Protien Question!

You may want to try searching the message boards for posts on protein - I can think of 3 or 4 in the past month or two where people have asked this exact same question, with lots of good responses. To sum them up, most people feel like MFP has us eating a somewhat low % of calories as protein - I know I personally upped it from 15% to 25% of daily calories (with 55% carbs and 20% fat). As long as you are getting most of your protein from healthy, lean protein sources (chicken, fish, beans, etc.) then you should be okay. If most of it is coming from red meat, you may want to mix it up a little. I would be more concerned about going over fat or carbs on a regular basis than protein.

i always exceed my protien allowance; every day. and i'm rarely eating any meat! i exceed my protein allowance even when i have calories left over. i'm trying to build muscle and get stronger, so is going over on my protein a bad thing? If so, how do i avoid consuming too much of it?

How do you do that and not any meat? Protien shakes?

The way I look at it. If you're going to go over on something, protien would be the nutrient to do it.

You can go over on protein - you just end up peeing off the excess so it's not toxic at all. The only issue with getting too much protein is to watch what the source of it is. Since you say you don't eat much meat, just be weary of whether you're getting it from foods with a decent amount of saturated fat - dairy, meat, ...etc, or something that's a complete protein like soy or quinoa (among other things.).

Where are you getting your recommended daily protein from? If it's the MyPyramid from the US RDA it is WAY too low. You need to eat to lose weight, I know it sounds backwards but ,especially if you are exercising, you need protein to repair muscle. The MyPyramid gave me an RDA of less than 40 grams of protein a day!! No way, you need around .7 - .8 grams of protein per pound of body weight every day and up to 1 gram per pound of body weight if you are doing intense weight training. Revamp the numbers and you'll find it's actually hard to get enough clean protein daily.

yeah gymnist, I doubt you're in any danger, but there are consequences to going way over on protein for extended periods (unless you are using it), but not until you get pretty high, like in the 50% range for months. It can effect your liver and kidneys.

If you're using the default values MFP sets up, then you can go over by quite a bit and still be ok.

One thing to note, while dairy is a good source, nuts and cereal are incomplete proteins, and need to be paired with other foods to complete the protein (otherwise the body can't use them).

you can google complete protein for more info.