Protein is an essential nutrient to maintain a fluid balance in your body. It is responsible for transporting nutrients, repair and build tissues and offering the necessary support. How much protein per day a person needs may depend on his or her physical activity level, goal and weight.
There is no ideal answer for your daily requirement of protein. To calculate protein needs of your body, you have to consider your physical activity, age, weight and height. Protein requirements may vary among people trying to lose weight, maintain a healthy weight or bearing a child.
Tips to Calculate How Much Protein Per Day
If you want to maintain your weight, you have to improve the composition of your body, such as less fat and more muscles. By increasing your protein intake, you can minimize the fat gain. For an obese person, fat loss is an important priority. It does not mean to ignore muscle building. Here are some simple principles to manage your protein intake.
Sedentary Person
A sedentary person with an aim for 0.54 to 0.82 g/lbs (1.2 to 1.8 g/kg) must improve the composition of his/her body. You have to increase your regular activity, such as resistance training.
Healthy Weight
If you have a healthy weight and want to maintain this weight, you will need 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg protein. Make sure to manage an active lifestyle. You have to improve the composition of your body, such as less fat and more muscles.
Aim to Build Muscles
If you want to build muscles with a healthy weight, your protein consumption can be 1.6 to 2.4 g/kg. With an active lifestyle, you can increase your protein intake to 3.3 g/kg to avoid fat gain. This number is suitable for weight lifters.
Want to Lose Extra Fat
If you want to lose fat and follow an active lifestyle, you can consume 1.6 to 2.4 g/kg. Skew towards the higher end of the range to become lean or if you want to increase calorie deficit. The intake can be increased to 3.1 g/kg to improve fat loss and decrease the loss of muscles.
Overweight People
Overweight people can aim for almost 1.2 to 1.5 g/kg. You have to maintain an optimal protein intake for your lean mass or ideal weight of the body. Moreover, pregnant ladies may need 1.7 to 1.8 g/kg. Lactating needs for almost 1.5 g/kg.
Vegans can obtain protein from plants, but plant-based protein is inferior to animal-based protein. For this reason, they have to use supplements to manage their protein intake.
Understand the Importance of Protein
Proteins act as an essential building block for your body. It is necessary to make tendons, skin, organs and muscles along with neurotransmitters, hormones and enzymes. Your survival will be difficult without protein.
Remember, proteins are extracted from small molecules of amino acids. These molecules are associated together, similar to beads. Fortunately, your body can produce some amino acids. You can get essential amino acids through diet. Quality of protein is an important factor along with quantity.
Animal protein offers essential amino acids in the best ratio. You can increase the consumption of eggs, fish, dairy and meat in your daily diet for protein. It can be challenging for vegans to obtain essential amino acids and protein. In this situation, you will need the right protein supplements.
Good to Avoid Weight Gain and Support Weight Loss
To lose weight, you will need protein. Undoubtedly, you have to decrease your calorie intake to burn fat. By eating more protein, your body can burn more calories by decreasing your appetite and improving your metabolic rate.
Protein at almost 25% to 30% of daily calories can boost your metabolism by almost 80 to 100 calories daily. Remember, protein has an essential contribution to your weight loss. It can decrease your appetite and promote the fat-burning process.
If you want to lose weight, try to eat more protein. For instance, 150 grams of daily protein intake is necessary for a person consuming 2000 calories per day. Feel free to calculate your calorie needs by multiplying it to 0.075.
Gain Healthy and Strong Muscles
Remember, protein is an essential component in muscles. If your body has more tissues, muscles will be consistently rebuilt and broken down. Your body should synthesize sufficient muscle protein to obtain muscles. It is crucial to maintain a positive protein balance in your body.
If you want to build muscles, you have to increase your protein consumption. High protein intake can make your muscles strong. After building muscles, your body needs sufficient protein to maintain its strength. With high protein intake during weight loss diet, you can prevent loss of muscle.
Other Events to Increase Your Protein Consumption
Other than physique goals and muscle mass, your physical activity is an important reason to consume more protein. If you are following an active lifestyle, you will need more protein. For a physically demanding job, it is significant to eat more protein.
If you walk, swim or run a lot, you have to increase your protein consumption. Endurance athletes may need sufficient protein amounts, such as 1.2 to 1.4 grams/kg. Moreover, old adults also need 50% more protein, such as 1 to 1.3 grams/kg.
Consumption of protein is necessary to avoid sarcopenia (decrease in muscle mass) and osteoporosis. These are vital problems among older adults. If you are trying to recover from injuries, increase the amount of protein in your diet.
Possibility of Negative Impacts of Protein
Protein is wrongly blamed for numerous health problems. People have a misconception that a protein-rich diet can damage kidneys. These claims are entirely false. No doubt, you are restricted to take protein with current kidney issues. Remember, protein cannot damage the kidneys of a healthy person.
By increasing protein in your diet, you can efficiently deal with high blood pressure and diabetes. These are two important risk factors behind kidney illness. Moreover, protein can’t be responsible for osteoporosis. Regular consumption of protein will help you to avoid this condition. In short, protein does not have any harmful impact on healthy people.
Tips to Consume Sufficient Protein
If you want to consume high-quality protein, you can obtain it from dairy products, eggs, fish and meats. They have essential amino acids for your body. Moreover, nuts, legumes and quinoa are some good plant-based sources of protein.
To maintain your health, try to consume high-quality protein. You can maintain a healthy balance of plant-based protein and animal-based protein.
Understand Grams for Protein
To calculate protein in grams, people consider the weight of food items. Remember, grams mean macronutrient protein grams, instead of food, such as eggs or meat. For instance, a 226 grams slice of beef will contain only 61 grams of protein. Furthermore, 46 grams of an egg contains only 6 grains of real protein.
Final Verdict
In short, your body needs proteins to build and repair muscles, boost your metabolism speed and decrease appetite. If you want to avoid different ailments, it is essential to find out how much protein per day is necessary for your body.
An average person with a healthy weight and normal lifestyle can consume almost 0.36 to 0.6 grams of protein per pound. As per an estimate, an average male needs 56 to 91 grams protein daily. On the other hand, a female can manage her protein intake from 46 grams to 75 grams every day.
