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🤔?
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:
- Weakness and fatigue, meaning you’ll feel exhausted - mentally, physically, or both
- Skin, Hair, and Nail Problems
- Mood changes, including the development of mood disorders, such as depression
- Compromised immune system
- Slowed wound healing
- Decline in bone strength
- Fatty liver
- Weight loss due to your muscles and organs being broken down - but my understanding is this is mostly relevant if your overall caloric intake is quite low (starvation levels)
- Weight gain due to fluid retention or increased hunger
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?
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.
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.
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.
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)…
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.
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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
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.
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.
Best AskLemmy question I’ve seen in years
Hehe… Thank you!
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.
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.
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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
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.
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.
