I run 4x a week and ride once
Was looking at my protein intake yesterday and feeling smug as I thought I had a lot of protein!
1 block of tofu
2 eggs
Litre of milk
Turns out this was nowhere near enough for me (.8*170lb)
As a vege I eat lots of pulses and tofu plus eggs. Where do you get your protein from? Diet, powder, both?
is that for a week or a day?
A day
I’ve been trying to eat a bit more protein as well, but am reluctant to start measuring and weighing stuff (not that I think it’s an inherently bad idea, but it’s a potential rabbit hole for me).
Eggs, yoghurt and seeds are my baseline protein sources, but I do have meat a couple of times a week and fish too.
No regular protein supplements, but I do have the occasional powdered recovery shake for convenience after hard exercise. I used to just have chocolate milk for this but found if I was doing it regularly it would push the boundary of my lactose tolerance.
Endurance Training:
0.75g - 1.2g per kg of body weight.
Food.
No Cheese? One of the most protein dense foodstuffs.
Nuts, rice, peas.
Like the OP I did some sums on my protein intake, plus I've seen the intake should go up when you get to around 65, which is me. Didn't seem to be having enough from my diet, so I've started having a protein powder drink 3/4 times a week. I run 3 times a week plus a bike, plus I've started doing a rowing ergo session 2/3 times a week as well. Aiming for about 1.5g/kg.
as a recently converted 'veggie', i dont have nearly enough, so most days my lunch is a bowl of cereal with a 'double unflavoured protein shake' for the milk. not everyones cup of tea but i love it which is the main thing.
ill then maybe have three scrambled eggs on toast for tea, maybe some cottage cheese or greek yoghurt. only have 2 meals per day plus snacks.
2 knackered shoulders has put paid to exercise for the forseeable :-/
Chicken and cheese mainly. And an occasional protein shake after a particularly hard workout,
BBC.CO.UK I'm aiming for 2g/kg, so 150gm per day.. that breasks down into 50gm per meal... I rarely hit it, especially with work..
Breakfast i have a protien shake (25gm, with my creatine)... And a high protein yoghurt..
Lunch i have a chicken breast (200gm chicken = 50gm prot) and stuff.
similar for tea.
It's hard to actually meet the target - basically you just eat shed loads of chicken!
DrP
I've started upping my protein intake since my Wife has been seeing a fitness bod, to try & get in shape. That involves not just workout planning, but diet and the whole shebang.
I didn't realise that you are supposed to have quite so much protein per day, just to maintain the muscle that you have; let alone recover from exercise & grow muscle.
I have started eating quite a lot more scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast, a lot more chicken salad type meals for lunch rather than just a ham sandwich, and trying to have a can of tuna or mackerel once a week.
I also have greek yogurt as a snack with some fruit in it.
Most days I have a protein shake - I get it from Bulk. I think that's a 23g protein hit from a 30g serving and it is pretty low calorie so works quite well as a mid-afternoon snack at work when I might otherwise reach for something with more calories that doesn't keep me full for as long.
Vegan, so I won't go down the "shed load of chicken" route (and if I'm honest, I don't think many others would if they truly appreciated what we are inflicting on sentient creatures in a miserable 40 day life to satisfy our 'needs' and didn't bury their heads in the sand on the subject). It genuinely is "shed loads of chickens"!
I've done the maths and I can manage it pretty well with tofu, seiten, legumes and nuts. Loads of lentils, chickpeas, black beans and mushrooms in most of my meals. I probably should have more nuts. Some veggies (like broccoli and especially peas) have far more protein in than others so always choose those if appropriate. I try to avoid too many Linda McCartney veggie sausage type food where I can, but I do have a shake most mornings with a couple of scoops of a vegan protein powder.
Interesting thread as I've also passed the magic age and ain't doing enough protein guzzling. I'm loathe to start buying protein powders but that looks to be the most guaranteed way of getting it all in without a major change in diet.
Been "tracking my macros" using My Fitness Pal and my protein was well short of where it should have been.
I'm not a veggie so have boosted it with tuna, eggs, baked beans and nuts. This has also seen my fat and carbs reduced a little as well, so starting to move my diet in the right direction overall.
I supplement with Whey protein from bulk after hard rides and will add some to my breakfast if I wake up with sore legs.
The big Strong man in my life 😉
i have chicken, mackerel, salmon, eggs, lentils, chickpeas, greek yoghurt, nuts. I did have tofu once due to feeling bad for all the chickens, but i think i need to look up some nicer recipes. I went low-ish carb, higher protein and it totally fixed my cholesterol after it was high for over 10 years.
I also use Bulk protein powders... I tend to get the unflavoured varieties to avoid flavourings. The whey proteins are the most palatable but the plant based powders (Soya, pea, rice, etc) are ok. I often mix whey with plant based. Adding cacao powder makes them much tastier and boosts protein intake further.
I started macro tracking earlier (using MacroFactor which is excellent) this year because my cycling and running had totally fallen off a cliff and I was gaining a lot of weight. I'm mostly veggie and already had a boring reliable diet of 2x scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast plus a pot of cottage cheese for lunch. I was unpleasantly surprised at what a relatively small proportion of my "recommended" protein intake that accounted for. I've supplemented that with a shake per day plus Skyr after dinner in order to get as close as possible to my goal.
Exercise wise I've been lifting heavy 3-4x a week, walking the dogs most days, and squeezing in 1 Zwift ride/workout a week to try and do a tiny bit of cardio. Now the weather is (hopefully) less crap I'll be getting outdoors again and the weight it actually coming off for the first time in a long time.
Having more protein has, I think, helped me not snack between meals as much. I am gobsmacked at how much yoghurt I am able to eat and do mean to try and eat more tofu and pulses to be less reliant on dairy products.
Am I correct in that the human body cannot store protein? Can it produce it from elsewhere or other sources?
Even going off that BHF advice, as an active 67 year I should be consuming over 100g of protein per day, probably more like 115-125g. That's quite a lot to get through without conscious effort.
Am I correct in that the human body cannot store protein? Can it produce it from elsewhere or other sources?
broken down and stored as amino acids
Good link @tjagain thank you.
Perhaps we need a diet thread as I have been trying to up the fibre which has been at the top of health websites recently and now I find I need to eat more protein, I try and eat well but it does get confusing. It’s a wonder we ever live past our teens!
Even going off that BHF advice, as an active 67 year I should be consuming over 100g of protein per day, probably more like 115-125g
Yep that's what I read as well. At the upper end of that scale for the running and cycling i do, it's suggests 75-90g of protein a day , as a veggie there's only so much cheesy lentils I can eat.
Venison. Lots of venison. And a balanced diet including legumes. Cutting back on fish due to sustainability issues, can't do dairy.
Even going off that BHF advice, as an active 67 year I should be consuming over 100g of protein per day, probably more like 115-125g
I think (but am not sure) that these calculations should be based on lean body mass, I don't need any extra protein to feed my spare tyre.
I went veggie a couple of months before Christmas, I don't worry too much about my protein intake. I have been down a bit of a rabbit hole of all the protein, paleo and even carnivore diets over the past couple of years. And the more I read into the "respected" science of it (and I read a lot of "influencer" promoted nonsense before I got to that), and especially the large epidemiological studies then the evidence is pretty clear, vegan gives the highest lifespan and health span, followed be vegetarian then Mediterranean/blue zone style diets. Heavily meat based and standard western diets come in a long way behind.
The funny thing is, a lot of the research is done in the US that shows this, but over many decades the US governments have caved into commercial interests rather than science to promote diets that are better for business and worse for people. The US beef industry appears to have a lobbying influence quite similar to the gun lobby in the US.
Food.
Don't forget that most food has protein in it. E.g. bread is "carbs" so most people ignore it trying to work out their protein intake, but a quick google says wholemeal bread has 13g of protein per 100g. So a couple of slices of proper bread (i.e. not ultraprocessed supermarket white) and you've got as much protein as the two eggs on top of them.
The link that TJ posted from the BHF website says that I only need 55g per day (0.75g per KG) towards the start of the article.
Lower down though where it talks about exercise it says you should be up to 0.75-1.2g per KG if you are more active. I would hazard a guess that a lot of people on here are doing way more exercise than their example, and for endurance athletes or if you are trying to gain muscle you need 1.2-2g/kg.
So - it varies. I think I am currently aiming somewhere around the 1.2g/kg mark and get near it most days, but rarely over it. Before I focused on it and actively changed my food choices, I was substantially under that number.
I think (but am not sure) that these calculations should be based on lean body mass, I don't need any extra protein to feed my spare tyre.
I think you are right - it should be based on your ideal weight or lean mass. I guess the difference between the two is that if your idea weight is say 75kg but you weigh 100kg and all the extra is fat then you work on the 75kg as your number. If your extra 25kg is all muscle because you spend half your life in the gym, you work on 100kg as your lean mass.
There's an episode of Radio 4s Sliced Bread on protein powders, lots of info on how much you need:
Sliced Bread - Protein Powder - BBC Sounds
I've done the maths and I can manage it pretty well with tofu, seiten, legumes and nuts. Loads of lentils, chickpeas, black beans and mushrooms in most of my meals. I probably should have more nuts. Some veggies (like broccoli and especially peas) have far more protein in than others so always choose those if appropriate
Though I'd be keen to eat more like this, my very FODMAP sensitive GI tract would literally explode (in the obvious direction)..
I had a DEXA body composition scan, and the feedback from that was to lift more weights and eat more protein!
DrP
Also in BBC Sounds, search ‘Protein’ and get 3 or 4 podcasts worth a listen.
In short though, the nutritionists and other scientists interviewed suggest eating a balanced diet should provide enough protein in most cases, without using supplements. There are exceptions, if you are doing a heavy training load etc..
the northwind makes a verygood point. most people miss the protien that comes in other foods.
That's what I found useful about tracking. Having a better idea of what I'd actually eaten and then knowing if I needed to do something specifically to improve my macro balance was really useful for satiety and losing a bit of extra lumber.
Garmin recently added Nutrition tracking to their Connect+ subscription service. I had a look at it but it seemed a bit "complicated" trying to work out macronutrients per portion/meal. I have been thinking about it again though. I like that it does tie into training load too. Maybe I should sign up for a couple of months to get through the learning process
Following recent conversations about protein intake, age and where my glutes have gone (put rather less politely by mrsjonwe) I’ve upped my protein intake whilst trying to keep the calories down.
My diet involves eggs, meat, fish, lentils, soya beans, milk, yoghurt etc but myfitnesspal says i’m still low so i supplement.
Currently 30g of bulk protein powder in a home made shake for lunch which makes it palatable. That’s low fat greek yoghurt, semi skim milk, banana, flax seed and a handful of whatever frozen fruit is in the freezer. I originally went with the flavoured bulk proteins but they overpower the smoothie so now I go with unflavoured protein. Rice protein works for me as does whey.
That BHF article is okay and makes the point that many of us should be eating more protein. It does include wholegrain as a useful protein source, though could have said something about balancing with pulses to get fuller range of amino acids. The advice on eating after working out is a bit out of date - evidence is that daily intake is what matters most.
Anyway, as someone over 60 who cycles and also does weights to maintain awesome muscle mass (I was recently told in the pub I resemble a walnut, so there) , and weighs 75kg (amount of protein to consume being based on 'healthy' weight not lean weight, whatever either of these are), I find that 90g a day is a lot and won't just happen without effort. Trying to explain to my wife why I should have a bigger portion than her is an at best risky proposition...
We don't need nearly as much protein as many folk think.
That website says that for my exercise level, 2/3 runs and long-ish MTB weekly, I should aim for for (roughly) a gram/kg, so that's 75g daily, looking at my food diary, I'm averaging 45g. I genuinely don't fancy adding another 30g to my diet TBH. I'm veggie, so it's not as straightforward as another chicken breast either..
are you really only getting 45grammes? Are you counting all the odds and ends? Bread, veg, pulses etc all contain protein. the humble spud is 2% protein for example so a decent size jacket spud contains enough to be worth counting
