Continuing the discussion from Eggtober Octstravaganza - 31 days of Healthy Protein Eating - Carnivore Challenge:
Optimal dietary protein per day in a range between 1.2g to 1.8g per kg optimal personal body weight per day. With a range of 0.8g to 2.5g per kg optimal body weight per day.
Are you meeting your healthy dietary protein needs?
(The interviewee, Dr. Layman, works for Big Egg. Does that mean he works for Big Bird? Which came first?)
This from 2017:
So, not the weight you are not per se, but “optimal body weight”? Which I assume means…what, exactly?
Probably similar to “goal weight”.
I’ve heard that you want to eat 1g per pound of your goal weight. So if my goal weight is 165 lbs then I want to consume 165g of protein. Using 1.8g per kg as mentioned above puts my daily total at 135g which is definitely in the ball parl. 1.2 per kg brings me to 90g which starts to sound more like the minimum
I’ve also come across that 1.2–1.8g/kg range before, seems like a solid middle ground between the minimum required to avoid deficiency and the higher end for muscle maintenance or growth, especially with aging.
That “optimal body weight” bit always gets me thinking too. I’ve seen it interpreted as “goal weight” like Dismal mentioned, or sometimes “lean body mass,” depending on the context. Makes a big difference in the final number.
Your experiment was a useful data point, interesting how just dipping below even that modest target led to noticeable cravings. Makes me wonder how much our body tries to self-correct when we’re undershooting protein for a few days.
I don’t even need ONE day. It’s nearly impossible for me to go below my minimum (about 2.3g/kg for my “goal weight” (quotation marks because I don’t have that, I would be happy staying this heavy with lots of muscles, I just don’t have a chance but I may get a significant amount). it takes effort to stop there but at least I can get satiated with that little) as I simply start STARVING after midnight if I even last until then. It’s easier on OMAD and fat fast (almost no protein or carbs) is an exception too.
But many people easily undereats protein so it must be quite individual. Just like our protein needs aren’t the same. My SO who is taller, male and way more active, needs way less protein than I do, apparently.
67.5g protein in my first MEAL would leave me starved after my meal! Under normal circumstances, at least, not when I eat many hours before I could get hungry.
1.2-1.8 g/kg sounds good to me as a target (I usually say 1-2 g/kg but 1 is not for anyone especially when muscle gain is the plan and why wouldn’t it be? 
almost all of us could use some more muscle if you ask me. so 1.5-2 is safer, 2 is usually a bit unnecessary but we may not use all the protein and anyway, it has benefits to eat much, satiation, joy and whatnot) but it’s best if we know ourselves and do what works best for us. Even if we eat enough protein for our body (and we probably don’t know how much is that but 1.8-2g/kg should be enough for very nearly anyone), it may be super stressful to stop there. I consider not overeating protein a high priority so I put effort into it despite it’s tiresome (thankfully it comes with other important goals) but there is a limit where I would worry for my mental health. So I wouldn’t even try to eat only 2g/kg protein even if I had any chance for success. I just focus on not going crazy high (too often).
But if one eats really low protein… I guess most people feel that something is amiss. At least the ones who didn’t damage the relationship with their feedback system. Carbs may interfere too, who knows? It’s possible some people don’t notice lack of protein when the calories are plentiful and the body just says “no more, it’s a burden enough to handle this”.
It’s a middle ground from the deficiency side, but nowhere near the higher end, and below what most that care about muscle would want to eat. On aging, then it’s just terrible, we know we become anabolic resistant as we age and should be eating more to deal with that.
People should simply always eat optimal protein levels, if you care about muscle, you need optimal. If you’re old and losing muscle and bone mass, you want optimal, even in the case of an obese person losing they want optimal to keep them full, slow down as much muscle mass loss as they can, and all those aminos help our whole body, not just muscle, which in that context would be skin that you hope will tighten back up.
There’s literally never a time optimal…isn’t optimal.