Taking protein supplements, but their calorie content is eating into my daily allowance.
SlightlyLessFatDuck
Posts: 7 Member
Hi folks,
I've lost 70lbs this year and reached a plateau about a month ago so joined the gym and decided to up my intake of protein to loose some more weight. I've about 40 lbs to go. I'm not a great meat eater but do eat lots of beans and pulses, and to supplement this naturally derived protein, I'm also taking ~100g protein supplement per day which is about 350 kcals. The trouble is, I'm on a 1500 kcal per day allowance and these extra protein supplement calories are a huge chunk of that. I don't feel hungry, but I am eager to ensure my vitamin and nutrient levels are adequately maintained. Activity wise, I'm weight training 3 days per week and do cardio 3-4 days per week so I'm very active but I must stress that I don't feel like I'm lacking energy.
So, what's the best option? Do I eat more of my exercise calories, or cut back on the protein? Or adjust my 1500 daily caorie allowance upwards ?
Goal wise, I'm happy to keep plugging away and to lose weight gradually but of course, I want to ensure I maintain my nutrition/health.
Any advice gratefully received!
I've lost 70lbs this year and reached a plateau about a month ago so joined the gym and decided to up my intake of protein to loose some more weight. I've about 40 lbs to go. I'm not a great meat eater but do eat lots of beans and pulses, and to supplement this naturally derived protein, I'm also taking ~100g protein supplement per day which is about 350 kcals. The trouble is, I'm on a 1500 kcal per day allowance and these extra protein supplement calories are a huge chunk of that. I don't feel hungry, but I am eager to ensure my vitamin and nutrient levels are adequately maintained. Activity wise, I'm weight training 3 days per week and do cardio 3-4 days per week so I'm very active but I must stress that I don't feel like I'm lacking energy.
So, what's the best option? Do I eat more of my exercise calories, or cut back on the protein? Or adjust my 1500 daily caorie allowance upwards ?
Goal wise, I'm happy to keep plugging away and to lose weight gradually but of course, I want to ensure I maintain my nutrition/health.
Any advice gratefully received!
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Replies
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Why such a huge supplement? My protein goal (which is about 1g/lb of lean mass) is only 100g per day. I get most of that through food. When I do have to supplement it's usually only about 1 "scoop" (30g) of whey powder, that's only 110 calories.0
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Best option is to buy and religiously use a food scale to weigh everything you eat in grams, and then log it. Are you doing that?
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HI! Congrats on your weight loss!
Which protein powder are you taking?
You can:
1. Change protein powders.
2. Consume half or less of your current protein supplement and leave the rest for a bit more food.0 -
quiksylver296 wrote: »Best option is to buy and religiously use a food scale to weigh everything you eat in grams, and then log it. Are you doing that?
Yes, I am doing that already.. religiously.
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cerise_noir wrote: »HI! Congrats on your weight loss!
Which protein powder are you taking?
You can:
1. Change protein powders.
2. Consume half or less of your current protein supplement and leave the rest for a bit more food.
I've done lots of research on the protein powders and I've chosen carefully one which has the lowest calories per gram of protein.
I had considered reducing the protein supplement intake, but from the reading I've done, I'd need to maintain at least ~100g protein supplement to get any benefit from the supplement at all.0 -
Seems like a lot from a snake given total kcal as poster said above how many g per lb and how much from real food0
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I'm not understanding why you upped your program "to lose some more weight"...by upping your protein, you're just adding calories...and 100g of protein is a lot to supplement.3
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100 grams of protein is a minimum 400 calories. What you are saying is impossible.5
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If you're staying at the same deficit and calorie allotment, you'll have to reduce your carb or fat calories (or both) to allow for the increased protein intake. That or burn more calories/raise your caloric intake a bit to compensate.
The choice and how it aligns with your goals is obviously yours.2 -
Why such a huge supplement? My protein goal (which is about 1g/lb of lean mass) is only 100g per day. I get most of that through food. When I do have to supplement it's usually only about 1 "scoop" (30g) of whey powder, that's only 110 calories.
According to the protein supplement calculator at http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/vinced7.htm I should aim for 190g protein per day to cut fat and build lean muscle.. hence the larger supplement.0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »I'm not understanding why you upped your program "to lose some more weight"...by upping your protein, you're just adding calories...and 100g of protein is a lot to supplement.
According to the protein supplement calculator at http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/vinced7.htm I should aim for 190g protein per day to cut fat and build lean muscle.. so yes, the extra protein doesn't come for free unfortunately.0 -
SlightlyLessFatDuck wrote: »Why such a huge supplement? My protein goal (which is about 1g/lb of lean mass) is only 100g per day. I get most of that through food. When I do have to supplement it's usually only about 1 "scoop" (30g) of whey powder, that's only 110 calories.
According to the protein supplement calculator at http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/vinced7.htm I should aim for 190g protein per day to cut fat and build lean muscle.. hence the larger supplement.
No friggin' way...I'm just going to assume it's giving you 1 gram per Lb of body weight...you don't need that. Personally, I don't believe body builders need it either...but regardless, are you really a body builder?
http://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/
That's a crap ton of protein...I'm a 190 Lb guy and don't come close to that. I'd take most things out of the body building community with a large grain of salt...even if I was a body builder...3 -
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SlightlyLessFatDuck wrote: »Why such a huge supplement? My protein goal (which is about 1g/lb of lean mass) is only 100g per day. I get most of that through food. When I do have to supplement it's usually only about 1 "scoop" (30g) of whey powder, that's only 110 calories.
According to the protein supplement calculator at http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/vinced7.htm I should aim for 190g protein per day to cut fat and build lean muscle.. hence the larger supplement.
Protein doesn't make you cut fat. Bodybuilding.com is a supplement selling company after all.
Still, 190g could be a reasonable goal based on your personal stats and/or goals, etc. We just don't know what those are.3 -
Lots of conflicting advice on the internet, isn't there?0
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SlightlyLessFatDuck wrote: »Lots of conflicting advice on the internet, isn't there?
Tons.
Trust sourced experts. Alan Aragon & Layne Norton hang around BB.com.0 -
SlightlyLessFatDuck wrote: »Lots of conflicting advice on the internet, isn't there?
I look at it this way...given millions of years of human evolution, if we needed a gazillion grams of protein, we'd have been wiped out a long time ago.
That's not to say that I don't think it's important...it's very important but really, more than 1 gram per Lb of LBM (not body weight) is overkill...IMO, 1 gram per Lb of LBM is probably overkill for most people, but that depends on what they're doing exactly and how they're training. Going in to lift some weights and whatnot is not the same as training like a strength or body building athlete.
I think if you're active you should definitely be getting more than the RDA as that is pretty much the minimum for health...if you're cutting it's also important, but more important to muscle sparing IMO is keeping a reasonable deficit with adequate protein and doing some resistance training.
I guess for me, the protein worship gets a bit over the top...particularly for the average Joe/Jane who's just getting in some exercise and trying to lose a little weight.
At most I would do 1 gram per Lb of LBM...you'll probably still have to supplement...but beyond that, you're just really making expensive glucose.1 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »SlightlyLessFatDuck wrote: »Lots of conflicting advice on the internet, isn't there?
I guess for me, the protein worship gets a bit over the top...particularly for the average Joe/Jane who's just getting in some exercise and trying to lose a little weight.
Yep. Protein has its place for sure... but it's not the end all be all magical catalyst it's often made out to be.
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That's a ton of protein. If you are a serious body builder whose spent years in the gym trying to maximize every last muscle fiber, then perhaps 190g of protein is a good idea. If you are the average Joe trying to lose weight while sparing some muscle loss, then that seems a bit overboard.
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OP what are your stats? You dont have to shovel in the protein powder to see results. This must be costing you a fortune!0
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ISOPure Zero Carb Whey Protein - 210 calories for 50g of protein. That leaves you 1,290 calories to get the rest of your protein in which could easily be accomplished with some chicken breast or tuna!0
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Could you eat more of your preferred protein sources to help reach your protein goal instead of using supplements which feel like a "waste" of your allotted calories? Sounds like your main concern is that you don't like using your calories on protein in the form of supplements.
Still no mention of your stats, so it's hard for us to know if 1500 cal and 100g protein daily is unreasonable for you (sounds like you actually eat more than 100 daily if you are supplementing that much?) or how fast you're losing. It's very possible you could increase your cals and continue to lose, just a bit slower.1 -
I still don't understand why you just aren't eating your protein??? Chicken, steak, greek yogurt, etc, etc, etc. Much tastier than 350 calories of protein shake.
That's not to say I don't supplement my protein. I do. I mix protein powder with my greek yogurt and frozen berries most mornings for breakfast. About 260 calories for about 40 grams of protein.
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Do you like shrimp? Excellent protein:calorie ratio!
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I try to stay between 150-180g of protein a day myself (I average about 180 for my weight at around 12% body fat currently). I do about 90g of it through suppliments (60g shake in the morning, and a 30g protein bar as a snack mid-day), the rest I get from meat generally. The catch is that I'm at maintenance calories now, so eating 2800 calories a day, sometimes more, is not uncommon for me, so an extra 300-500 calories from those supplements isn't a big deal for me.
As far as protein powders, I find that whey isolates have less carbs and calories than normal whey and they have less or no lactose for the most part (which causes me issues). If you're headed to a gym though to build muscle, I'd reduce your deficit to say .5lb/wk or 1lb/wk instead of the max deficit. That will help you build more muscle and burn fat than staying at a huge deficit and simply adding more protein. Keep in mind the 1g/lb protein is actually misunderstood most of the time, it should be 1g/lb of lean body mass. If you weigh 190, and you are at 15% body fat, then your goal would be 162g of protein a day roughly rather than 190g. Not that the extra will hurt, you can go higher than 1g/lb of lean body mass if you want. It's just that at a huge deficit, cardio might be better than a ton of weight training. I killed myself for months last year trying to weight train at a 2lb/wk deficit. All it did was wear me out. Sure, I gained a little at first, but I soon flat lined on any strength gain. I switched to cardio and to body weight training and started building more muscle all over rather than specific muscle groups and had better results until I hit maintenance. But that's just my opinion, I'm sure you'll get tons more.1 -
Protip: much (most?) of the nutrition advice over at bodybuilding.com is typical BroScience and can be ignored.2
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