Importance of Protein and my goal?
KieranONeill7307
Posts: 8 Member
So, I have my goals set on my app telling me I have a protein of 84 kg. But I always hear more protein is better for both muscle growth and weight loss. So, should I be aiming to keep this at that rough number it's giving me or does it matter if I go over?
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Best Answer
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The protein goal is based on the macro split you chose.
Yes, more protein is good generally, but it's only relevant for muscle growth if you are ticking all the lifting and calorie boxes too: volume, intensity, progressive overload, no deficit or possibly small deficit at most.2
Answers
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Another thought:
If MFP is giving you a protein goal of 84g without you having changed the default macro percents, the implication is that your calorie goal is around 1680. If that's you in your avatar photo, you appear to be male, fairly young, and not very overweight. Unless you're quite short in stature, that's quite a low calorie goal for that scenario IMO. If you asked to lose 2 pounds/1kg per week, that's really only suitable for someone substantially overweight, like well over 200 pounds or 100kg respectively.
If you value muscle growth (or even just keeping what you have), more protein can be helpful, but adequate calories are also needed. (Fast loss is counterproductive for muscle gain/retention.)
Many people here (I'm one) think losing no more than 0.5-1% of current weight per week is a good idea, with a bias toward the lower end of that unless severely obese and under close medical supervision for deficiencies or complications.
A slower loss rate would automatically give you a higher protein goal, and it would be fine to go over that goal, too. Don't cut fats deeply to make room for more protein: Fats are also an essential nutrient. Carb levels are more flexible.
Best wishes!1 -
What is your weight, and height and how much fat are you carrying ?0
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I always treat my protein number as a MINIMUM to reach, not a hard goal I must hit exactly. Some days I barely get that number; other days I go well over. As Ann said, the days I eat more protein are usually days I eat less carbs.
Don't be afraid by ideas that eating too much protein is toxic for the kidneys. Yes, some people have existing kidney issues they must monitor. Yes, too much protein will eventually be an issue for virtually everybody. But the number needed is usually hundreds of grams per day more than the average person eats, over long periods of time (as in a single heavy-protein day is not going to trigger something bad). If you are healthy and eating more than simply six pounds of chicken per day, you'll be fine from a "too much protein" perspective.3 -
Another thought:
If MFP is giving you a protein goal of 84g without you having changed the default macro percents, the implication is that your calorie goal is around 1680. If that's you in your avatar photo, you appear to be male, fairly young, and not very overweight. Unless you're quite short in stature, that's quite a low calorie goal for that scenario IMO. If you asked to lose 2 pounds/1kg per week, that's really only suitable for someone substantially overweight, like well over 200 pounds or 100kg respectively.
If you value muscle growth (or even just keeping what you have), more protein can be helpful, but adequate calories are also needed. (Fast loss is counterproductive for muscle gain/retention.)
Many people here (I'm one) think losing no more than 0.5-1% of current weight per week is a good idea, with a bias toward the lower end of that unless severely obese and under close medical supervision for deficiencies or complications.
A slower loss rate would automatically give you a higher protein goal, and it would be fine to go over that goal, too. Don't cut fats deeply to make room for more protein: Fats are also an essential nutrient. Carb levels are more flexible.
Best wishes!
Man that picture is at least 10 years old, I have never changed it haha. I logged in with my Gmail.
But you are bang on with 1680, that's what it set me at with my goal of wanting to lose the weight as fast as possible within reason. I am 178cm and weighing 123.3 (as of this morning)0 -
KieranONeill7307 wrote: »Another thought:
If MFP is giving you a protein goal of 84g without you having changed the default macro percents, the implication is that your calorie goal is around 1680. If that's you in your avatar photo, you appear to be male, fairly young, and not very overweight. Unless you're quite short in stature, that's quite a low calorie goal for that scenario IMO. If you asked to lose 2 pounds/1kg per week, that's really only suitable for someone substantially overweight, like well over 200 pounds or 100kg respectively.
If you value muscle growth (or even just keeping what you have), more protein can be helpful, but adequate calories are also needed. (Fast loss is counterproductive for muscle gain/retention.)
Many people here (I'm one) think losing no more than 0.5-1% of current weight per week is a good idea, with a bias toward the lower end of that unless severely obese and under close medical supervision for deficiencies or complications.
A slower loss rate would automatically give you a higher protein goal, and it would be fine to go over that goal, too. Don't cut fats deeply to make room for more protein: Fats are also an essential nutrient. Carb levels are more flexible.
Best wishes!
Man that picture is at least 10 years old, I have never changed it haha. I logged in with my Gmail.
But you are bang on with 1680, that's what it set me at with my goal of wanting to lose the weight as fast as possible within reason. I am 178cm and weighing 123.3 (as of this morning)
In that case, a kilo a week might be OK for a while, but depending on other details, you may lose faster than that. I wouldn't personally exceed 1% of current body weight per week, and closer to 0.5% might be better.
I get the appeal of losing weight fast, but the real prize to be had IMO is not simply reaching a healthy weight, but staying there long term, ideally permanently. Doing the latter depends on learning new habits - eating and activity - that one can continue almost on autopilot when other parts of life get challenging, which will happen eventually.
The "lose weight fast" mentality tends to run at cross purposes to the "find and practice sustainable habits until they're automatic" mindset.
Your call, though, obviously.
P.S. for other USA-ians: He's about 5'10", 272 pounds.0 -
At your stats you want to focus on fatloss and muscle retention.
A decent weekly calorie deficit and a proven lifting program. Protein wise for you, figure your target weight and go with around .8 grams per pound.0 -
KieranONeill7307 wrote: »Another thought:
If MFP is giving you a protein goal of 84g without you having changed the default macro percents, the implication is that your calorie goal is around 1680. If that's you in your avatar photo, you appear to be male, fairly young, and not very overweight. Unless you're quite short in stature, that's quite a low calorie goal for that scenario IMO. If you asked to lose 2 pounds/1kg per week, that's really only suitable for someone substantially overweight, like well over 200 pounds or 100kg respectively.
If you value muscle growth (or even just keeping what you have), more protein can be helpful, but adequate calories are also needed. (Fast loss is counterproductive for muscle gain/retention.)
Many people here (I'm one) think losing no more than 0.5-1% of current weight per week is a good idea, with a bias toward the lower end of that unless severely obese and under close medical supervision for deficiencies or complications.
A slower loss rate would automatically give you a higher protein goal, and it would be fine to go over that goal, too. Don't cut fats deeply to make room for more protein: Fats are also an essential nutrient. Carb levels are more flexible.
Best wishes!
Man that picture is at least 10 years old, I have never changed it haha. I logged in with my Gmail.
But you are bang on with 1680, that's what it set me at with my goal of wanting to lose the weight as fast as possible within reason. I am 178cm and weighing 123.3 (as of this morning)
In that case, a kilo a week might be OK for a while, but depending on other details, you may lose faster than that. I wouldn't personally exceed 1% of current body weight per week, and closer to 0.5% might be better.
I get the appeal of losing weight fast, but the real prize to be had IMO is not simply reaching a healthy weight, but staying there long term, ideally permanently. Doing the latter depends on learning new habits - eating and activity - that one can continue almost on autopilot when other parts of life get challenging, which will happen eventually.
The "lose weight fast" mentality tends to run at cross purposes to the "find and practice sustainable habits until they're automatic" mindset.
Your call, though, obviously.
P.S. for other USA-ians: He's about 5'10", 272 pounds.
Right now, I am not doing too bad. I am actually feeling full after meals. Today for planned meals, I am over 8g of carbs and over 2g of protein, but under my fat by 14g. I am fine-tuning my meals to get the right amounts in. My main issue for years has been snacking. Sure I had pizzas and all-sorts. But snacking was my worse enemy as I sit around a lot and it's nice to snack.
As for weight, I may be wrong but I feel like I am dropping weight at an okay pace. But I am happy to be educated otherwise. For example, from yesterday to today, I am now 123 kg as of this morning. So the weight isn't suddenly dropping.1 -
tomcustombuilder wrote: »At your stats you want to focus on fatloss and muscle retention.
A decent weekly calorie deficit and a proven lifting program. Protein wise for you, figure your target weight and go with around .8 grams per pound.
Right now I am staying away from lifting, I am mainly walking as it's the most accessible. My goal is to do things that are sustainable for me and right now lifting weights would probably screw up my state of mind. I think once I drop to around 100 kg I may start to look at lifting and other exercises, We will see0 -
Well, you're 270 pounds, taking in 86g protein (0.31g/lb), not lifting, and in a large deficit.
You can expect to lose a lot of muscle mass doing that. A full body lifting workout twice per week and doubling your protein at least, would help to maintain the muscle you have while dropping fat.1 -
KieranONeill7307 wrote: »
As for weight, I may be wrong but I feel like I am dropping weight at an okay pace. But I am happy to be educated otherwise. For example, from yesterday to today, I am now 123 kg as of this morning. So the weight isn't suddenly dropping.
A single day means absolutely nothing. What does give useful info: how much weight did you lose over a longer period/what's the average per week?
And if you actually lost 0.3kg every day as you did in 1 single day, it would actually be very (too) fast to be healthy IMHO: a healthy rate is 0.5-1% of your bodyweight per week.
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for best results rethink your position on lifting. You won’t add muscle (weight) and you don’t have to lift heavy or hard, just enough to maintain current muscle. Deficit with no resistance training is a recipe for a good amount of muscle loss which has a big impact on body compositionKieranONeill7307 wrote: »tomcustombuilder wrote: »At your stats you want to focus on fatloss and muscle retention.
A decent weekly calorie deficit and a proven lifting program. Protein wise for you, figure your target weight and go with around .8 grams per pound.
Right now I am staying away from lifting, I am mainly walking as it's the most accessible. My goal is to do things that are sustainable for me and right now lifting weights would probably screw up my state of mind. I think once I drop to around 100 kg I may start to look at lifting and other exercises, We will see
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