How Much Protein Should You Be Getting Each Day?

There is a lot of skepticism on this subject; a lot of people believe that we as humans don’t need more than ~46 grams of protein daily for an adult female, and ~56 grams daily for an adult male. That’s only about 180-220 calories per day coming from protein sources; that’s nothing in my opinion! If you were to look at a nutritional label on just about any food or drink product you’ll see something that says “percent values based on a 2,000 calorie diet”. So if that were the case and you were eating 2,000 cals a day and following the recommended daily intake of protein that’s only a measly  10% of your calories coming from protein! Where are the other 90% calories coming from, carbs and fats of course; which is not necessarily bad but I feel like you’ll have a lot harder time trying to lose or drop weight and look good with a low protein, high carb, moderate fat diet.

I personally try and get in as much protein as I can; I’ve always followed what a lot of fitness professionals, and bodybuilders do, both male and female alike; they like to take in anywhere from 1, 1.5, 2, grams of protein per pound of bodyweight per day! So for example a person weighs 100lbs they should be eating at the least 100 grams of protein and at the most 200 grams per day; and just a quick reminder 1 gram of protein has 4 calories. So if you took in 200 grams of protein, that’s 800 calories you consumed; and this is where things get a little tricky especially if you’re trying to diet down and get leaner. When dieting the average person would need to be eating anywhere from 1000-2000 calories a day, and 800 calories worth of just pure protein takes up a big chunk of that. Due to this it’s crucial that most of the protein comes from lean protein sources… Egg whites, chicken, ground turkey, fish, and protein powder! The reason behind this that if you’re trying to get in adequate protein but you’re getting it all from hamburgers, or penne alfredo with chicken for example, then you’re taking in a lot of other macro nutrients like carbs and fats. Carbs have 4 calories per gram, and fat has a whopping 9 calories per gram; so by eating this way you can easily eat more calories than you were supposed to. You can’t just eat straight meat though, so what do you eat for your remaining calories? Vegetables and healthy fats!

So before I get too much off the main topic you want to be taking in between 1-2 grams of protein per pound of your bodyweight per day! Now if you’re already eating healthy and include some source of protein in every meal as is, then you don’t really have to worry, as you’re already doing the right thing! Also here’s a great link to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) where you can read up a little bit more on protein!

http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/protein.html