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This is Harvard Health Publishing, they say I need about 0.8 grams of protein everyday, now, that means I would have to consume about 70 grams of protein everyday (minimum) to stay healthy, now, I live in India and don't consume that much, but I consider myself pretty healthy.
So, what's the amount one should realistically be aiming towards? If I were to take 70 grams of protein everyday, what measurable changes can I expect in my life🤔?
I mean, you have your answer right there. It's not like Harvard is a particularly untrustworthy source for diet recommendations.
Why are you doubting the number? If you feel fine and don't want to change, don't. Everybody is different and has different needs, and you might just need less, but anyone reputable is going to give the same rough range.
Do you eat enough in general (eg 3 meals a day, you don't feel hungry most of the time)? It's not hard to meet the basic nutritional goals by just eating what you want when you want. Protein is in everything so it'd be quite hard to be significantly deficient if you're not starving.
I eat a protein low diet, 400 grams of rice and maybe 200 grams of what and some dal (which is protein rich but I eat very less quantity of it). One egg, and this is the best case scenario and I don't think that will get me more than half of what they say I need to be healthy.
People get a significant amount of their protein intake from sources that aren't usually considered "proteins". Lentils (and mung beans if you don't think of them as lentils), wheat, rice etc all have significant amounts of protein (especially lentils). Yogurt and cheese has lots of it too. Not sure what part of India you're in or what sort of food you're mostly eating but my guess is you're getting more protein than you realize.
A lot less than Americans think. Going from memory it's about 6-8% of calories.
People dont always calculate their total protein intake correctly, because things like wheat (12% protein) and rice and potatoes (3%) have protein although thought of as carbs. Studies say 50g of protein per day is ok, but some people say more is better, particularly if trying to build muscle mass etc
Is "grams per pound" really the way you say it?
Like, if you know the concept of gram, why do you need a pound?
In the US, we weigh ourselves in pounds. But nutritional information about food is in grams.
Imo, the fact that the numerator and denominator units are incompatible isn't a big deal since the message "eat .08% percent of your body weight in protein each day" is not the intuitive way to think about how much to eat. It's much easier to use a unit in the numerator that is common measuring nutrition and a unit in the denominator that is common for measuring body weight.
My question is essentially as to why you use two systems at once
If you know what gram is, you can imagine a kilogram as well: the conversion is easy, measurements are consistent with each other and the entire world, and it makes it very clear both units are tied together and represent mass.
Same reason we know what a liter is but still use pints and gallons. Because we recognize the value of the easy precision of metric when it's needed but prefer imperial for our day to day lives.
If u wanna build muscle eat at least 1g per pound of body weight (or 2.2 per kg).
Make sure ur getting enough carbs and fat too though, they're equally important.
Make sure ur getting enough carbs
What do the carbs do for body builders? Force anabolism?
Carbs are the basic molecules used in your energy metabolism (i.e. almost everything gets converted into glucose through one pathway or another).
If you'd try to meet your calorie requirements with a high protein intake you'd just put unnecessary strain on your kidneys and I don't think you'd enjoy your food as much (don't get me started on keto people)
(don’t get me started on keto people)
Please! I want to know more
There are specific medical conditions where a ketogenic diet has shown some promise, but for the most part it's not great for you. Essentially you needv blood sugars, and converting them from protein or fat takes a higher toll on your body than converting them from carbs. It barely counts as converting, a complex carb is really just a chain of sugars
The body eats up muscle as the first response to being deprived of substance.
I havent seen the research showing that the body eats muscle when not consuming carbs.
Not carbs in specific. But muscle along fat is very quick on the cut list of things your body does away with when having deficiencys. Just look at people doing hunger strikes
Too much protein can fuck up your sleeping schedule. Especially if it’s lean protein with little fat. Happened to me when I was eating too many chili cheese smoked sausages all the time because I was lazy. They’re delicious though.
I don’t mean to pry but sausage in general, especially seemingly chili cheese sausage, has an incredible amount of fat (that is not to say the fat is bad, subtypes and fatty acid chain length are important to note), wouldn’t this be counter to your point? Unless the chili cheese smoked sausages are some Franken-Sausage (lol) that is super lean.
I am... ALMOST sure they're making a joke about farting keeping them awake.
😅🤦 I feel like a fool
If your recommend protein intake is 70 grams per day (meaning you weigh about 195 pounds / 87 kg) and you’re only getting 20 grams per day, then you are likely already experiencing health issues.
From https://www.verywellhealth.com/protein-deficiency-symptoms-8756264 you could expect to experience:
Not all of those are immediately noticeable.
However, I’m with the other commenter who said that they think it’s likely that you’re under-estimating your daily protein intake. What method did you use for tracking and calculating it?
I have a very monotonous food that I am fed, so, I just calculated how much protein I am getting from it and it turned out to be no more than 20 grams average per day. Boy, I need to add more proteins to my diet, can protein powders be digested by the body well or should I look for natural sources of protein?
Just eat more beans, put milk in tea, some meat if you eat that, you don't need protein powder. Food will give you more nutrients than a protein isolate. A balanced diet is the way to go.
Powders can be good, but they can also be garbage. It depends on the brand. But with whole foods like legumes or animal meats, you can be sure you're getting quality protein.
I mean most powders are from natural sources. Pea protein, whey comes from milk. Depends on the person, some people have digestive issues if they start taking a ton of protein and don't adjust bit by bit. If you're lactose intolerant, watch out for powders that are Whey based, some contain enough lactose to upset your gut. Some say lactose-free.
Also, thanks for the detailed answer!
It depends on your activity levels, metabolism, age etc. in general that amount of protein (assuming your diet is consistent) will keep your muscle mass constant and keep your brain functioning well (and other bodily functions - it’s not siloed in its purpose and basically impacts every aspect of your body’s functions . Your body’s processes are not solely reliant on protein but if you don’t have enough your neurotransmission and cognitive function will suffer. If you consume less protein than your base amount for a prolonged time, your body doesn’t have what it needs to maintain core functions and renew and maintain muscle mass. If you don’t consume enough calories overall you’ll find your body will consume its own muscles as a source of energy which is a dangerous metabolic process that can have lasting detrimental effects.
Basically over a short term or one day in a while, not consuming enough protein shouldn’t be an issue, but on a consistent or prolonged timeline, your body just doesn’t have what it needs to maintain itself and you are at risk of longer term impacts to your wellbeing in many facets of your basic bodily functions. I’ve read numbers like .75g per kg for women and .84g per kg for men daily, for basic maintenance of bodily condition. Obviously it isn’t One size fits All, but as a general jumping off point I think that’s a reasonable ballpark. Basically if you’re healthy, and assuming all other things being equal, those amounts should maintain your current state.
You missed a )
Oh, I was just taking a breath - I hadn’t finished…)
I started tracking what I eat some days ago and hadn't had a single day I got even near that level. And since the only change was that I increased my protein, I probably didn't met that level for some time now. But I feel very good.
Just to double check, you weigh around ~87kg? For that weight I’d guess you’re eating 2500kcal/day+ right?
And you’re counting protein from all sources, not just meat or meat equivalents? Eating some yogurt, lentils, beans, etc all of that protein content can add up pretty quickly but you might not be counting it.
As a final note, they recommend that for healthy but that doesn’t mean you can’t be healthy without it. But you could consider adding a little bit of high protein sources (chicken, tofu, etc) to your diet to hit closer to that goal and see if it makes a difference for you.
A bit less, so that I'm aiming for about 2000kcal/day I am using the cronometer app. I enter everything I eat I they count the nutrients. So I hope they are counting everything.
And yes, I am trying to add some high protein sources right now but it still is rather hard to hit the daily goal. But , still, thanks for the tips.
Quark yogurts are your friend, I get some that have 25g of protein per serving for only around 130cal, I top them with a bit of muesli so they're less boring and the whole snack is then like 180/190cal and way more filling and more protein than a bar with similar calories (they're already flavoured as well)..
Best AskLemmy question I've seen in years
Hehe... Thank you!
https://www.dietdoctor.com/food-policy/protein
2g per kg ideal body weight, look at citation 5 for references
Not all sources of protein are the same, you need ALL the essential amino acids to actually be able to use protein. Most food protein is based on a nitrogen estimate and not measured amino acids!!! (This is called crude protein)
A good way to see what food are bioavailable protein is to reference it's DIAAS score.
https://www.diaas-calculator.com/
If you eat your daily target of protein but it's missing amino acids, your body can't use it, and you haven't actually eaten your target protein.
You could also use a tool like cronometer to map out your food and amino acids as well
That diet doctor recommendation feels wildly high for a "what is actually necessary" request. Like 2 g/kg is near the target for bodybuilders.
It might be a good idea for many people to hit that to maximize muscle development in preparation for aging (where muscle deterioration is chief concern), but not a good estimate for anyone who isnt worried about that.
They also say two further things which ding their credibility:
First is this comment: "Because there appears to be a limited amount of protein that can be absorbed at a meal, it may be best to evenly space out your protein throughout the day, if possible."
This is not really a concern even for bodybuilders. You dont need to overthink spacing.
Second is the comment about vegetarians/vegans. Protein intake is not a huge concern for the average vegetarian, if you are not aiming for that unnecessarily high target - as long as they are regularly including some protein in their meals (soy, beans, nuts, eggs). Even for non-vegetarians, that higher target requires you to monitor of your protein intake to hit it regularly with overeating.
Like 2 g/kg is near the target for bodybuilders.
Big difference between body builders and normal people is that the advice is for ideal body weight, where bodybuilders consume per current bodyweight. The advice has to be high to account for the highly variable metabolism, and diets of the general population. Some people simply don't eat bioavailable complete proteins, at all.
“Because there appears to be a limited amount of protein that can be absorbed at a meal, it may be best to evenly space out your protein throughout the day, if possible.”
Here is there reference for that advice: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3197704/ Moderating the portion size of a protein-rich meal improves anabolic efficiency in young and elderly - Randomized Trial; Moderate evidence.
Second is the comment about vegetarians/vegans.
Here is their reference for that advice: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5521049/ Determination of the protein quality of cooked Canadian pulses - [mechanistic study; ungraded]
Although the quality of protein in different legumes varies, many appear to be about 20-50% less digestible than animal protein
They cited references and papers for each of their comments, which improves their credibility. I would have liked them to mention DIAAS scores, for completeness, rather then referring to a paper on pulses, but that doesn't remove from their advice.
if you eat the recommended amount of protein (and a little extra as a buffer) then you would not notice any particularly striking change, but statistically your quality of life will improve for myriad subtle reasons. Hormone production will be more stable, you will be less likely to get diseases associated with protein deficiency, you will build muscle slightly more easily, your brain will technically function slightly better in subtle metabolic ways, as with all your other organs. etc. You will likely, not notice any of it. But across your life it will statistically make a difference in your health outcomes. this is true of all phytonutrients, not just protein.
The recommended amount contains a buffer. No need to add your own buffer as well
based on the screenshot, it does not seem to include a buffer, and is unlikely to imo because that requires taking a stance on the size of that buffer.
This is a good question but you're going to get a wild range of information because of a number of factors.
That number is a good starting point but it's likely low especially if you're physically active or using a vegan/vegetarian source.
Also, something one must keep in mind is that the vast majority of research in the field is built on the fundamental assumption carbs should be the largest part of the diet which is likely wrong as the body seems to run better the less sugar you give it.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE8LmUoWei5Qp5Nz7C4FMNs6hGNx7M3Jg
That's a great lecture, thanks for sharing
Im going to say the Harvard estimate is probably pretty close. It is probably a bit higher than what you would need on a day to day basis for survival, but enough to help your body maintain some muscle over the long term.
Its not enough for someone wanting to be fit or muscular though.
The rule of thumb I remember using is the portion size of a pack of cards, now also remember that you can get proteins from other sources as well Some are complete proteins & some you need other ingredients to complete.