The Truth About Protein and Your Body

Every diet program says you need to eat more protein to lose weight.  Also, men put protein in their weight gain routines for building muscle.  How much protein do you really need?  Can too much protein harm your body?

B-Net   provides a little insight about how much protein you really need every day!

Q: How much protein do I really need to eat every day?

A: If you’re mildly active (you exercise three times a week for 30-60 minutes), you probably don’t need more than the RDA — 0.4 grams per pound of ideal body weight, says Melinda Manore, Ph.D. To calculate your daily protein needs in grams, multiply your weight by 0.4. (For a 145-pound woman, that’s 58 grams, or 12-15 percent of total daily calories.)

If you’re moderately active (you exercise four to six days a week for 30-60 minutes), you may need slightly more — from 0.6-0.7 grams. (That’s 87-101.5 grams, or about 20 percent of total daily calories, for a 145-pound woman.)

If you’re highly active (you exercise daily for an hour or more) you may need even more protein than that — from 0.9-1 gram. (For a 145-pound woman, that’s 130.5-145 grams, or about 30 percent of total daily calories.)

You also may need this amount if you are recovering from a serious illness or exercising at higher altitudes than usual — for example, you’re backpacking at 7,000 feet but live at sea level. At higher altitudes, your body is deprived of oxygen until you adapt, placing a stress on all systems and increasing cellular damage. Protein helps protect and repair cells while your body acclimates, which can take several weeks.

Other Protein Facts

If you don’t get enough protein in your diet, then your body starts using its own sources of protein for energy. And guess where your body gets the protein from? It starts eating away at your muscles – slowing your metabolic rate, reducing your strength AND bringing muscle growth to a grinding halt.

If you’ve been training with weights without seeing much in the way of results, make sure you’re eating enough protein – either in the form of whole food (such as chicken, fish or lean red meat) or a protein supplement.

Research has also shown that high protein diets can accelerate fat loss. A recent study compared the effects of a high protein and a high carbohydrate diet on weight loss [3]. After six months, the high protein group lost almost twice as much fat as those on the high carbohydrate diet.

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