Max protein

stevechurch61 wrote: »

Most sources suggest 2 grams per kg body weight is max even for people building fitness and muscle. Why does myfitnesspal suggest 2.2+ for me?

MFP's default is based on calories. If you've kept the MFP default protein percent, which last I knew was 20% of calories, your protein goal should be 20% of your calorie goal, in calorie terms. Then, if you log exercise (or have a fitness tracker synced that adds calories), your protein goal will increase by 20% of those calories, too.

Grams of protein per pound is one common way to estimate protein needs, percent of calories is another, and different relatively mainstream experts will use one or the other. MFP isn't out in left field here.

Many of us who care about protein suggest using the grams per pound/kg approach, particularly if a person has unusual calorie needs. (As an aside, many of us would also recommend that someone who's severely overweight use a healthy goal weight to make that protein needs estimate. I don't know whether that applies for you or not.)

So: If MFP is giving you 2.2g per kg, and you're using the MFP default settings, my best guess would be that you have high calorie needs, either because of bodyweight or activity level or something like that, and 20% of your calories ends up being 2.2g per kg for you. If I applied the 20% to MFP's base calorie estimate for me, I'd get a protein estimate lower than I want, of 1.3/kg.

You can reset your protein percent to whatever number you think is reasonable, though in free MFP I think it has to be in 5% increments. If you have premium MFP, you can set it in grams - any whole gram value - and there are settings in premium that will let protein stay at that gram level even if a person logs exercise.

Also, I have to say, to some extent I question the premise. It's true that 2g per kg is a common recommendation, but there are sources that recommend more for some demographics, and they're not necessarily all doing it for lunatic fringe reasons as far as I can see. I've seen up to 1.2-1.3g/lb. which would be close to 3g/kg.