I find it hard to hit protein goal

How high have you set your protein goal and how low are your calories?

Protein is important, but it becomes a bit of a Tetris if you have set your calories pretty low.

My opinion is that the advantages of eating high protein are over-hyped.

The recommended daily allowance is less than 0.5g per lb of lean body mass, but most of us who can afford to worry about it can afford to eat more than that. My point is that the RDA would put you at ~100g of protein per day (that would be about ~400kcals or only ~20% of your daily calorie goal). I don't see any reason to hit the same exact macro breakdown on each day, so you can vary around a bit, always trying to stay under your calorie plan. Note that any excess protein you eat is either metabolized for energy or pooped out. It does not magically add to your muscles, sadly.

Here's a reason NOT to overeat protein: it's a bad energy source. Your body is much better at metabolizing carbohydrate and fat for energy. My personal approach is to try to get my breakdown as high as 50% calories from fats (allowing for daily variation as stated). My exception is when I do endurance cardio (like an hour or more of cycling), for which I like to eat additional carbs.

In short, when I'm cutting, I try for 50%f, 25%c, 25%p as my baseline plan. I don't try to hit the macro breakdown perfectly every day, just the calorie total. You are free to pick the macro breakdown that works best for you, so long as you get adequate protein. I can tell you from experience that this works! I'm finally at a pretty reasonable weight and in pretty good shape! (After years of battling the bulge, so to speak.)

Finally, losing at 2lbs per week is fine, but pretty difficult. It requires a relatively high caloric deficit. (In your case, about 30% of your 3000kcal TDEE. I usually recommend no more than a 25% deficit as rule of thumb.) If you find you are having difficulty with it, you can lower your loss rate. Then, on days where you feel ambitious, you can under-eat from your plan (e.g., do some exercise and don't eat all the additional calories back). I just find that it's more motivating to have a sustainable plan that you can sometimes exceed than a plan where you can't quite keep up.

Best of luck!

JRugg1946 wrote: »

Thank you all.. i should probably aim for 180, if thats my lean muscle mass then, for example?

Yes, that would be a good number.

For muscle building/preservation benefits, and a surprising cognitive benefit (for me anyway), I like 40-40-20, where the 20% is fat.

Do I hit it daily? Heck no. Weekly? Sometimes.

That said, I've gotten 120+ grams protein on many a day on an average of 1500-1900 calories. This is despite a 2 scoop/day protein powder max, not eating pork, and rarely eating red meat.

In sum, fiddle with your macros to see what works for you and your goals. Then adjust your food choices accordingly so that you meet the macros efficiently and in a way that satisfies your palate 😋

This may take months so patience and opened to being experimental is required.

@Kmb4391 that is a LOT of protein coming from shakes and supplements. Not going to address whether it's better to get from natural sources or not, but will comment that I'm sure it's rather expensive to buy that much in powder, shakes and protein chips each day. (Never heard of BBQ protein chips...sounds intriguing...)

It's very true, you have to find what works for you and never be afraid to try something different. For several months I had been pretty consistent with protein and fat making up about a 40/40 split and the other 20 being carbs and I just didn't see process. Bumped the protein up significantly this last month and a half and have seen continued progress happen. Seems to work best for me beings that I do no cardio other than leisurely walks before lifting, so I'm not burning more than 300 to 400 calories per workout.

Myprotein has become one of my favorite companies. When they have sales on whey, they REALLY have sales! I think the last time I purchased it was around $65 for 11lbs. Their chips aren't bad either! They seem to do 50% off every other week anymore. I like the quest chips too, but they are a little more expensive.