Ever hear the saying, Too much of a good thing can be bad? Many of today’s nutrition recommendations are highly exaggerated to get into people’s pockets to make them buy more product, which leads to hurting your progress more than helping it. My biggest pet peeve is high protein diets. The fitness media brainwashes people into thinking they need 1.5 – 2+ grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. This would mean a 130lb person would need to consume 195 – 260g’s of protein per day, which is INSANE! If your goal is to lose weight, then I can understand the need for a high protein diet because protein is THE most satiating macronutrient and will keep you full so that you will not splurge on anything else, i.e. sugary carbs and unhealthy fats.
– What I recommend for fat loss is getting your body weight in protein per day. So if you weigh 135lbs you should aim to get 135 grams of protein per day. The satiating effect you get from protein is unreal. You will no longer have cravings for junk food and digesting protein alone will burn more calories since it takes longer to digest, hence why you will feel full longer between meals = less calories consumed throughout the day.
– Trying to build muscle? All you need is 0.7 – 0.8 grams per pound of bodyweight. So if you weigh 135lbs you would consume between 95 – 108 grams per day. The reasoning behind the lower intake for building muscle is because you need to leave room in you diet for healthy fats and carbs. As I stated earlier, protein is extremely satiating, so if you were to eat a bunch of protein you wont be hungry enough to get in essential fats and carbs. You need both protein, fats and carbs to build muscle. Protein itself is not some magical muscle building food source.
– Non active, sedentary individuals who want to live a normal healthy lifestyle should still be getting more than the RDA of 0.4 and get between 0.6 – 0.8 of protein per pound of bodyweight instead. The RDA of 0.4 is too low in my opinion because you will find yourself hungrier more often from the lack of protein.