Thursday, October 21, 2010

Are you eating enough protein

A common recommendation for people trying to both lose weight as well as those looking for lean gains is to consume 1 gram of protein per 1 pound of body weight.  What does that look like?  You can assume most of your lean meats will be around 7 grams of protein.  Are you getting enough protein?

8 comments:

  1. Any tips on getting enough protein in without using supplements? What are some foods that give you the biggest bang for your buck? I tried this before joining Crossfit when I was training with a trainer. I couldn't make it without the protein shakes and it was still hard, even with the shakes. Man am I glad I don't weigh 500 pounds!

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  2. I'm pretty close in getting ~160g a day through meats (chicken, ground beef, skirt and flank steaks). I will get over the 160g threshold whenever I WOD as I'll take a Post-Wod Whey shake and sometimes add a casein proetin shake before bed if I think I'm going to be sore in the morning.

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  3. I came across this budget friendly paleo reference guide: http://www.balancedbites.com/2010/10/priorities-for-eating-paleo-on-budget.html

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  4. The key is making sure you have meat at every meal, if you don't it is very tough.

    As far as bang for your buck items, most meats are going to be in that 7ish gram range, leaner cuts like round steak or chicken breast will be a little higher, whereas fatty fish like salmon or 85% ground beef will be a little less. Not to say not to eat salmon or other fatty fish, there's a lot of other good stuff going on there. Use nutritiondata.com to get an idea. Track your protein intake for a day and see where you're at? If you're low try and figure out what it would take to make up the difference.

    A quick example. To make it simple, lets say I'm going to eat nothing but fresh wild caught salmon for the day. An expensive day, but tasty for sure. Salmon has 6g of protein per ounce at 40 calories per ounce. At 165 lbs, looking for 165 grams of protein I would be eating 27 ounces of salmon or 1100 calories, but only 648 of those calories were from the actual protein in salmon, the rest from fat . I eat between 2500 to 2800 calories per day depending on a post workout meal or not, that's only about 23%-26% of my total calorie need. Plenty of room for fats and veggies and some fruit in there to round out my day.

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  5. Zack - I went back to your old blog's article about supplements. Are you still on Vit D, Magnesium, Pribiotics, and Fish Oil? I'm on magnesium, fish oil, and a multi-vit that gives me Vit D (left from a 500 tablet pack before I knew any better).

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  6. This is an interesting blog that has sucked up most of my day.

    http://www.paleonu.com/

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  7. While I think I get enough protein, I'll admit I'm guilty of getting too much from non-natural food sources such as shakes and bars. When I have actual meals, I try to make sure I have at least a solid protein to anchor everything (I also don't eat enough veggies--I'm trying though).

    My morning snack has a few eggs and chicken sausage, while lunch and dinner usually have chicken or beef. Also will have 2-3 shakes and a bag of jerky throughout the day, depending on how many times I'm training that day. If I'm hungry after dinner I'll have a casein (slow-digesting) protein shake with coconut milk and cashew butter before bed--tastes like a malted milkshake to me.

    I have a tough time getting in the natural foods pre/post workouts for two reasons 1) convenience 2) stomach/digestion. When I work out on my own in the early morning I'm usually working out within 20 minutes from waking up, and eating solid food that close before a workout doesn't sit well with me. Definitely try to make sure my meals are stocked with the real stuff though.

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  8. Jonny, nice find on the Balanced Bites site. I was rolling through some of her other posts as well. As far as the supplements go, I'm still taking the same stuff. I'm getting my vitamin D levels tested right after the chanllenge, just to make sure they're getting to the range I'm looking for. I'd say that was one that I noticed the largest immediate effect from, especially starting it in the winter around here. I'd say that post still pretty much holds and has some pretty good follow up reading in it as well. http://zackottecfc.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated

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