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How much protein (%) should I eat per day for weight loss

Old 09-10-2011, 10:59 PM
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Default How much protein (%) should I eat per day for weight loss

Hello all

First post here and thanks for reading

I am currently on a diet. I知 185cm, 116.6kg start weight, 86kg goal weight. Currently 110.2kg.

I think I知 finding out that a little bit of information is a worse than none.

What I知 trying to figure out is what percentage of protein I should eat per day. I do cardio every day, mainly running with some swimming and exercise bike. I do weight痴 as well but only 1-2 week.

I am currently running on 45% protein 35% carbs and 20% fats daily.

I'm also not sure on how many calories per day I need. From all the research I do online I get incredibly different results.

Can anyone tell me what %痴 I should be aiming for in my diet for weight loss?
Also what痴 the best way to work out how many calories I need per day?

Thanks in advance, Jimmy.
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Old 09-10-2011, 11:38 PM
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Originally Posted by jimmymate
Hello all

First post here and thanks for reading

I am currently on a diet. I知 185cm, 116.6kg start weight, 86kg goal weight. Currently 110.2kg.

I think I知 finding out that a little bit of information is a worse than none.

What I知 trying to figure out is what percentage of protein I should eat per day. I do cardio every day, mainly running with some swimming and exercise bike. I do weight痴 as well but only 1-2 week.

I am currently running on 45% protein 35% carbs and 20% fats daily.

I'm also not sure on how many calories per day I need. From all the research I do online I get incredibly different results.

Can anyone tell me what %痴 I should be aiming for in my diet for weight loss?
Also what痴 the best way to work out how many calories I need per day?

Thanks in advance, Jimmy.
Jimmy, welcome!

Calorie burn is, at best, an informed guess. I'd take the output from a couple different calculators, average it and try that for a starting point.

Without knowing your age, and you being more or less 6' and 256 pounds you're BMR is probably 2200 to 2500 calories. You'd add in any extra exercise to that.

1500 calories worked pretty well for me, but might be a little low for you. I like around a 40/30/30 carb/protein/fat mix, but again, this might not be optimum for you (it is the mix recommended by The Zone diet). In the end, though, it really boils down to calories in vs. calories out. You need to maintain, on average, a 3500 calorie deficit to lose one pound a week, which is 500 calories a day. A 1000 calorie per day deficit nets you (again, on average) a two pound loss per week.

It's really up to you to tweak your eating plan and calorie intake but I'd take your best guess and put it into the FitDay calculator. Then I'd make sure to add in 8 hours of sleep to my daily activity log as many of us find that brings the daily calorie burn estimate closer to "reality".

Hope this helps!

Regards,
Michael
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Old 09-11-2011, 12:20 AM
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Thank you Michael for quick and informative response. I shall have to check out the zone diet. zonediet.com correct?

I’m 26 years old and I’ve been doing less that 1500 Calories a day (not by much) atm and losing weight quite quickly.

I guess I was just worried that I was eating too much protein (about 120 grams) or too much % protein. My idea behind eating a lot of protein is to make sure I maintain my muscle mass while losing weight and to help in muscle recovery for all the extra exercise I’m doing. Also I feel the extra protein helps me stay full and not hungry. Plus I read alot about low carb diets so I tried to keep them as low as poss.

I am defiantly trying to watch calories in and calories out to maximise weight loss.

Cheers mate
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Old 09-11-2011, 12:39 AM
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1 gram of protein per kg bodyweight is right at the recommended amount so you're fine there. Weight training more will have a greater effect of maintaining muscle mass than just protein alone.

What effort level are maintaining in your cardio workouts? Low carb intake can make aerobic work difficult as you deplete glycogen stores in your body.
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Old 09-11-2011, 11:35 AM
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Those answers that you got are as an exact as you could possibly get, and you are not going to believe this, but protein does not make muscle, CARBS do.

I know what you are thinking, but it I was surprised too, but I found fitday when I was doing mega research on bodybuilding websites etc learning how they do cutting cycles.

The most important thing though, is what Micheal said, that you have tweek your macros, and there are things like calorie (aka carb) cycling which you can find some some threads on, to find your perfect ratio that causes you to drop weight.

In terms of your ratio, it would be depend on your work out intensity in the gym that would push these numbers higher in the carb portion.

I started with 50 to 60 carbs 20 to 30 prot, and 20 fat (or less).

Doing this with a super high intensity cardo and workout I lost fat and gained muscle at the same time, which is very difficult to do.

Since then, I have been backing down my calories and using various other methods to lean out.

I am almost in a 32 pant, down from 36 a year ago.
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Old 09-11-2011, 01:13 PM
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Thanks again for the feedback. I'll post my daily food diet. I eat the same thing every day.

Breakfast: 45g high fibre cereal and 60ml of low fat milk
Lunch: 2 Slices of 9 grain bread with Salmon in Springwater 95g tin and about 100g of Lettuce
Dinner: Chicken Breast Pan Fried 200g with Broccoli Steamed about 280g
Snack: Large Apple with skin

I calculated as accurately as I can all the nutrition details about each food by reading the labels and researching online. I do have an extensive food spread sheet with all the info but I shortened it down.

Atm now its 35/42/23 with 101g carbs 120g protein and 28 grams of fat. Also with this diet i hit the daily targets of low sugar, low bad fats and also my 30g of fibre.

If i was to change to have say 40% carbs I知 not sure what to sub in/out. I just want to get my diet right so I don稚 have to worry about it and can focus on other things like more exercise
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Old 09-11-2011, 01:30 PM
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I have to tell you that you are more on the right trac than almost all of the newbies that post, because you understand the science of keeping a record of the macros, and I have good news!!

If you start working out more, like you said, you really won't have to think about the fine balance between your proteins and carbs.

Also, if you eat the same thing most of the time, then soon you will not even have to log because you will be dialed in.

As for excercise, do you belong to a gym, or have one at home?

Either way, and if you are just starting out, walking is the recommended way to burn a lot of calories. try to walk an hour twice per day, if you have the time, bring water.

Also ask Micheal about what he recommends in terms of water intake.

Best of luck to you, in one year, you could be down to 200 without a problem, and the slow way is the best in terms of keeping it off, otherwise you could just fast, which seems like a total waste and a sure way to lose muscle mass fast.

Post a pic of your feet on the scale when you get to 225!!
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Old 10-29-2011, 10:53 AM
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Default Advice please

Im 1.57 cm and 53k. I want to know if it is ok or if I need to loss a few of weight, how many calories I need for day, carb, etc
Thanks
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Old 12-02-2011, 02:32 AM
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Default How much protein should a person get?

Atkins says to calculate protein by height, not weight. A woman 5'5" (like me) should get 73-152 grams of protein per day. I thought I was doing well at about 50, but I had stopped losing. I looked this up yesterday for a co-worker, who is also 6' tall. We were amazed to see that he needed 89-186 grams of protein a day--he, too, thought he was doing well at 50. Both of us have noticed an increase in energy with an increase in protein.

73-152 grams of protein is about 16 ounces per day.
89-186 grams of protein is about 20 ounces per day.

I changed my serving sizes just a little--4 ounces of turkey at two meals and a few eggs during the day get me to the correct range. (I had been doing 2 oz servings of meat for some strange reason.) Protein shakes and bars can help, too--without adding extra sugar (carbs).
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Old 07-02-2012, 07:40 AM
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Healthy protein drinks, also know as the well-known smoothies, certainly are a rather simple mix of nut products, fruit and additionally milk. Body builders primarily like drinks because it's a tremendous help in the muscle development approach, and it likewise raises the function in our gastrointestinal tract. Shakes could also boost our metabolic processes and allow us to lose fat easier.



In addition there are additional food items, that can help you begin the morning in a best way, such as, grape fruit or perhaps orange juice. They are simply full of natural vitamins, minerals and additionally healthy proteins too. Alternatively, (site link deleted), it is possible to sip milk each morning which we highly recommend for those who don’t have lactose intolerance.

There is certainly one important thing you need to stay away from, and that's to start out the day with a coffee. It usually is advisable to have a full cup of pure juices. It's also a bad idea to avoid your main morning meal as you may really feel exhausted and sleepy. To avert this, generally try and have a good morning meal.

Last edited by RunbikeSki; 07-02-2012 at 01:01 PM. Reason: deleted link
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