Protein Questions

[Georgiana]

The menu looks good. You might find that you are more hungry some days --- then it's perfectly fine to eat more than what's on that menu. Other days you might be less hungry and you'll eat less.

That's some great exercise you're doing! Good for you!

[msanjelpie]

I checked fitday and my daily protein jumped between 60 and 110 most often in the 70 to 95 range...

[RosieC]

Bumping this old but very useful thread because I am confused about protein.

I've been working hard to plan 30% of calories from protein. I add things like liquid egg white and white fish to increase the protein without increasing fat. These are not things I would normally eat a lot of ... I like salmon and whole eggs

So now I see that I am way over the minimum protein requirement for my weight (which I knew I was by most standards, but I thought Atkins must be higher). At 157 lb, the 0.4/0.8 calculation gives me a range of about 65g - 125g protein per day and I am averaging 115g. I don't work out much and this seems unnecessarily high.

So does this mean I can cut out the liquid egg whites and settle for around 100g protein per day even if this means less than 30% protein?

My calories are averaging 1530 on this plan ... which is not so high ... obviously the way to keep up the ratio of protein to fat without adding egg whites etc would be to cut calories from fat, but going below 1500 would be quite strict calorie control for me.

Or am I just going too far with the planning here
(But I need some kind of a plan right now, otherwise I never have the right food in the house)

[Georgiana]

Originally Posted by RosieC

So now I see that I am way over the minimum protein requirement for my weight (which I knew I was by most standards, but I thought Atkins must be higher).

Yes, it needs to be higher on Atkins, because some of the protein we eat is used in gluconeogenesis, to make glucose for those cells lacking mitochondria.

At 157 lb, the 0.4/0.8 calculation gives me a range of about 65g - 125g protein per day and I am averaging 115g.

I would use the protein intake used by Dr. Phinney in his studies... that's usually in the range of 1.2-1.75 g of protein per kg of body weight. So for you, that means 85-125 g of protein (close to the 0.4/0.8 calculation). As I have said in another thread today, personally I wouldn't go as high as 125 g unless you exercise a lot. 1.75 g of protein per kg was used in a study that had lean men as subjects... so their protein requirements were naturally higher.

So does this mean I can cut out the liquid egg whites and settle for around 100g protein per day

100 g is fine...

even if this means less than 30% protein and therefore more than 65% fat, since I won't increase carbs (yet)?

Yes, that is fine. The percentages are only important for fueling ketosis.

My calories are averaging 1530 on this plan ... which is not so high ... obviously the way to increase the ratio of protein to fat without adding egg whites etc would be to cut calories from fat, but going below 1500 would be quite strict calorie control for me.

Your calories are fine, in my opinion. You shouldn't go below 1500.

[RosieC]

Thanks Georgiana! That will feel much more natural to me.

That saves me the cost of another batch of liquid egg whites too

[Aways2Go]

You know, it's interesting... after the first few weeks, I haven't paid much attention at all to planning my meals AHEAD of time for the day in regards to protein intake, and even so, it almost ALWAYS comes out to between 28 and 31% by the end of the day. I review my percentages every few days and since it always comes out so close to target, I never feel the need to plan it out. I just eat protein to the extent it seems necessary each day to keep me full, and it is odd to me how consistent it has been as a percentage of my daily intake. My fat has come down slightly as a percentage and my carbs up slightly as I have added some foods in OWL, as would be expected, but protein seems to stay right about the same with no effort on my part.

Thankfully, one less thing I have to keep up with, at least for now! I will keep monitoring, though.