Need help on weighing/tracking protein, please help!

cesarcortess001
cesarcortess001 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am pretty bad at explain stuff so hang tight. I am new to tracking how much I eat and I recently purchased a food scale. To my knowledge, I needed to eat about 160g of protein, so when I weigh my chicken on the scale, if the scale said 80g then that would be half of what I need for the day for my protein intake, correct? However, this is where I get confused. Upon using MFP, I scanned the barcode for Kirkland Skinless Chicken Tenderloin, it says a serving size is 4oz (112g) BUT in my total macros for the day, under protein it only says 48g of protein have been consumed for my meal. So now Im confused because I thought the 4oz (122g) was 122g of protein but that seems to not be the case? Do I add more chicken and go off of the 48g that's on the macros? I am very lost haha. If anyone can help me out, this all probably seems dumb haha but I'm new to all this. Any help would be awesome, thanks!

Replies

  • ouryve
    ouryve Posts: 572 Member
    edited March 2021
    Chicken is not pure protein. It also contains water (feel it - it's wet!) and a little fat.

    160g of protein is a very high amount. You really need to do some reading if you're going to get that much into your diet. What's your calorie allowance?
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,052 Member
    Very few foods are 100% one macro such that the food and macro grams equal. Oil is the only one I can think of where 1g =1g fat. Even butter has a little water and hence is not 100% fat.

    As stated above, your chicken isn’t 100% protein, but then lots of other foods (legumes, nuts, fruits and vegetables have a bit, even desserts) have some protein and it all adds up.

    Unless you are a rather large man, 160g seems quite a lot. You need a bit more protein when eating in a deficit vs maintaining or surplus eating. Rule of thumb for deficit eating is 1g protein per 0.8 pound goal weight. If you know your body composition (determining it is a whole other post), protein minimum is 1g per pound lean mass in a deficit. You can get by with less at maintenance and surplus because risk of muscle loss is much lower.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
    edited March 2021
    Are you logging your food into this app, after you weigh it? It will tell you how many grams of protein you are getting. 38 grams of protein in 122 grams of chicken...



  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    cesarcortess001 wrote: »
    I am pretty bad at explain stuff so hang tight. I am new to tracking how much I eat and I recently purchased a food scale. To my knowledge, I needed to eat about 160g of protein, so when I weigh my chicken on the scale, if the scale said 80g then that would be half of what I need for the day for my protein intake, correct? However, this is where I get confused. Upon using MFP, I scanned the barcode for Kirkland Skinless Chicken Tenderloin, it says a serving size is 4oz (112g) BUT in my total macros for the day, under protein it only says 48g of protein have been consumed for my meal. So now Im confused because I thought the 4oz (122g) was 122g of protein but that seems to not be the case? Do I add more chicken and go off of the 48g that's on the macros? I am very lost haha. If anyone can help me out, this all probably seems dumb haha but I'm new to all this. Any help would be awesome, thanks!

    I responded to this same question in the other thread you posted, but as I and others have now said, no foods have all their weight made up by protein.

    You'd need about 710 g of boneless, skinless chicken breast (assuming you weigh raw and it doesn't have solution added) to get 160 g of protein. It will weigh less cooked, of course, but still have the same amount of protein.

    Happily, you don't need to rely only on chicken breast (although it is a very efficient source) since there is protein in a ton of other foods, in varying amounts, and it adds up.

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