What percentage of protein should be in my diet?

m0onchild89
m0onchild89 Posts: 1 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
Hey guys! I desperately need answers! I am on a low carb 1200 calorie diet and I'm just wondering how much of that should be protein. How many grams of protein should I consume in a day? Thank you!

Replies

  • ecjim
    ecjim Posts: 1,001 Member
    Lets start with How much do you weigh? How tall are you? I'm assuming that you want to loose weight.

  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    edited December 2019
    Exactly what do you mean by “low carb” in this case?
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    The general rule is that you should be eating .8 grams of protein for every kg of body weight (.36 g per lb) so a 150lb person would need 54 grams of protein daily. In terms of calories (216....4 cal / gram) that would be about 18% of a 1200 cal diet.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,581 Member
    BrianSharpe wrote: »
    The general rule is that you should be eating .8 grams of protein for every kg of body weight (.36 g per lb) so a 150lb person would need 54 grams of protein daily. In terms of calories (216....4 cal / gram) that would be about 18% of a 1200 cal diet.

    Yeah, but this kind of spins out of control and doesn't work well on the extremes of weight.

    m0onchild, Why are you doing low carb? Is that the way you like to eat? If so, you will want to be eating pretty high fat and (still) moderate protein. Is that the way you normally like to eat?

    If you are willing to try a more moderate eating plan, try this:

    https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/ask-the-dietitian-whats-the-best-carb-protein-and-fat-breakdown-for-weight-loss/

    ..and/or for more in depth:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/819055/setting-your-calorie-and-macro-targets/p1


  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    BrianSharpe wrote: »
    The general rule is that you should be eating .8 grams of protein for every kg of body weight (.36 g per lb) so a 150lb person would need 54 grams of protein daily. In terms of calories (216....4 cal / gram) that would be about 18% of a 1200 cal diet.

    If overweight, it makes sense to adjust this to about 0.8 g per lb of a healthy goal weight.

    My healthy goal weight was 120-125, so I aimed for about 100 g.

    To the OP -- protein is at least as important when low carbing, as it actually tends to be a bit easier to lose muscle, so I'd aim for around the 0.8 g per lb of healthy goal weight if losing and not follow some of the low carb gurus who promote lower protein. I'd also not base it on percentage.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    BrianSharpe wrote: »
    The general rule is that you should be eating .8 grams of protein for every kg of body weight (.36 g per lb) so a 150lb person would need 54 grams of protein daily. In terms of calories (216....4 cal / gram) that would be about 18% of a 1200 cal diet.

    This is the RDA. For elderly, athletes, people eating in a deficit and a slew of others who do not have active or un-diagnosed kidney disease, the RDA is not necessarily optimal.

    2x RDA as detailed by @lemurcat2 seems to be approximately the point where some controversy starts: is 2x RDA quite enough? would it be even better to eat even more? under what conditions?

    As such it seems to be a useful point to aim for when eating in a deficit, assuming no health conditions, and assuming no particular preference to either aim much higher or much lower.

    Converting to grams and setting as a "desired" target seems to work well enough for most.

    Posted on your wall bubba.
    https://academic.oup.com/jn/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jn/nxz281/5637681
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,792 Member
    Well, that's actually an interesting one @psychod787

    In essence it seems to concur with MFP's default protein macro targets.
    About the only difference is actually pushing down carbs by about 5% and adding them to fats.

    Funny story? I was closest to the study's 45%C 30%F 25%P during my first year of logging on MFP where I ended up with 44%C 33%F 23%P.

    Subsequently I've been at about 50% 30% 20% more or less.
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Well, that's actually an interesting one @psychod787

    In essence it seems to concur with MFP's default protein macro targets.
    About the only difference is actually pushing down carbs by about 5% and adding them to fats.

    Funny story? I was closest to the study's 45%C 30%F 25%P during my first year of logging on MFP where I ended up with 44%C 33%F 23%P.

    Subsequently I've been at about 50% 30% 20% more or less.

    It is. What I get pooh-poohed on is mentioning Dr. Jose Antonio's work on high protein diets. They used protocols up to 3gm/kg. What they found was lean mass gain and fat loss in TRAINED individuals. When you add these two together, people who are losing/maintaining weight loss, might do better with higher protein diets. Was reading a breakdown of this study that hinted about an increase in NEAT dt protein decoupling and increased thermogenesis.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,887 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    BrianSharpe wrote: »
    The general rule is that you should be eating .8 grams of protein for every kg of body weight (.36 g per lb) so a 150lb person would need 54 grams of protein daily. In terms of calories (216....4 cal / gram) that would be about 18% of a 1200 cal diet.

    This is the RDA. For elderly, athletes, people eating in a deficit and a slew of others who do not have active or un-diagnosed kidney disease, the RDA is not necessarily optimal.

    2x RDA as detailed by @lemurcat2 seems to be approximately the point where some controversy starts: is 2x RDA quite enough? would it be even better to eat even more? under what conditions?

    As such it seems to be a useful point to aim for when eating in a deficit, assuming no health conditions, and assuming no particular preference to either aim much higher or much lower.

    Converting to grams and setting as a "desired" target seems to work well enough for most.

    Adding to this, when at a deficit muscle loss is a risk and protein at 0.6 g to 0.8 g per lb of goal weight (a rough estimate of lean body mass, otherwise it would be .8-1 g per lb of LBM) tends to protect against muscle loss and, if you are active, to help with that. Protein is also often satiating and usually comes with some vitamins and minerals.

    I think aiming toward the higher end is important when low carbing (since muscle risk is more of an issue), when lean, when older, and when female (I did 100 g since I was a woman in my 40s, and as I age I consider protein more significant since muscle maintenance/gain is harder).

    When low carbing the trade-off is often more fat or more carbs too. If talking about a reasonable amount of protein (as we have been discussing), it's often easier to hit the higher target, especially on a more nutritious overall diet (leaner meats, lots of veg).
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