Guest Blogger: Dana Monsees 

When most people think of protein, they think of a few things: protein powders, and bodybuilders or people trying to put on muscle. But those aren’t the only people who need protein.

So why is there so much confusion when it comes to talking about how much protein we really need? 

First, let’s talk about WHY you need protein. What does protein do for the body?

Protein makes up a part of every single cell in your body. At the most basic level, protein is essential to repair cells and make new ones.

Protein is a key component in satiation, blood sugar regulation and curbing cravings, weight loss, growth – which applies to kids who are growing, when you’re trying to build muscle, if you are pregnant, or when you’re trying to repair something following an injury, surgery, or being sick – think the glutamine for leaky gut repair). For athletes, people who do strength training, or people who are trying to maintain muscle as they get older (aka everyone), we know protein helps you recover from workouts by stimulating muscle protein synthesis and repair – it helps you build lean muscle mass, and prevent muscle loss, especially when protein is eaten in the meal following training. 

A key thing to note is that unlike carbohydrates, your body doesn’t actually store protein, because it is not used as a source of energy – so we need to consume some kind of protein pretty much every day. Does it need to be massive amounts of protein every day? No. But if you’re constantly running a protein deficit, your body isn’t going to be able to do all those amazing things we talked about before, like blood sugar regulation, muscle building and repair, and injury recovery.

And now, to the good stuff. WHY is there so much confusion about protein??

According to the Institute of Medicine, we should get 10-35% of our daily energy intake from protein. But that’s a huge range! If you’re under-eating, your protein may be way too low, and if you overeat and go to the 35% range, your protein may be way too high for what you need. Bodybuilders for decades have been saying you NEED 1 lb of protein per pound of body weight to put on muscle, and even higher numbers have been recommended for people trying to cut or lose weight. Adding to the confusion, the government’s dietary recommendations, aka the RDA (or recommended daily allowance) is designed as a number that 98% of the population needs (as a bare minimum) to meet your nutrient requirements. For adults, the RDA for protein is .8g/kg (0.36g per pound) and up to 1g/kg (0.45g per pound) of bodyweight per day. Which is around 55-70 grams of protein per day for a 150 pound person, or 72-90g/day for a 200 pound person.

That’s not a lot of protein when we’re thinking about all the essential things it has to do in our bodies like we talked about above. 

For most people I work with, this is the bare minimum number I recommend starting with. If you aren’t doing much physical activity, the ranges above might be okay. But for people who are training, trying to work on blood sugar, cravings, weight loss, you’re most likely going to need more than that.

There have been multiple studies over the past few years that maintain between 1.3 – 1.8 grams per kg of bodyweight is adequate for stimulating maximum protein synthesis (muscle building and repair) for athletes. For hard training, very lean, strength training athletes, protein can go up to 1 – 1.4g/lb of lean body mass – because as you get leaner, if protein drops too low (below 1 g/lb of body weight), strength and muscle loss will speed up. Keep in mind, this is *not most people*

Around 100g of protein a day is a pretty good middle of the line number for *most people*. I recommend tracking a few average days of protein intake to see where you’re starting. If 100g/day seems like a lot, start working on being consistent with one of the lower ranges and see how you feel! 

Counting is a tool that can be used *every once in a while* to see where you’re at, but you shouldn’t rely on it every single day, because I find it can frequently turn into disordered patterns that we do not want to fall into. The goal is: *without* tracking all the time, you’ll eventually be able to figure out about how much of each macronutrient (and in this case, protein), you need to feel full between meals, balance your blood sugar, achieve your goals, improve your performance in the gym, etc., 

An important thing to remember: just eating more protein won’t make you build more muscle or lose more weight. 

…to be continued in part 2!