Protein Needs

A while back I posted about eating clean. I'm still eating clean (with the exception of my weekend cheat) but I've modified things a bit. The eating clean plan calls for pairing a lean protein with each mini meal and this was definitely new to my diet. To see where I was at with this new way of eating, I calculated my totals and was shocked to see I was getting a ridiculous amount of protein. So, I revisited the chapter in my personal training text book to see what I should be getting and did some reading on line. Turns out I was getting waaaay more than I needed.

I think most of us know that protein is important because it builds and repairs body tissues, including muscles, but did you know that excess protein is stored as fat? And in addition to this, if you get too much protein, it puts unwanted stress on your kidneys and can cause leaching of calcium from your bones. It's also really important that you consume adequate amounts of carbohydrates with your daily protein because if you don’t consume enough carbohydrates, protein will be stripped from the muscle and used as an energy source instead of being used for muscle repair. I need to take my own advice with this one because I fear the carbs and they are the first thing I scale back on when trying to lose weight. I know, as a runner, this is terrible.

While there are a ton of different sources out there, most state that an active adult should get around 0.8-1.0g of protein per kg of body weight (note: to convert your weight from lbs to kg, divide your weight by 2.2) while athletes should get around 1.2-1.8g. If you'd rather calculate based off total calories, this is equal to around 12-20% of total caloric intake. For example, 150lb athlete would need 81.6-122.4g protein per day:

150/2.2 = 68 kg

68 * 1.2 = 81.6

68 * 1.8 = 122.4

81.6 - 122.4 g protein

I think too many of us are protein happy adding protein powder to shakes, munching on protein bars, etc. Well, without doing any of that, and without even really trying, I'm getting just the right amount of protein by eating a balanced diet. So it can be done and here's an example of my day yesterday:

Breakfast:
1C Skim milk – 8g
½C Oatmeal – 6g
1T Wheat germ – 2g
1T Agave – 0g
Snack:
Peaches – 0g
8 almonds – 2g
Lunch:
Spinach – 3g
3oz chicken – 18g
1T Guacamole – 1g
Slice Ezekiel – 4g
Apple – 0g
Snack:
Carrots – 1g
Banana – 1g
Dinner:
4oz Chicken – 24g
½C Quinoa – 5g
12 Brussel sprouts – 6g
Snack:
100 calorie pack popcorn – 5g
½C fat free plain yogurt – 7g
1T flax seed – 2g
Drizzle agave – 0g
TOTAL: 95

While this number is on the lower end of my range, I also didn't strength train yesterday and just did cardio. However, today I spent 70 minutes lifting so I added some protein to my breakfast to aid in the muscle repair immediately after my workout.

There are a ton of sources of healthy protein out there. You're not limited to finding protein in only meat/poultry and you definitely don't need to load up on powders and supplements. Try beans, low fat dairy and even grains. Grains are an excellent source of protein and they're delicious, too!!

Hope someone finds this useful, I know I never paid much attention to protein but I'm glad I learned about it.