How much Protein Do I Need every day?

There are certainly several nutrients our body requires to perform at an optimum level. Protein is one among the most crucial.

Protein is a vital macronutrient. If our body doesn’t get enough from our diet, our overall health gets affected.

Something that everyone needs to know is how much protein they need day-to-day. Truth be told, you will find several schools of thought on the issue. This will depend on several variables including your age, gender and activity level.

Let’s take a closer look at why just protein is indeed significant as well as exactly what’s the ideal intake should be.

What is Protein?

Proteins are the main building blocks of your body. They are used to create skin, nails, hair, muscles, tendons and much more. They are even used to produce neurotransmitters for our brains, at the same time several important hormones.

Therefore I do believe you’ll agree with me when I say; protein is vitally significant.

Proteins comprise of even smaller building blocks called amino acids.

There are 20 amino acids in your body. Nine of all these are classed as “vital”, meaning our body struggles to create them alone and must get them from the foods we eat.

These distinct amino acids link together in chains. Various mixtures of amino acids create different proteins and each having unique functions within the body.

Amino acids:

•    methionine (essential)

•    tryptophan (essential)

•    glycine histidine (essential)

•    isoleucine (essential)

•    tyrosine valine (essential)

•    leucine (essential)

•    lysine (essential)

•    phenylalanine (essential)

•    threonine (essential)

•    Alanine

•    asparagine

•    aspartic acid

•    cysteine

•    arginine

•    proline

•    serine

•    glutamine

•    glutamic acid

Without these amino acids making up the correct proteins in our bodies, our lives won’t continue.

That’s the reason why getting enough protein in your daily diet is essential. Before we contemplate the number of protein, it’s an excellent thought to take into account the quality of protein we should have.

Best Sources of Protein

Generally, it’s a good idea to get your dietary protein from animal sources. The reason is animal proteins give you an entire amino acid profile. What this means is the protein you eat include all of the essential amino acids we discussed before.

Taking meat, chicken, eggs, fish or dairy product every day is an excellent method to ensure you might be hitting your daily protein requirement.

However, what about vegetarians?

Don’t worry. Protein found in plants do exist. Some – like chia seeds.

Some of the top plant-based protein sources are;

•    Chia

•    Brown rice

•    Pea

•    Hemp

There are two issues with plant-based proteins.

1.     It’s much easier to eat 2 grams of steak than it has to eat 2 grams of chia seeds – let’s confront it, that’s a lot.

2.    Plant-based proteins don’t constantly possess a complete amino acid profile in precisely the same manner animal proteins do. Consequently might be passing up a number of your essential amino acids, particularly if you’re not receiving lots of protein in the first place.

Daily Protein Requirement

As stated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) the recommended daily intake for protein,

Per kilogram of body weight – 0.8 grams of protein

Per pound of body weight – 0.36 grams of protein

 (Source).

This is:

56 grams daily for the common sedentary man

46 grams daily for the common sedentary woman

Nevertheless, this recommended quantity is exactly what’s needed to be able to live if you are totally sedentary.

The number actually depends on numerous things including your age, weight loss goals, and activity level.

 Let’s look at who needs more protein and how adding extra protein to your own diet plan could benefit you.

Protein for Weight Loss

You must be already knowing how important protein is when n it comes to lose weight. We should all understand chances are that to be able to lose pounds, you must have fewer calories than you burn off, so making a caloric deficit.

Eating a big percent of your day-to-day calorie allowance from protein will assist with that. Research suggests that eating protein curbs your appetite (fewer calories in) together with raising your metabolic rate (source).

Eating between 25-30% of your daily calories from protein can raise your metabolism enough to burn off an additional 80 -100 calories every day ((source).

Protein to maintain and build muscle

That tremendous man in the fitness centre who looks like he has the strength of ten guys chugging back a creamy protein milkshake. Why is it so? That’s because he knows how important protein will be to not only build muscle but to maintain the existing muscle as well.

Muscle, like most other tissue, is constantly being broken down and reconstructed.

As we grow old, our muscle breaks down more, and we lose that muscle mass we had. The same might be said of individuals who follow quite low-calorie diets (source).

Maybe even if we’re not planning to bulk up like the gym guy, we still need to hold on to the muscle mass we already have in our body.

If you want to build muscles, then your body needs more protein than its working it out.

In case you would like to raise both your muscle tissue and strength, you must consume more protein and lift some iron also to look like a rock!

With regards to building muscle, the typical recommendation is of 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight.

Rather, the best level of protein needed seriously to build muscle mass is regarded as being 1 g per pound of body weight and some studies have shown slightly more than 1 gram is also good (source).

If you’re an average woman weighing around 140 pounds, you will require having 140 grams of protein daily to enhance your muscle mass.

Other Reasons to take High Protein

Besides those who desire to lose excess pounds or work their bodies to perfection, there are a few other reasons why you could need additional protein in what you eat.

Primarily, though you may not hit the gym but you still need additional protein if you not sedentary but physically active.

Endurance athletes will need around 0.65 grams per pound of their body weight. (Source) while aged individuals also want higher degrees of protein inside their diet, nearly 50% more about the suggested daily consumption – around 0.6 grams per pound of body weight to prevent conditions like sacropenia and osteoporosis.

What does “Grams of Protein” actually mean?

So we’ve found exactly how many grams of protein you want, whether you’re an ordinary man who doesn’t work out considerably and doesn’t lift weights or a gym ninja who wants to bulk up.

Nevertheless, there’s a typical misconception about that which we mean by grams of protein. A gram of protein is the actual macronutrient in it, not the amount of foods.

For instance, one boiled egg is 46 grams, but it merely contains 6 grams of protein. As a result, in case you are aiming for 140 grams of protein per day you have to eat around 23 eggs if that was your only range of protein source. Ensure that you always browse the labels to keep an eye on your protein goals.