How much protein for weight loss?

TracyFlick

So, I've started eating healthily and going to the gym regularly the last couple of months, and although I feel much fitter, the weight isn't shifting. It got me to wondering how much protein should I be eating to lose weight? I'm sure the reason for my standstill isn't my protein consumption, but it has led to general wonderings!

I'm female, 5'7 and about 10 stone 9lbs. Want to lose 10-15 lb. I have found myself eating lots and lots of protein, and I'm not really sure why. I know it's important, but how much do I need?

A typical day's food is:

Eggs and coffee for breakfast

Joint of meat, veg and a bowl of soup for lunch

Chicken stir fry for dinner

I also eat too much dairy I think, and have lately have realised I'm eating more processed stuff like protein bars and shakes and not enough fresh veg and things like fresh fish. Why am I eating all this protein?? Although I do want to try the homemade protein bars recipe on the other thread, haha.

My primary goal is weight loss, but so far I've only lost 3-4 lbs. I'm not pumping iron in the gym or anything, just doing circuit classes and cardio.

Thanks!

Baby75

TracyFlick wrote: »

So, I've started eating healthily and going to the gym regularly the last couple of months, and although I feel much fitter, the weight isn't shifting. It got me to wondering how much protein should I be eating to lose weight? I'm sure the reason for my standstill isn't my protein consumption, but it has led to general wonderings!

I'm female, 5'7 and about 10 stone 9lbs. Want to lose 10-15 lb. I have found myself eating lots and lots of protein, and I'm not really sure why. I know it's important, but how much do I need?

A typical day's food is:

Eggs and coffee for breakfast

Joint of meat, veg and a bowl of soup for lunch

Chicken stir fry for dinner

I also eat too much dairy I think, and have lately have realised I'm eating more processed stuff like protein bars and shakes and not enough fresh veg and things like fresh fish. Why am I eating all this protein?? Although I do want to try the homemade protein bars recipe on the other thread, haha.

My primary goal is weight loss, but so far I've only lost 3-4 lbs. I'm not pumping iron in the gym or anything, just doing circuit classes and cardio.

Thanks!

could there be a lot of calories in the shakes and protein bars esp if not home made!

how much carbs are you eating you need a certain amount when exercising!

They do say if you are working out a lot eat little and often 5 small meals a day rather than 3 big ones.

watch portion size as well, have a healthy protein snack after your work out. have you tried calorie counting.

lainycool

To lose weight you need 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight!

Hanley

lainycool wrote: »

To lose weight you need 1 gram of protein for every pound of body weight!

*To maintain muscle mass while dieting (thereby keeping your metabolism elevated), keep yourself feeling full and help restore insulin sensitivity (assuming it's impaired), you need 1 gram (or even 1.5g) per pound of bodyweight.

Protein on it's own doesn't cause weight loss in any way. You need to ensure the correct kcal intake too.

boomtown84

Hanley wrote: »

*To maintain muscle mass while dieting (thereby keeping your metabolism elevated), keep yourself feeling full and help restore insulin sensitivity (assuming it's impaired), you need 1 gram (or even 1.5g) per pound of bodyweight.

Protein on it's own doesn't cause weight loss in any way. You need to ensure the correct kcal intake too.

There's no way it's as high as 1.5g per pound. Probably not even 1g per pound for a beginner.

@OP- it'll be easier to count cals for a while and see how you go.

Hanley

boomtown84 wrote: »

There's no way it's as high as 1.5g per pound. Probably not even 1g per pound for a beginner.

@OP- it'll be easier to count cals for a while and see how you go.

What does that statement mean?

Are you saying they don't need that much protein to maintain muscle? What about appetite surpressing effects?

boomtown84

Hanley wrote: »

What does that statement mean?

Are you saying they don't need that much protein to maintain muscle? What about appetite surpressing effects?

Yeah i meant strictly for maintaining muscle. 1gram/pound of lean body mass would be more accurate...especially for a beginner who may have a higher bf%.

What about the appetite suppressing effects? may make dieting a bit easier but it'll do nowt for maintaining muscle. also, some people react better on higher carb for appetite suppression so it can be a personal preference thing.

Hanley

boomtown84 wrote: »

Yeah i meant strictly for maintaining muscle. 1gram/pound of lean body mass would be more accurate...especially for a beginner who may have a higher bf%.

Aye, but not knowing activity levels means neither of us can be sure. So I provided a range.

What about the appetite suppressing effects?

Protein and fat consumption leads to higher peptide YY response.

Peptide YY is the gut hormone responsible for feelings of appetite surpression and satiety.

Eat more meat and fat, have a higher peptide YY release, be left feeling fuller for longer, eat less kcals over, lose more fat.

Then there's the thermic effect of protein versus that of carbs to consider too.

It may make dieting a bit easier but it'll do nowt for maintaining muscle. also, some people react better on higher carb for appetite suppression so it can be a personal preference thing.

I'd bet quite a substantial portion of my ass on people feeling better on high protein/high fat/moderate carb than moderate protein/high carb/low-mod fat (after the initial adaptive period).

Any response on the H&F or nut. forum can be "beaten" with the 'it can be a personal preference thing', but I'm pretty right on this one.

And FTR, I consider low carb <100g, moderate 101-200g and high >200g. So maybe my definition is different to yours

The question was "how much protein to lose weight". Did I respond inappropriately?

boomtown84

Hanley wrote: »

Aye, but not knowing activity levels means neither of us can be sure. So I provided a range.



Protein and fat consumption leads to higher peptide YY response.

Peptide YY is the gut hormone responsible for feelings of appetite surpression and satiety.

Eat more meat and fat, have a higher peptide YY release, be left feeling fuller for longer, eat less kcals over, lose more fat.

Then there's the thermic effect of protein versus that of carbs to consider too.



I'd bet quite a substantial portion of my ass on people feeling better on high protein/high fat/moderate carb than moderate protein/high carb/low-mod fat (after the initial adaptive period).

Any response on the H&F or nut. forum can be "beaten" with the 'it can be a personal preference thing', but I'm pretty right on this one.

And FTR, I consider low carb <100g, moderate 101-200g and high >200g. So maybe my definition is different to yours

The question was "how much protein to lose weight". Did I respond inappropriately?

The question was actually: how much protein should I be eating to lose weight?....so i'd say you were a little off the mark with the high protein requirement because she's obviously a beginner and almost 11 stone at 5 7" so probably carrying a bit of extra bodyfat. I think we can safely say activity levels are not crazy?
But anyway, i've started an argument over nothing! cals most important

One thing you mentioned though which i think is key. You keep carbs at a moderate level. A lot of people are too fond of going all out low low carb and i think this can lead to a persons diet not working for them. Whatever level you have protein at i think keeping carbs at least above 150g is essential...for beginners at least.
I wasn't proposing low fat btw. Not a fan of low fat diets at all.

El_Dangeroso

Surely it cannot be 1g per pound bodyweight? At my heaviest I'd be eating over 200g of protein!!:eek:

I'd say more likely would be 1.5g/kilo and even then high protein seems to work for around 6 months until appetite goes back to normal.

boomtown84

The 1g per lb rule originated in the bodybuilding world so it wasn't a bad estimate as it was being adhered to by people with sub 12ish% bf. In the real world i think grams per lbm works better.

Gummy Panda

1g per pound is a good goal to aim for as it'll ensure you'll have protein in every meal in an atempt to hit it.

Reality is most will only consume .5 - .7g per pound unless they are willing to supplement.

luckylucky

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

Surely it cannot be 1g per pound bodyweight? At my heaviest I'd be eating over 200g of protein!!:eek:

I'd say more likely would be 1.5g/kilo and even then high protein seems to work for around 6 months until appetite goes back to normal.

1g per pound is a bit of a shock to me also. Like you at my heaviest I'd be eating 200 grams which seems massive.

I started using www.myfitnesspal.com to keep track of my calorie intake a few days ago - have set it to lose a modest 1/2 pound a week. I actiually plan to lose more than that but want to have a set upper bound that I know I can't go past. So far I've managed to come in under my daily calorie intake easily enough. I've noticed my protein level in particular is a bit low some days though.

According to myfitnesspal calculator default settings I should be eating around 80 grams of protein a day. This is way lower than the 190 grams I'm meant to be eating according to this 1 gram per pound of bodyweight.

So I'm confused

Perhaps myfitnesspal is solely concerned with weight loss - whereas my main goal is losing body fat - currently at 27%. I'd prefer to actually gain a bit of muscle mass rather than lose any.

Anyway basically I'm asking if I really should be eating 190 grams of protein a day. And if so are there any convenient snacks that are high in protein but low in fats and carbs?

Thanks for any advice.

Hanley

luckylucky wrote: »

1g per pound is a bit of a shock to me also. Like you at my heaviest I'd be eating 200 grams which seems massive.

I started using www.myfitnesspal.com to keep track of my calorie intake a few days ago - have set it to lose a modest 1/2 pound a week. I actiually plan to lose more than that but want to have a set upper bound that I know I can't go past. So far I've managed to come in under my daily calorie intake easily enough. I've noticed my protein level in particular is a bit low some days though.

According to myfitnesspal calculator default settings I should be eating around 80 grams of protein a day. This is way lower than the 190 grams I'm meant to be eating according to this 1 gram per pound of bodyweight.

So I'm confused

Perhaps myfitnesspal is solely concerned with weight loss - whereas my main goal is losing body fat - currently at 27%. I'd prefer to actually gain a bit of muscle mass rather than lose any.

Anyway basically I'm asking if I really should be eating 190 grams of protein a day. And if so are there any convenient snacks that are high in protein but low in fats and carbs?

Thanks for any advice.

myfitnesspal is wrong so

Maybe 1g/lb is too extreme, it was meant in the context of people actively training hard with weights multiple times per week and a moderate amount of bodyfat. If you're carrying a significant amount of fat, go 1g per lb of lean body mass.

As for good snacks - you can make your own protein flapjacks, jerky's good, small amounts of nuts...

luckylucky

Hanley wrote: »

myfitnesspal is wrong so

Maybe 1g/lb is too extreme, it was meant in the context of people actively training hard with weights multiple times per week and a moderate amount of bodyfat. If you're carrying a significant amount of fat, go 1g per lb of lean body mass.

As for good snacks - you can make your own protein flapjacks, jerky's good, small amounts of nuts...

Cheers hanley. Yeah I think that amount of protein was for sedentary people purely interested in weight loss - so perhaps myfitnesspal wasn't wrong as such but I just had the wrong settings on it for my real goal - which is losing body fat rather than out and out losing weight (I expect to lose some but hopefully not at the expense of muscle). And although I am mostly sedentary I am already getting more active.

Midlife Crashes

.8g per pound,anything more just helps speed up metabolism which is still very important. For fat loss I'd cycle my carbs. It looks something like
Day 1: 150 grams
Day 2: 100 grams
Day 3: 50 grams
Day 4: 125 grams
Day 5: 200 grams
Carbs would primarily be coming from complex carbs. I usually use quinoa(per 100 grams there is 12 grams of protein and 67 grams of carbs) you could also use sweet potato brown rice etc.
Also I'd add weight lifting to your workout plan, it burns more calories and helps preserve muscle.

Hanley

Midlife Crashes wrote: »

.8g per pound,anything more just helps speed up metabolism which is still very important.

Explain that a bit....

Midlife Crashes

Hanley wrote: »

Explain that a bit....

First I'd like the op(That's what we call the person who asks the questions right.?) to remember how important fat is in the diet. Around 70 grams of healthy fat a day to promote weight loss.
Protein helps the body burn through energy quicker.Your body requires more energy to process protein so more calories are burned during the digestion process.

Hanley

Midlife Crashes wrote: »

First I'd like the op(That's what we call the person who asks the questions right.?) to remember how important fat is in the diet. Around 70 grams of healthy fat a day to promote weight loss.
Protein helps the body burn through energy quicker.Your body requires more energy to process protein so more calories are burned during the digestion process.

How does healthy fat promote weight loss?

You're talking about the thermic effect of food so? It doesn't really speed up your metabolism per se, just means your net kcal intake is lower.

Oops... I forgot I'm not the OP, so apparently not allowed to ask you questions? Oops... there I go again. Thank god this is a discussion forum, not a "hey you're not allowed ask questions unless you start a thread" forum.

Midlife Crashes

Firstly the start of my reply was aimed at the op .
Fat Provides a better sense of satiety than low fat foods. Also, they help reduce the risk of heart disease and lower cholesterol levels.
I generally do a 40/40/20 split. (40% of total calories coming from protein 40% from carbs and 20% from fats.)

rocky

Midlife Crashes wrote: »

Firstly the start of my reply was aimed at the op .
Fat Provides a better sense of satiety than low fat foods. Also, they help reduce the risk of heart disease and lower cholesterol levels.
I generally do a 40/40/20 split. (40% of total calories coming from protein 40% from carbs and 20% from fats.)

1- Fat reduces risk of heart disease, since when?
2- For all your pro-fat talk, 20% fat is quite low fat. I'm pro-carbs and have days I eat 60% fat. Go figure

Midlife Crashes

rocky wrote: »

Midlife Crashes wrote: »

1- Fat reduces risk of heart disease, since when?
2- For all your pro-fat talk, 20% fat is quite low fat. I'm pro-carbs and have days I eat 60% fat. Go figure

Dutch researchers conducted an analysis of 60 trials that examined the effects of carbohydrates and various fats on blood lipid levels. In trials in which polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats were eaten in place of carbohydrates, these good fats decreased levels of harmful LDL and increased protective HDL. (19) More recently, a randomized trial known as the Optimal Macronutrient Intake Trial for Heart Health (OmniHeart) showed that replacing a carbohydrate-rich diet with one rich in unsaturated fat, predominantly monounsaturated fats, lowers blood pressure, improves lipid levels, and reduces the estimated cardiovascular risk. (7)

While bulking I would eat far more fats but generally a 40/40/20 split is considered a good indicator

Hanley

Midlife Crashes wrote: »

Dutch researchers conducted an analysis of 60 trials that examined the effects of carbohydrates and various fats on blood lipid levels. In trials in which polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats were eaten in place of carbohydrates, these good fats decreased levels of harmful LDL and increased protective HDL. (19) More recently, a randomized trial known as the Optimal Macronutrient Intake Trial for Heart Health (OmniHeart) showed that replacing a carbohydrate-rich diet with one rich in unsaturated fat, predominantly monounsaturated fats, lowers blood pressure, improves lipid levels, and reduces the estimated cardiovascular risk. (7)

While bulking I would eat far more fats but generally a 40/40/20 split is considered a good indicator

40/40/20 is considered good by who?

How was the data for those studies collected?

I'm actually on your side on the fat -v- carbs thing, but I just don't like blanket unsubstantiated statements on a website that gets so much traffic from people who don't know how to tell data from conjecture.

Midlife Crashes

It's considered good by people in bodybuilding circles. Sorry, I guess I did jump the gun a bit by quoting the website
When you asked the question I just remembered an article I remembered from a few months ago while trying to get more info on fats.
I'll just give you the website instead of trying to back up the study
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/index.html
The paragraph is about 15 paragraphs in.

rocky

Midlife Crashes wrote: »

Dutch researchers conducted an analysis of 60 trials that examined the effects of carbohydrates and various fats on blood lipid levels. In trials in which polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats were eaten in place of carbohydrates, these good fats decreased levels of harmful LDL and increased protective HDL. (19) More recently, a randomized trial known as the Optimal Macronutrient Intake Trial for Heart Health (OmniHeart) showed that replacing a carbohydrate-rich diet with one rich in unsaturated fat, predominantly monounsaturated fats, lowers blood pressure, improves lipid levels, and reduces the estimated cardiovascular risk. (7)

While bulking I would eat far more fats but generally a 40/40/20 split is considered a good indicator

This your source?
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/index.html

You should have started your post with 'I love omega 6 PUFA!'

Good Fats
Polyunsaturated fats are found in high concentrations in sunflower, corn, soybean, and flaxseed oils, and also in foods such as walnuts, flax seeds, and fish; canola oil

some of the media and blog coverage of these studies would have you believe that scientists had given a green light to eating bacon, butter, and cheese. But that’s an oversimplified and erroneous interpretation. Read the study and subsequent studies more closely, and the message is more nuanced: Cutting back on saturated fat can be good for health if people replace saturated fat with good fats, especially, polyunsaturated fats. (16,25) Eating good fats in place of saturated fat lowers the “bad” LDL cholesterol, and it improves the ratio of total cholesterol to “good” HDL cholesterol, lowering the risk of heart disease. Eating good fats in place of saturated fat can also help prevent insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes.

I'll think about it

Eating refined carbs in place of saturated fat does lower “bad” LDL cholesterol—but it also lowers the “good” HDL cholesterol and increases triglycerides. The net effect is as bad for the heart as eating too much saturated fat—and perhaps even worse for people who have insulin resistance because they are overweight or inactive. (17,25)

As a general rule, it's a good idea to keep your intake of saturated fats as low as possible.

:eek: So Sat fat is bad for the heart :eek:

Mellor

luckylucky wrote: »

According to myfitnesspal calculator default settings I should be eating around 80 grams of protein a day. This is way lower than the 190 grams I'm meant to be eating according to this 1 gram per pound of bodyweight.

So I'm confused

Perhaps myfitnesspal is solely concerned with weight loss - whereas my main goal is losing body fat - currently at 27%. I'd prefer to actually gain a bit of muscle mass rather than lose any.

MyFitnessPall isn't wrong. It's going by whatever macros you've set.
You can change it to what ever you want. you might need to log on to the website to do so

I have mine set to 40/30/30 I think, but I tend to just track calories. By food choices tend to mean my marcos are roughly right anyway.

Midlife Crashes wrote: »

First I'd like the op(That's what we call the person who asks the questions right.?) to remember how important fat is in the diet. Around 70 grams of healthy fat a day to promote weight loss.
Protein helps the body burn through energy quicker.Your body requires more energy to process protein so more calories are burned during the digestion process.

This is a classic example of taking a fact and not understanding it or twisting it.

Protein does require more energy to digest. But the extra energy it requires is still far less than the energy it contains. So eating more energy makes you burn more (as does eating more carbs and fat btw) but it also causes you to consume more. So your deficit it smaller, and weight loss reduced

luckylucky

Mellor wrote: »

MyFitnessPall isn't wrong. It's going by whatever macros you've set.
You can change it to what ever you want. you might need to log on to the website to do so

Yeah I saw that. I just increased the default setting from protein from 15% to 20% (not sure what percentages mean in this context because 20% for protein is a lot more grams than 20% for fat on myfitnesspal - maybe it's the percentages you get your calories from). Anyway it's basically recommending an average of 99 grams a day on that basis and I'm going to target at least getting that much. That'll actually be a big increase in my protein consumption.

rocky

luckylucky wrote: »

(not sure what percentages mean in this context because 20% for protein is a lot more grams than 20% for fat on myfitnesspal - maybe it's the percentages you get your calories from)

That's exactly what it is. So for the same percentage, fat grams should be 2.25 times less than protein grams (9/4).

Mellor

luckylucky wrote: »

Yeah I saw that. I just increased the default setting from protein from 15% to 20% (not sure what percentages mean in this context because 20% for protein is a lot more grams than 20% for fat on myfitnesspal - maybe it's the percentages you get your calories from). Anyway it's basically recommending an average of 99 grams a day on that basis and I'm going to target at least getting that much. That'll actually be a big increase in my protein consumption.

That much protein is about 400 cals, which as you guessed is 20% of your 2000 cals a day.
I stillthink 20 is a bit low. Try aim for 30%, and reduce carbs, i'm guessing they are 60% at the minute

luckylucky

Mellor wrote: »

That much protein is about 400 cals, which as you guessed is 20% of your 2000 cals a day.
I stillthink 20 is a bit low. Try aim for 30%, and reduce carbs, i'm guessing they are 60% at the minute

I currently have it as 55% carbs, 20% protein and 25% fats. I'm actually getting too few calories since I cut out bread and cakes and beer to meet my daily requirement for 1/2 lb weekly weight loss. At the rate I'm going this week I'm going to lose easily well over 2 lbs I think which is going a fair bit faster than I think is ideal. Anyway the only element of that diet that I don't seem to have a problem hitting my daily requirement is fat - mostly pretty good fat -like from nuts and olive oil - but still not really the element of my diet that I wanted to be easily hitting the target.


That 20% might very well still be low but I don't want to make wholesale drastic changes, also going to try to eat at least 20%, so it'll be more like 20 to 25%, whereas my goal with fats and carbs will be to come in a little under my daily target.

Anyway going out shopping now with the missus and aiming to get plenty of protein. Chicken, Fish here I come. Any other protein high food (low in carbs and low in fats) anyone can recommend before I head out. Is lean pork ok?