated you definitely are not going to do that eating so low calorie.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Are you trying to lose weight? You're already classified as underweight.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    fernt21 wrote: »
    I have very similar stats to you, I am 1.68 m tall and 51 kg. I eat approximately 2200 cal a day and have a protein goal of 40%, i tend to eat about 200-240 gm of protein per day, meat, eggs, yogurt, beans etc. There is nothing wrong with your protein consumption, but why are you eating so lo-cal??? if you want to gain some muscle like you stated you definitely are not going to do that eating so low calorie.

    I would agree. The OP is only 2 lbs underweight, but if their goal is to be more lean and gain some muscle, then you need a small surplus and a good progressive lifting program. Even if the goal is to maintain and recomp a little (offsetting muscle gains with fat loss) then the OP should be eating at maintenance, while having a good progressive lifting program. And the majority of women I know, are maintaining at closer to 2000 calories.
  • WendyLaubach
    WendyLaubach Posts: 518 Member
    If you eat more protein than you need, your kidneys will just excrete it (or at least its broken-down elements) in your urine. It's like popping more vitamin pills than you need. There is some thought out there that it may be hard on kidneys to do too much of that, but it's unclear; if you have healthy kidneys they probably aren't noticing. Peeing often, and a nice pale color? You're probably fine. Be sure you get an annual physical with blood work.

    The standard protein recommendation for adult women is about 46g a day, but that's for "sedentary" women. Some fitness sites recommend 30% of your daily calories in protein, or (in grams) multiply your intake by 0.075, which would yield 90g a day for you.

    If you need to get more calories and don't necessarily want more protein, lots of vegetables will do well for you. There are tons of internet charts showing which veg is high in protein (mostly that's legumes). So more squash and less beans, for instance. Similarly, most fruit is low in protein. For an added benefit, pick something with less protein and more fiber and fat, like avocado. Fat's not bad, you know: at 1200 calories a day, you'd be hard pressed to eat an excess of fat, or an excess of anything, frankly.
  • Michael190lbs
    Michael190lbs Posts: 1,510 Member
    WendyLaubach wrote: »
    If you eat more protein than you need, your kidneys will just excrete it (or at least its broken-down elements) in your urine. It's like popping more vitamin pills than you need. .

    No! Your body will store the Calories in the protein as future energy - Glycogen it just doesn't store as protein which is why Daily Macros are so important.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    schlafentzug wrote: »
    My daily protein goal is 98g at the moment. I tend to under eat by quite a bit, I'm only 1,64m and 48kg so I find it hard to eat to my macros. One thing I've noticed is that I always go over on my protein. I've planned out my meals for tomorrow and currently I'm at around 1200kcal with 112g protein. What should I do? I only really want to eat whole foods as I want to keep the processed food to a minimum. The foods I eat are usually things like chicken, fish, eggs, spinach, beans, lentils and barley, etc. I want to maintain my weight and perhaps even gain some muscle.

    So what to do about this? Is too much protein bad?

    Not at those levels. Like others have said, as you are trying to maintain or gain (and especially gain muscles) the protein macro (and the others too) are goals to be met, not restrictions.

    1200 is way too low for those goals -- what does MFP give you to maintain?

    There are loads of whole foods with carbs and fat -- nuts, seeds, avocados, olives (and I'd include various oils), whole eggs have a good bit of fat, as does full fat dairy, including butter and cheese, also potatoes, sweet potatoes, grains of various kinds, so on.
  • schlafentzug
    schlafentzug Posts: 8 Member
    Francl27 wrote: »
    Going to get flamed for this... but please get help. You're already underweight, why are you starving yourself?

    I'm not intentionally trying to starve myself. I'm completely fine with the way I look, I want to feel good. But when I eat a lot of food (even around 1600 to 1800) I feel full all the time, which makes me feel sluggish and awful regardless of what I eat.

    So around about 1200 to 1400 is a good number for me. But not if I want to build muscle, and I suspect it may be all the protein causing me to feel full, hence why I can't eat enough.

  • schlafentzug
    schlafentzug Posts: 8 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    schlafentzug wrote: »
    My daily protein goal is 98g at the moment. I tend to under eat by quite a bit, I'm only 1,64m and 48kg so I find it hard to eat to my macros. One thing I've noticed is that I always go over on my protein. I've planned out my meals for tomorrow and currently I'm at around 1200kcal with 112g protein. What should I do? I only really want to eat whole foods as I want to keep the processed food to a minimum. The foods I eat are usually things like chicken, fish, eggs, spinach, beans, lentils and barley, etc. I want to maintain my weight and perhaps even gain some muscle.

    So what to do about this? Is too much protein bad?

    Not at those levels. Like others have said, as you are trying to maintain or gain (and especially gain muscles) the protein macro (and the others too) are goals to be met, not restrictions.

    1200 is way too low for those goals -- what does MFP give you to maintain?

    There are loads of whole foods with carbs and fat -- nuts, seeds, avocados, olives (and I'd include various oils), whole eggs have a good bit of fat, as does full fat dairy, including butter and cheese, also potatoes, sweet potatoes, grains of various kinds, so on.

    Eating lots of fats makes me feel way too full and I get sick and sluggish.

    Is there any way to gain on 1200?
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,091 Member
    schlafentzug wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    schlafentzug wrote: »
    My daily protein goal is 98g at the moment. I tend to under eat by quite a bit, I'm only 1,64m and 48kg so I find it hard to eat to my macros. One thing I've noticed is that I always go over on my protein. I've planned out my meals for tomorrow and currently I'm at around 1200kcal with 112g protein. What should I do? I only really want to eat whole foods as I want to keep the processed food to a minimum. The foods I eat are usually things like chicken, fish, eggs, spinach, beans, lentils and barley, etc. I want to maintain my weight and perhaps even gain some muscle.

    So what to do about this? Is too much protein bad?

    Not at those levels. Like others have said, as you are trying to maintain or gain (and especially gain muscles) the protein macro (and the others too) are goals to be met, not restrictions.

    1200 is way too low for those goals -- what does MFP give you to maintain?

    There are loads of whole foods with carbs and fat -- nuts, seeds, avocados, olives (and I'd include various oils), whole eggs have a good bit of fat, as does full fat dairy, including butter and cheese, also potatoes, sweet potatoes, grains of various kinds, so on.

    Eating lots of fats makes me feel way too full and I get sick and sluggish.

    Is there any way to gain on 1200?

    Not to gain muscle--you'd have to engage in resistance training, which burns calories, to gain muscle, so I don't see how you could stay in surplus at 1200.

    At your current weight, it's possible you might manage to put on a few pounds of fat if you lay motionless in bed in a warm room (so your body doesn't have to waste energy warming itself), and didn't move anymore than necessary to swallow food someone brings you, and to use a bed pan someone takes away -- or better yet, get get your 1200 calories from an IV or a feeding tube, and get a colostomy, and catheter, to eliminate as much energy expenditure as possible. Does anybody think it would be cheating to get a hysterectomy, so your body wouldn't spend any energy preparing your uterus for possible pregnancy every month, and then used the post-surgical recovery weight as your start weight, for seeing if you could gain on 1200?

    I can't say that seems preferable to eating a little more to me. Since you've nixed fats and protein as making you feel too full and sluggish, I guess you need to eat more carbs. Or alcohol.

    As others have said in response to your initial question, there's nothing wrong with going over your protein goal.
  • lemmie177
    lemmie177 Posts: 479 Member
    schlafentzug wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    schlafentzug wrote: »
    My daily protein goal is 98g at the moment. I tend to under eat by quite a bit, I'm only 1,64m and 48kg so I find it hard to eat to my macros. One thing I've noticed is that I always go over on my protein. I've planned out my meals for tomorrow and currently I'm at around 1200kcal with 112g protein. What should I do? I only really want to eat whole foods as I want to keep the processed food to a minimum. The foods I eat are usually things like chicken, fish, eggs, spinach, beans, lentils and barley, etc. I want to maintain my weight and perhaps even gain some muscle.

    So what to do about this? Is too much protein bad?

    Not at those levels. Like others have said, as you are trying to maintain or gain (and especially gain muscles) the protein macro (and the others too) are goals to be met, not restrictions.

    1200 is way too low for those goals -- what does MFP give you to maintain?

    There are loads of whole foods with carbs and fat -- nuts, seeds, avocados, olives (and I'd include various oils), whole eggs have a good bit of fat, as does full fat dairy, including butter and cheese, also potatoes, sweet potatoes, grains of various kinds, so on.

    Eating lots of fats makes me feel way too full and I get sick and sluggish.

    Is there any way to gain on 1200?

    Not likely.

    Feeling sick and sluggish sounds more like a food-specific response, rather than macronutrient-specific. I would try incorporating small amounts of the foods @lemurcat12 mentioned. You don't have to go to town. A few slices of avocado on salad, a small handful of cashews, cook your foods with a bit of oil, more oily fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna), some olive oil over your veggies, etc etc can go a long way.

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    Bodies dont feel full based on calories but rather macro content and volume. And considering fats fill you up, that means you will need to levefae carbs, to include drinking them. So add more rice, quinoa, breads or if you have to chocolate milk and ice cream. In the end, you wont ever reach your goal if you cant address eat accordingly.
  • ellevs
    ellevs Posts: 12 Member
    schlafentzug wrote: »
    My daily protein goal is 98g at the moment. I tend to under eat by quite a bit, I'm only 1,64m and 48kg so I find it hard to eat to my macros. One thing I've noticed is that I always go over on my protein. I've planned out my meals for tomorrow and currently I'm at around 1200kcal with 112g protein. What should I do? I only really want to eat whole foods as I want to keep the processed food to a minimum. The foods I eat are usually things like chicken, fish, eggs, spinach, beans, lentils and barley, etc. I want to maintain my weight and perhaps even gain some muscle.

    So what to do about this? Is too much protein bad?

    Macros.are more of a general percentage, hit them and if you go over it will take away calories from another macro. Eat too much protein? Eat less Fat... You got this
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    schlafentzug wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    schlafentzug wrote: »
    My daily protein goal is 98g at the moment. I tend to under eat by quite a bit, I'm only 1,64m and 48kg so I find it hard to eat to my macros. One thing I've noticed is that I always go over on my protein. I've planned out my meals for tomorrow and currently I'm at around 1200kcal with 112g protein. What should I do? I only really want to eat whole foods as I want to keep the processed food to a minimum. The foods I eat are usually things like chicken, fish, eggs, spinach, beans, lentils and barley, etc. I want to maintain my weight and perhaps even gain some muscle.

    So what to do about this? Is too much protein bad?

    Not at those levels. Like others have said, as you are trying to maintain or gain (and especially gain muscles) the protein macro (and the others too) are goals to be met, not restrictions.

    1200 is way too low for those goals -- what does MFP give you to maintain?

    There are loads of whole foods with carbs and fat -- nuts, seeds, avocados, olives (and I'd include various oils), whole eggs have a good bit of fat, as does full fat dairy, including butter and cheese, also potatoes, sweet potatoes, grains of various kinds, so on.

    Eating lots of fats makes me feel way too full and I get sick and sluggish.

    Is there any way to gain on 1200?

    No. Maybe try more carbs less fat. Drinking smoothies can be non satiating and you could use lots of fruit.
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