Ask A Practitioner: Am I Eating Enough Protein?

When we consider macronutrients, protein is not given as much attention as fats and carbohydrates. However, protein is now involved in lots of things and almost all processes in the body – hormones, tissues, organs, the skeleton, hair, skin, muscles, etc. Proteins are involved in thousands of biochemical activities in the body, including enzymes used for digestion or antibodies for combating diseases. Carbohydrates and fats can be looked at as the straight-up fuel for your body, while proteins are the materials of construction for all your body’s components.

According to the present USDA diet, one must consume about 0.8 grams of protein for every kilogram of their weight. This recommendation is the barest minimum of protein you need to consume daily for your body to function properly. While this recommendation is applied to dietary goals, most experts claim that most people in America do not get enough protein.

While some of these guidelines could be seen to follow the simplest nutritional requirements, we want to do more than just exist— we want to live. The widespread desire is to have a dynamic and happy life, to feel muscular and sexually desirable, and to stay healthy and young towards the evening of one’s day. It wouldn’t hurt to strike the correct macronutrient ratio for that, and that could mean upping your protein.

Benefits of Protein

The following are some of the advantages associated with increased intake of protein. First, protein reduces hunger more effectively than fats and carbohydrates; thus, protein is the most satiating macronutrient. Perhaps when you are eating with more protein in your diet plan, you end up eating less.

Second, protein is needed for skin, hair, and nail growth as well as muscles. This means that the more muscle your body is carrying, the more energy it requires to run. Consuming even more protein also implies that you are ingesting less fat and carbohydrates, both of which are associated with the storage of body fat.

Finally, our protein requirements get even higher with age as our body starts using protein less and less efficiently. Muscle wastage, or sarcopenia, is one of the common conditions among people as they age and get out of their respective prime. Protein can help keep one strong and healthy just like the Old Man again with some physical activities such as exercising.

How much protein should I take?

To answer the actual question of how much protein I need, several factors must be considered.

• Age
• As it has already been stated elsewhere, protein requirements increase after the age of 50 because our ability to absorb and utilize protein decreases, and there is a real possibility of losing muscle mass.
• Gender
• Macronutrients are needed in large amounts. Its quantity varies with different ages and developmental stages between male and female individuals. For instance, pregnancy increases the required amount of protein for a woman as well, and menopause decreases it; hormonal changes of aging affect metabolism, hormone regulation, weight, and muscle mass for men.
• Health Status
• Unlike carbohydrates and fats, your current individual health status strongly affects how much protein is required. For instance, a patient with a metabolic or weight problem would recommend taking more protein in his or her diet.
• Activity and Weight
• Like your health status, your activity level and body weight are factors that are likely to influence the recommended intake of proteins. An active person who wants to maintain his or her lean mass may not require a significant increase in protein consumption but a person with a weight loss plan will benefit from an increased protein consumption as it helps build muscle and lose fat.
• Goals
• Last but not least, your macronutrient ratios depend upon your preferences and requirements. Do you need to gain muscles and aesthetic physical appearance, that is free from excessive fats? Do you want to return to an activity that you used to enjoy, or just have more energy daily? Thus, it may also benefit those goals to increase your daily protein consumption.

How do you know if you are taking enough protein?

First, listen to the signals of your body! Are you often feeling fatigued or lethargic now or have you been like this in the past? Do you often feel hungry or start snacking during the day or do you struggle to lose weight? Are you slow in your workout recovery? These may be indications you may need to increase your protein intake to a higher level.

Then, record the meal by using a macro counting app for a week. MyFitnessPal, Chronometer, My Food Data and many more have food databases that will enable you to enter your food each day and examine the nutrient and energy value of your meal. After achieving this, you should be able to increase or decrease your intake of protein easily. This should just be to get an idea of the measurement. We do not suggest continued usage of the application or getting fixated on a number.

For instance, if you are a physically active man or woman in your 40s, you may need to obtain 20 – 25% of your total daily calories from protein to retain a lean muscle mass. Likewise, if your goal is to shed some pounds or build muscles, you should take up to 35% of your daily calorie intake in protein.

In other words, you could dine on between 1.2 and 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day depending on certain factors. Therefore an active woman of 63.5 kg would require between 76g and 127 g of protein daily while the 180 lbs (82 kg) man requires between 98g and 164g of protein daily.

Thus, if a person wanted to keep his or her fat mass to lean mass ratio more or less constant, he or she would consume the protein on the lower end or middle of that range while the individuals aspiring to build muscle mass would need to eat more protein.

Ways of increasing protein intake

Protein food sources are defined as unprocessed foods. Animal foods include eggs, milk, fish, beef, chicken, pork, and game meats, all of which contain the essential amino acids as well as most of the conditional ones.

Plant-based protein sources like beans and peas, nuts, lentils, and fermented soy, like tofu, tempeh, and soy sauce, are also acceptable, though not all of them contain nine essential amino acids.

But start with just one day – nobody is forcing you to consume a ribeye steak every day. Introduce one or two eggs in the morning together with your tea or coffee or even a roasted chicken thigh with your lunch. Green berry smoothies with good protein powder can be taken for breakfast or as a takeaway lunch. Dairy-sensitive people can try vegetarian protein powders such as pea protein.

Try to make a small change in your routine, follow this change for a week, and then notice how your body feels. This is followed by the next week, including a piece of fish for dinner and perhaps a turkey burger for lunch. If you have been logging in to a certain macro tracker application, have a look at how many grams of protein you are consuming and check the kind of feeling you get. After some research on what you like taking and how you feel afterward, you’ll settle for the best for you.