Confusion over how much Protein required per day.
alung2k3
Posts: 81 Member
I've taken to weightlifting recently and I have been reading up and learning about what to do.
One thing they all agree is that you need a good amount of Protein.
I've used 5 different Protein calculators online from various companies and they vary quite alot regarding how much I should have per day. For context:
Stats: Male, 31, 6ft 4in, 18st 12lbs, body fat approx 26.6%, Gym 4 times a week, Sendentry/Office - aim is to gain or atleast maintain my muscle mass while losing my fat.
Right now I've set my target is to reach 200g of Protein per day which in general I struggle with. I just need to adjust a little.
Looking for help or advice from the experienced lifters/pros.
Thanks.
One thing they all agree is that you need a good amount of Protein.
I've used 5 different Protein calculators online from various companies and they vary quite alot regarding how much I should have per day. For context:
Stats: Male, 31, 6ft 4in, 18st 12lbs, body fat approx 26.6%, Gym 4 times a week, Sendentry/Office - aim is to gain or atleast maintain my muscle mass while losing my fat.
Right now I've set my target is to reach 200g of Protein per day which in general I struggle with. I just need to adjust a little.
Looking for help or advice from the experienced lifters/pros.
Thanks.
1
Replies
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Protein guidelines are confusing because they vary appreciably depending on your goal and activity level. If you are eating in a surplus to gain muscle (presumably following a strength program also), protein matters but is less critical because you’re very unlikely to lose muscle. If you’re eating in a deficit to lose fat, as it sounds like you are, guidelines advise more protein to spare muscle during fat loss. 1g/lb LBM is a pretty common rule of thumb, but it’s almost twice what most people need at maintenance or in a surplus. 200g sounds like a lot to me, but your LBM suggests 194g, so in the zip code. A small deficit (slow rate of loss) also helps preserve muscle and bone.2
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Thanks for the replies.
Your right rearding the calorie defecit. I originally had it set at 2lb loss per week but today lowered it to 1 1/2 as after arranging all my extra protein into my diary it left next to no cals left to play with.
So my lean body mass recommends 194g a day? Thats to increase or maintain?0 -
1g protein per 1lb LBM is for muscle sparing fat loss. I estimated your LBM~ 264*73.4%1
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OP, I'd stick at that 200 g or as near as you can. That works out to slightly less than .8g/lb current total weight and depending on your lifting program you may well gain some muscle mass. Look into a structured lifting program. I think you are wise to lower your deficit - this isn't a sprint, it's a long term goal you are looking at.2
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How have you gotten your BF measured? I don't want to sound like a downer, but at 264 pounds it's unlikely that you only have 26.6% body fat, even at 6'4".1
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Theres a machine in Boots that I use. When I first started my fitness journey I was 33.8% and every few weeks I do it and its slowly gone down.
I do take it with a pinch of salt though.
Also I worked my weight wrong slightly, I'm 253lbs.1 -
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Around 100g is your RDA goal for protein, and around 200g is a good goal for someone eating at a deficit and trying to retain their lean mass.
Once you hit the mid overweight level I would seriously consider losing a bit slower as size of deficit also plays into lean mass--and for a few other reasons.
It is a continuum. You don't *have* to eat 201g of protein every day or "else"
You can and should make choices that you enjoy and are sustainable long term.
That said, a 750g tub of 0% Greek yogurt with ~130g of blueberries a tablespoon of light hot chocolate mix (or 3 to 5g unsweetened cocoa powder and a couple of drops of liquid sucralose to taste) and 18-20g all bran buds or fiber one cereal hits a lot of macros for reasonable calories and satiety for me. (Yogurt + mix ins in the winter, and frozen mix ins in the blender in the summer
) 1 -
Okay so my original goal was to get to 18st. I'm approx 12lbs away.
So with a few slight adjustments I'm now content with hitting my new Protein target of around 200g per day. Dropping to 1 1/2 lb a week has helped there.
One question I still don't know. Should I be aiming for 200g every day or only when I plan on working out. E.g. If I gym during weekdays, is the weekend allowed to be more of a generic day or macros?
Feel free to take a look at my diary if that helps.
Ta.1 -
Okay so my original goal was to get to 18st. I'm approx 12lbs away.
So with a few slight adjustments I'm now content with hitting my new Protein target of around 200g per day. Dropping to 1 1/2 lb a week has helped there.
One question I still don't know. Should I be aiming for 200g every day or only when I plan on working out. E.g. If I gym during weekdays, is the weekend allowed to be more of a generic day or macros?
Feel free to take a look at my diary if that helps.
Ta.
If you are only 12lbs from goal, you should only be set to lose .5 lbs per week. That will still leave you with body fat in the mid 20's (if you estimate is at all in the ballpark). This would also still have you at an "overweight" BMI. Maybe your goal is not aggressive enough? If so, 1 lb per week would be fine. To get to a "healthy" BMI you would have to down around 205. That may be more than you want to attempt at this time.0 -
As far as your protein question, yes, eat 200 gr. even on non workout days. Protein synthesis is happening all the time and you get benefit of MPS for up to 72 hours after a workout according to the podcast I watched by Eric Helms recently.2
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0.7-0.8 grams per lb of goal weight is a good place to start. so if your goal weight was 220 that would be 154 to 176, more wouldn't be bad, but not needed either. Of if your LBM is 186 (253-26.6%) then 0.8 grams per l of lbm so 148 would be enough2
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0.7-0.8 grams per lb of goal weight is a good place to start. so if your goal weight was 220 that would be 154 to 176, more wouldn't be bad, but not needed either. Of if your LBM is 186 (253-26.6%) then 0.8 grams per l of lbm so 148 would be enough
Thanks. I had not done the calculations and I should have. I appreciate you correcting.1 -
Okay so my original goal was to get to 18st. I'm approx 12lbs away.
So with a few slight adjustments I'm now content with hitting my new Protein target of around 200g per day. Dropping to 1 1/2 lb a week has helped there.
One question I still don't know. Should I be aiming for 200g every day or only when I plan on working out. E.g. If I gym during weekdays, is the weekend allowed to be more of a generic day or macros?
Feel free to take a look at my diary if that helps.
Ta.
If you are only 12lbs from goal, you should only be set to lose .5 lbs per week. That will still leave you with body fat in the mid 20's (if you estimate is at all in the ballpark). This would also still have you at an "overweight" BMI. Maybe your goal is not aggressive enough? If so, 1 lb per week would be fine. To get to a "healthy" BMI you would have to down around 205. That may be more than you want to attempt at this time.
I think your right, this was my initial goal from 21st 5lb. In a life changing way I'd like to be 16st or below.
One last thing, its better so space out the protein rather than eat in big sittings right?0 -
Okay so my original goal was to get to 18st. I'm approx 12lbs away.
So with a few slight adjustments I'm now content with hitting my new Protein target of around 200g per day. Dropping to 1 1/2 lb a week has helped there.
One question I still don't know. Should I be aiming for 200g every day or only when I plan on working out. E.g. If I gym during weekdays, is the weekend allowed to be more of a generic day or macros?
Feel free to take a look at my diary if that helps.
Ta.
If you are only 12lbs from goal, you should only be set to lose .5 lbs per week. That will still leave you with body fat in the mid 20's (if you estimate is at all in the ballpark). This would also still have you at an "overweight" BMI. Maybe your goal is not aggressive enough? If so, 1 lb per week would be fine. To get to a "healthy" BMI you would have to down around 205. That may be more than you want to attempt at this time.
I think your right, this was my initial goal from 21st 5lb. In a life changing way I'd like to be 16st or below.
One last thing, its better so space out the protein rather than eat in big sittings right?
It's not that critical. Just get enough over a day. If you were a body builder looking to maximize MPS and get every last bit of muscle growth, yeah, you'd want to space it out into 5 meals of around 40 grams of protein. But for the majority of us, that is not critical. I space my protein over 3 meals and do fine.1 -
0.7-0.8 grams per lb of goal weight is a good place to start. so if your goal weight was 220 that would be 154 to 176, more wouldn't be bad, but not needed either. Of if your LBM is 186 (253-26.6%) then 0.8 grams per l of lbm so 148 would be enough
concurring with the more correct calculations.1 -
OP, I'd stick at that 200 g or as near as you can. That works out to slightly less than .8g/lb current total weight and depending on your lifting program you may well gain some muscle mass. Look into a structured lifting program. I think you are wise to lower your deficit - this isn't a sprint, it's a long term goal you are looking at.
.8 grams per pound of weight is what am shooting for at age of 68 to lower death risk from all causes.7 -
I previously shared this before here at MFP but will share again since it's on point with your question. It's the result of two recent body fat tests I had during a three-month period while eating at a calorie deficit and relatively-speaking lower protein than the standard recommendations dispensed here. I realize that what I share is nothing more than a sample of one experience so only point it out because it illustrates that we never know if we never experiment with what works best for us. We're all different. Most of us are average Joe Blow or Jane Blow characters and not training for the next Mr. Universe bodybuilding contest.
Comparing my two DEXA-SCAN results - 1/16/2019 and 4/10/2019 - I was pleased to learn that I lost 12.8 lbs. of weight during this period. I didn't need a DEXA-SCAN to tell me this. But what I needed it for was to tell me how much fat I lost during this period. I lost 12.3 lbs. of fat so virtually 100% of my weight loss was fat loss. This is atypical to what is pointed out here about losing muscle when being in a calorie deficit.
And, I did it by only eating an average of 82 grams of protein a day at an average weight of 180 lbs.
I had no goal of adding muscle and confess that if I had consumed more protein, perhaps I would have added muscle. I did train but using kettlebells.
So, do listen to the words of experience here from others but consider contrarian shares as well for best results. Ingesting 200 grams of protein a day is hard work, expensive and may not be necessary to achieve your goals. It wasn't for me.
I'll do this again in a couple months and share my results again.
Wishing you the best in your fitness, health and wellness journey.3 -
GaleHawkins wrote: »OP, I'd stick at that 200 g or as near as you can. That works out to slightly less than .8g/lb current total weight and depending on your lifting program you may well gain some muscle mass. Look into a structured lifting program. I think you are wise to lower your deficit - this isn't a sprint, it's a long term goal you are looking at.
.8 grams per pound of weight is what am shooting for at age of 68 to lower death risk from all causes.
All causes?
Car accidents? Terrorist attacks? Drowning? Domestic violence? Tuberculosis?
6 -
Thanks for the info and for sharing your experiences.
I'll try this for now and see what happens, it should hopefully have the desired effect of gaining muscle and still losing fat. The theory sounds true, just hope my body responds.0 -
pierinifitness wrote: »So, do listen to the words of experience here from others but consider contrarian shares as well for best results. Ingesting 200 grams of protein a day is hard work, expensive and may not be necessary to achieve your goals. It wasn't for me.
I don't know that anyone is hiding that the RDA for protein is about half the 0.6 to 0.8g per weight in the normal weight range which in turn corresponds the to approximately 0.8g to 1g of protein per lb of lean mass in the normal weight range that I think most people here are suggesting as a, generally speaking, good amount to be eating to maximize lean mass sparing in a caloric deficit. Of course the smaller the deficit you apply and the more intense your training the better your results.
Unfortunately with a single person and with no controls you will never know whether your lower than usually suggested protein intake resulted in the optimum results for you. On the flip side, or are results "guaranteed" because people do what most studies suggest. And in spite of, apparently, having few health side effects, high protein intake over long periods of time is not guaranteed to have NO health side effects, especially if people have currently undiagnosed problems.
At the end of the day the results of the many do not guarantee the results of the one... or the opposite.3 -
Thanks for the clarification.
So it's NOT... "0.8g per pound goal weight -or- 1g per pound LBM (equivalent assuming goal is 20% BF)"?
Per https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-fundamentals-of-fat-loss-diets-part-2.html/
"Frankly, the old bodybuilder value of 1 g/lb (2.2 g/kg) of lean weight may be perfectly sufficient."1 -
I love that site. Lyle is a bit of a douche in real life but he’s super smart.1
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Thanks for the clarification.
So it's NOT... "0.8g per pound goal weight -or- 1g per pound LBM (equivalent assuming goal is 20% BF)"?
Per https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-fundamentals-of-fat-loss-diets-part-2.html/
"Frankly, the old bodybuilder value of 1 g/lb (2.2 g/kg) of lean weight may be perfectly sufficient."
People differ in their opinions, would be my answer to the bolded.
Because I personally like 0.8-1g per pound of LBM, but most people don't know their LBM with any reasonable accuracy, I usually suggest 0.6-0.8g per pound of healthy goal weight (because, as you say, roughly 20% body fat isn't crazy far off for most people . . . if you do the math on protein grams that result from those, the differences for commonly varying bodyfat preferences are in a pretty narrow range for common cases. (And uncommon cases, like bodybuilders, will be taking the steps to pin down the specifics for their bodies. The rest of us will likely do fine with protein in a approximate but reasonable range.)
JMO, though.3
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