How much protein should you eat

I have to tell you, this topic was really eating me up for a while, so I really had to make a research on this and speak with several people as well, because you hear so much and these things also mix up when you hear them from different places or from different people. I also studied my own body and I will tell you more about it later in this post. So let’s get right into the middle.

There are many questions that come up in people when they think of the daily protein intake, and just protein in general:

1. How much protein should I eat daily?

2. Do I really need to eat 120-160g protein daily if I want to gain muscles?

3. How much protein to eat if I want to lose fat?

4. Is protein powder bad for you?

how much protein should i eat

Proteins are essential nutrients for the human body. Proteins are one of the building blocks of body tissue and can serve as a fuel source. When thinking of energy, protein provides just as much energy as carbs: 4 kcal/gram.

To answer the most important questions, is actually very hard, because the daily protein intake really depends on several factors such as: muscle mass, fitness goal, weight.

So I am trying to put it into 3 groups based on fitness goals:

How much protein should you eat

According to the RDI ( Recommended Dietary Intake), the sufficient protein intake for the human body to function is 0.8 g/ body weight kg, which is about 0.4g protein/ body weight pounds. Which in general is about 46g for an average women (57kg) and 56 g for men (70kg) , if they do not do more activity than just walking.

Of course these numbers seem to be a little bit lower than what I just mentioned above in the 3 categories, but these are based on low activity and actually just as much protein as is enough for the body to function in general. But again, daily protein intake depends on several factors not just the activity level.

One thing is sure and it is also visible from the above table calculations, the more protein you can consume the better for you, because protein is the most important nutrient, is part of our body as well, it helps you losing fat, building up muscles. So to achieve fitness goals, fat loss and muscle gain, you definitely have to eat more protein than just 50 gram in a day. Therefore please just consider the above mentioned tables for your reference.

What is protein’s role in bodybuilding?

Delivering enough protein into your body during the day is essential to maintain and grow muscles. Protein is made of amino acids, which are also the building blocks of your body.

When working out, your muscle tissues tearing, so by working out, you actually damage your muscle tissues. After they were torn, they need to be repaired in order to grow and what repairs them is the amino acids which are the building blocks of the protein. So that’s why you need to consume enough protein to repair these tissues and also some extra to grow them.

It sounds logical, isn't it? If you want more muscles, you have to eat more protein than what is just enough for your body in a day.

What is protein’s role in fat loss?

Protein is the most important macronutrient and it can provenly help you with fat loss. Of course to be efficient first you will need to calculate your macros as well and do a calorie deficit, without calorie deficit you will not achieve fat loss or any weight loss. So just to jump back to question,here are some proven reasons why a high protein diet can help you with fat loss:

• Boosts metabolism

• Reduces appetite, foods high in protein will keep you full longer

• Regulate hormones that are responsible for weight control, so eating more protein can help you burn more calories /day

How to achieve high protein intake daily?

I am currently trying to build up more muscles and therefore I have raised my protein intake and I try to eat 100-120g protein daily, which sometimes is not that easy, but I can testify that with eating more protein in the past month, already boosted my metabolism and helped me lose the fat in certain areas where I had more and whenever I eat meals which are really high in protein, (like 40-50g high) I am not even hungry for the coming 4 hours at least, sometimes even 5. High protein intake also helped me lose fat from my belly area and it keeps my belly flat during the days and I tend to bloat less.

To answer the question I think I can connect the other question here which is: are protein powder shakes bad for you?

To consume 1g protein/ body weight pounds most of us definitely need to reach for some supplements and the most commons are the protein powder shakes. These shakes are not bad for you, you will not get sick from them, they will not ruin your health etc, they are from whey and the purpose is simply just to upper your daily protein intake and reach your goal. Of course they should not be the primary source of your daily protein intake, that is why they are called supplements.Mostly you should not consume protein shakes more than 1-3 times /day.

They are just providing you with a help to reach your fitness goal and protein intake goal and that’s it.

They should also not replace meals, because we still need all nutrients to live and be healthy: carbs, fats and vitamins as well, but let’s face it they are very handy, because it is much easier to reach for the protein shake after training that contains 25g of protein on a busy day then preparing chicken breast with rice or potatoes. Again, you do not have to replace whole foods and meals with it, so please just use them wisely.

Summary:

Protein intake depends on several factors:weight, activity level, fitness goal, muscle mass.

You need high protein if you want to lose fat or build muscles, about 0.8-1g protein/ body weight pound or 1.6-2.2 gram of protein /body weight kg.If you do not do much activity daily but maximum walking around the recommended daily protein intake to live is about 46g for women and 56 g for men.

Protein shakes are handy to grab once a day or after your workout to upper your daily protein intake and help you reach your fitness goals but not to replace whole meals during the day.

I hope this helps you all.

Cheers,

Szilvi