Am I consuming too much protein?
islandprincessmfp
Posts: 12 Member
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Replies
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I’m about 124-126lbs female age 29 height 5’5. I have lifesum wgich tracks my movements and daily I walk over 10,000 steps a day to the gym then I work out for an hour. Anyways I consume 160g protein almost daily. This is an example of my food I eat please I’ll love your input. Go to bed 8pm every night wake up 3am have my overnight oats with unsweetened cocoa powder, flax seeds, strawberries and raw honey after that I walk 35 minutes to gym I worked out chest for an hour today 12-15lbs. During my work outs I sip on bcaas. After I work out I drink a protein shake almost immediately lately I’ve been taking muscle milk chocolate 25g protein. Ok here’s my meal.
Hour later at around 9am I have 8oz egg whites with baby spinach, 30g ovacado two slices of turkey bacon on a whole wheat tortilla. At 11am I’ll then have a Damon life &fit Greek yogurt, 1:30Pm I had lunch which was 3/4 cup of dried brown rice, 85g broccoli and cauliflower mix,vegan burger. At 3pm I then had Chocolate Kodiak power cakes with strawberries and blueberries. Haven’t eaten dinner yet so for dinner at 6:30 I’ll have pasta with vegan cheese sauce and baby spinach. So my macros today is 149g of protein, 241g carbs,60g carbs.
Am I eating way to much much??? I want to build muscles and gain a little weight in the booty area but I don’t want to mess up my health. I love taking care of my body.
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Another thing I weight train 4 days a week0
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You're eating well beyond anything that's actually going to provide you any benefit...you're just making really expensive glucose. Anything more than 1g per Lb of body weight is excessive...even 1g per Lb of body weight is excessive IMO and have always gone by 1g per Lb of LBM.7
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Your picture would give no indication of whether you are intaking too much protein. There is nothing one could tell from that. The general recommendation is .8 to 1 gram per lb of lean body mass if weight training.
After that, it's preference. if that's how you prefer to eat, it's fine. There is an upper limit beyond which it may cause problems with your kidneys. That would be in excess of 200+ grams per day for someone of your size. Likely over 300 grams.
Bottom line, you are eating more protein than necessary for your activity and goals but it is not harmful if that is how you prefer to eat.9 -
I wouldn't say it's too much to be harmful... however, that much isn't necessary. 0.8-1g per lb bodyweight is more than enough.
If you are trying to gain, for many people protein can be satiating and can prevent you from hitting your calorie goals. Also once you hit your protein goal, more carbs can come in handy for workout performance and helps aid muscle building.
How are you feeling on that amount? As long as your digestion is fine, you workout performance is great, you are hitting your calorie goal and not feeling stuffed ... it is fine.
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Conventional body building advice is 1g protein/lb total body weight, and there's nothing wrong with exceeding that, I do regularly. When it comes to macros, as long as you're getting what your body needs for baseline nutrition (which you are) it's really personal preference so I wouldn't worry about "messing anything up" where you are now.
If my math is right on your macros you're getting about 1650 calories/day? That seems a little low for your size and activity, have you been gaining weight and/or size? Many of the women I see post here with similar stated goals take pertinent bodily measurements to make sure they're losing/gaining inches in the desired places. Gaining muscle is slow at maintenance and even slower and/or relatively impossible in a deficit. Recomping (effectively trading fat for muscle while eating at or around maintenance) is doable but a very slow progress. You may consider upping your calories to 250 above maintenance to most optimally gain mass.1 -
@sardelsa I feel satisfied but I’m so lost and terrified eating that much protein the app tracked my steps and automatically up my protein. I m just scared I’m messing up my kidneys. So you’re saying even if I weight train I shouldn’t up my protein just keep it at 1g per body weight?0
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Do you have CKD?
Are you exceeding your daily calorie goal due to protein consumption?
If the answer to both of these questions is "No," then you are not eating too much protein.
FTR, I eat 200g-300g of protein daily, sometimes more, and I weigh about 160 lbs. I need to lose about 15 lbs., and I usually eat too many calories to lose. I eat too much to lose weight, but I'm ok with maintaining for now and I'll focus on losing again later this year.4 -
As mentioned you are not near the upper limit to make it dangerous. If you don't want to eat that much then don't eat that much. 0.8-1g per lb lean body mass or bodyweight is enough. I actually take in 0.8-1g per lb when I am bulking and more in a deficit.4
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The only downside to overeating protein on an overall calorie budget is it means your body must burn it for fuel which is inefficient. This can make some people feel tired. Also, the effective calories provided by protein can be lower than stated (4kcals/g), meaning you are under-eating.
You can always experiment with moving some of your daily calories from protein to healthy fats or complex carbs. If you want to stay low carb, up the fats by eating cheese, olive oil, butter, and/or nuts/seeds. (Oatmeal with nuts is pretty darned good!) It works for me.2 -
@SteveK0 thanks Steve. Daily I get 2015 calories but on leg days I get around 2300. I see slimmer waist and glutes getting bigger which I want but I’m just concerned that my protein intake is too much and I might be messing up my health. Also i use an app that ups my protein automatically for the amount of activity I do. I have a huge appetite and very hard for me to gain weight I’m just confused should I be consuming more protein when working out?0
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@Jthanmyfitnesspal thanks I try using olive oil or coconut oil and yes oats with nuts are delicious especially overnight oats iats☺️1
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@midwesterner no one never exceed my calories but I’m always under on carbs I eat 240g or less of carbs a day0
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@islandprincessmfp Concerns over kidney strain due to over-consumption of protein is limited to those with known kidney conditions. This is why I asked about CKD. If you don't have an existing kidney problem, you have nothing to worry about. To be sure, you can ask your physician.
Despite my protein consumption at about double yours (though I weigh about 28% more) and having type 1 diabetes as a confounding challenge (i.e. higher risk for kidney issues anyway), my tests consistently come back within a normal range. That includes micro-albumin tests.3 -
islandprincessmfp wrote: »@midwesterner no one never exceed my calories but I’m always under on carbs I eat 240g or less of carbs a day
If you feel fine and workout performance is good, your carb intake is fine. It is the least priority macro nutrient. I'm a 188lb man and I usually only eat between 100 and 200 grams of carbs. Not for any particular reason than preference. If my workouts are less energetic, I up the carbs. Fat should be between .35 and .45 grams per lb of body weight for hormonal health and digestion.
To simplify, get at least .8 grams of protein per lb of body weight (more won't hurt within reason. I used body weight to keep it simple). At least .35 grams of fat per lb of body weight (more is ok). Fill in what is left with carbs after hitting the first 2.
Lastly, don't worry!! It causes cortisol and that causes water retention!!
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islandprincessmfp wrote: »@SteveK0 thanks Steve. Daily I get 2015 calories but on leg days I get around 2300. I see slimmer waist and glutes getting bigger which I want but I’m just concerned that my protein intake is too much and I might be messing up my health. Also i use an app that ups my protein automatically for the amount of activity I do. I have a huge appetite and very hard for me to gain weight I’m just confused should I be consuming more protein when working out?
Are you gaining weight? If you are eating in a surplus then you will gain muscle and fat. So potentially your waist will get larger not smaller (then after you gain you lean down again to lose the fat).. unless you want to eat at maintenance and recomp.
I tend to keep my protein consistent workout day or not.
If you are having issues gaining then I would lower your protein, up carbs or fats and eat more calorie dense foods.1 -
You probably need about 2000-2300 calories a day to be at maintenance.
Protein is good, I weight train 18 hours a week or so, and get about 1g/lb of bodyweight.
However, I would ditch the BCAA's (they don't do a thing) and protein shakes, and just eat from whole protein sources. Why? Because of satiety. Shakes do not fill you up, they are just processed protein. Ditch the shakes. Protein is a good option to keep you full though, so it's not a bad thing to eat more protein and fewer carbs or fats (don't go too low on either).
I love huge spinach salads with chicken, lean pork or beef, or fish. That fills me up all the time.
Also make sure your weight training is heavy for it to be effective... 6-10 reps, within 1-2 reps of failure. Add weight ever couple weeks (small increments). Hip thrusts and full squats, step ups and walking lunges for glutes, but do the entire body.
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^Totally agree on the BCAAs. Useless and a waste of money.3
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Public service announcement/comment:
OP is a healthy body weight. Therefore, reasonable protein goals can be stated in terms of g/lb bodyweight. For non-OP readers who may still be overweight or obese, it will make more sense to use LBM if you know it, or a healthy goal body weight if you don't know LBM. Extra protein is not needed to maintain fat mass, and trying to get 0.8-1g/pound of over-fat body weight is going to unnecessarily complicate getting good nutrition on a lowered calorie goal.
Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Put it down to having too often advised 5'4" women in other threads who thought they needed to get 200g protein on 1350 calories or some such thing. 10 -
@sardelsa thanks luv tomorrow I’m doing 20 minute hiit and 60 minutes legs and glutes should I stay at 126hg protein,250g carbs and 60g fat or should I up my protein? To build muscles.0
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Public service announcement/comment:
OP is a healthy body weight. Therefore, reasonable protein goals can be stated in terms of g/lb bodyweight. For non-OP readers who may still be overweight or obese, it will make more sense to use LBM if you know it, or a healthy goal body weight if you don't know LBM. Extra protein is not needed to maintain fat mass, and trying to get 0.8-1g/pound of over-fat body weight is going to unnecessarily complicate getting good nutrition on a lowered calorie goal.
Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Put it down to having too often advised 5'4" women in other threads who thought they needed to get 200g protein on 1350 calories or some such thing.
Yes! Very good point Ann.1 -
OP, I just wanted to add to the already solid advice - Just because an app increases your protein doesn't mean you have to eat more protein. Other posters have already given you the way to figure out what your protein goal should be. If you go over in the amount you are, it's no big deal, but if eating that much causes you anxiety or is just more than you want, eat a lower amount. It's not a big deal one way or the other :drinker:3
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Public service announcement/comment:
OP is a healthy body weight. Therefore, reasonable protein goals can be stated in terms of g/lb bodyweight. For non-OP readers who may still be overweight or obese, it will make more sense to use LBM if you know it, or a healthy goal body weight if you don't know LBM. Extra protein is not needed to maintain fat mass, and trying to get 0.8-1g/pound of over-fat body weight is going to unnecessarily complicate getting good nutrition on a lowered calorie goal.
Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Put it down to having too often advised 5'4" women in other threads who thought they needed to get 200g protein on 1350 calories or some such thing.
Yes great point my advice was OP specific I usually say goal weight but because she is bulking/maintaining I used bodyweight. Thanks for the clarification !
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islandprincessmfp wrote: »@sardelsa thanks luv tomorrow I’m doing 20 minute hiit and 60 minutes legs and glutes should I stay at 126hg protein,250g carbs and 60g fat or should I up my protein? To build muscles.
Yes that is fine. Building muscle requires adequate calories, enough protein (which you have) and progressive training (make sure you are following proper programming).
How much cardio do you do? Just make sure you can fuel your cardio sessions so that you are gaining. Also be sure your cardio isn't interfering with your training. For me doing HIIT followed by an hour of legs would be terrible, my lifts would definitely suffer and that would not be optimal for muscle building.2 -
You need a calorie surplus to build muscle. All that protein is getting converted to glucose to keep your brain working while you're in a deficit. Huge waste of time and money. Research bulking and cutting if your goal is muscle3
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