How much protein should I eat

#1

I am afraid of protein kicking me out of ketosis yet family say I have lost muscle and weight. It said I need like 50 grams a day because I am 107 pounds. But when I look at the portion of my meat it looks puny. Looks like I should have twice that. I have maybe two chicken thighs. That is equivalent to about 50 grams. Should it not be 60 to 65 grams of protein? I want to gain weight but at the same time not be kicked out of ketosis.

Am I lacking cholestrol
(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #2

Stop worrying. Eat more protein. Whatever ‘said you need like 50 grams a day…’ is just flat wrong. You could eat 100 grams of protein per day and be fine. Just keep your carbs sub-20 grams per day and your fat sufficient to keep your energy up. Don’t skimp on the fat.

How much percetage of protein is 75 grams on a 1500 calorie diet
#3

Dr Berg is always changing his mind about protein sometimes he says 6 to 8 oz per meal sometimes just 0.4 g a day. Seriously I dont understand half the stuff he says. A keto calculator told me just 50 grams of protein. 100 too much but 70 sounds good to me. I cant build muscle on just fat. Mind you I am sedentary
Does this make a difference as to why I need just 50g a day? But my metabolism and body composition are naturally muscular. Do you know all this from experience.

(Vic) #4

Many of us do, I know I am.

I eat 200 to 300 gr of protein a day.
It does not kick me out of Ketosis.

If I’m in the mood for lean meat it even higher in protein, but then I loose weight due to the lack of fat I eat.

#5

How much do you recommend for me I dont exercise and I am 107 lbs. And I want to gain weight. Can you get the full mental health benefits on keto eating 3 meals or do you have to eat 2?

(Vic) #6

Never less than 100gr a day, 150 to 200gr is better.

Get it from fatty meat.

3 meals a day if you want to gain some weight.

Yes, nurture your brain with healthy food and you will get to you’rr full potential.
A happy, sharp, strong mind.

Just no more than 20gr of carbs a day. You don’t even need that much. Zero carbs is enough.

#7

Sounds just right.
Don’t worry about protein. There is a thing as too much protein but that’s not eating 100g protein when you are 107 pounds. It’s quite possible you don’t need it all (my SO surely doesn’t and he is a man with some impressive leg muscles and he used to donate blood plasma regularly so he saw if the protein in his blood went low) but you don’t need to worry about getting out of ketosis due to protein. It was a very common myth when I started keto, sadly (and I tried to eat little protein and failed spectacularly :)) but now we know our body is smarter than that.

Tiny amount of meat is one thing. Not all of us can eat super fatty, I surely never could. I can’t avoid eating high protein in order to eat enough or if I can, that’s tricky, not as enjoyable, I even had slight nausea at too high fat percentages on carnivore… We don’t need to do 75% fat or something if we don’t do therapeutic keto (except if 75% is perfect for us. it’s way too much for many of us. I actually try that now, I evolved after being fixed in the 65-70% range for long. I believe I need higher fat for higher-calorie days, my protein is already wastefully high. It feels great though ;))

And it feels so wrong eating some miserable amount just because the numbers and some info says so. Ideally your body tells you how to eat, other people’s opinion be damned. But now you have science saying don’t worry about protein, it’s converted to glucose on demand, not just because your meat piece was decent sized… But in many other cases it’s very good if our body signs are reliable, we don’t know everything, to put it lightly.

I have a bigger body than you, even not counting all the extra fat I do have but not way bigger. I have 160-180g protein days regularly (100g protein in a meal sounds nice to me, I am often lower though, it’s hard to do OMAD with meat if one is me). My average was over 120g in the last week. If I eat more than 1000 kcal, it’s hard to stay below 100g protein. I may not notice if I am in ketosis but I have very reassuring signs.
I got fat adapted while eating somewhat less but still high protein I am sure. (I just had very big positive changes, I can’t actually prove I had ketosis and fat adaptation, how could I? But I can’t imagine not to :slight_smile: Very low-carb with adequate or high protein feels about the same - if I am not hungry or nauseaus due to the lower amount of protein, of course. If I add carbs, it’s totally different, nothing like adding +100g protein over my probable needs.)

So you should be fine with 100g protein if you ask me.

#8

What about whatever feels good to you…? As long as you manage to eat enough to gain.

I never noticed mental health benefits but it’s individual how many meals one should eat. If you can’t get full without eating a meal big enough to power you for a day (with extra for gain), I think you should do OMAD… If you get fully satiated with a small meal, no matter what, you obviously need many meals. But if you have control (through choosing your food and mealtimes. these heavily influence my mealsize), you may be able to choose… I would choose whatever feels/seems best. You can try various things and see what happens.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #9

There are two ways to calculate daily protein requirement: based on total lean mass and based on total body weight. I go by Ben Bikman’s recommendations of 1.25 - 2 grams per kilogram of total body weight simply because it’s easier to determine total weight accurately than lean mass. My opinion is that this method works OK for folks within the relatively ‘normal’ range of body weight for their height and built. In other words, if someone is very fat or very skinny it’s not so simple.

I’m a lean person and have been all my life. As an older male I don’t want to lose lean mass as I continue to age due to reduced growth hormone and testosterone. So I use the high end of Bikman’s recommendation. In fact, yesterday I changed my macros to up the protein even moreso. I did this because the past week I have craved protein. With the change, my current daily protein intake is now 150 grams. My total body weight is 145 pounds and height 6’0".

As others have already mentioned, and Amy Berger documents in the link I initially provided, there is no need to fear protein. If the calculator app you’re using is telling you to eat 50 grams of protein, it’s just wrong. If Dr Berg is all over the place, ignore him as well. It’s complicated, but it’s not rocket science either. If you want to gain lean mass, you must eat more protein because only protein contains the ingredients for making it.

EDIT: I meant to link this video but forgot. Must be getting old…

(Allie) #10

As much as you want. You’ll harm yourself more by limiting protein than you ever will by having too much.

(Bob M) #11

After 7+ years low carb/keto, I can honestly say: I have no idea. I tend to like more lean meats and more protein than others, but I also eat my share of fat at times too. I tend more toward lean than fat, though.

But I’ve tested 160+ grams of protein per MEAL (one time over 220 grams, though I was bit sick after that one) and I was still able to maintain ketosis and get no blood sugar rise that I could discern.

I’d say, eat what feels good.

(Vic) #12

Ever gone ZC Bob?
What are your insights on that ?

For all I know, carbs dont seem to be that important, protein and fat seem stronger associated with optimal health.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #13

My additional thoughts on this. I’ve already said I think you should up the protein simply because I don’t think you can remain healthy eating only 50 grams of protein. That amount is not much above the minimum to avoid Kwashiorkor!

If you want to gain lean mass and avoid osteoporosis eat more protein. And exercise! At the very minimum you must use your muscles before your body decides it needs more of them. If nothing else just walk more, use the stairs instead of the elevator.

Why does 100 grams seem like too much? A generic 12oz ‘steak’ contains about 100 grams of protein. If you can’t eat that much at a single meal, then eat it in 2 or 3 meals. Problem solved.

Finally, 1, 2, 3, 4 meals per day is irrelevant. What is relevant is to keep both glucose and insulin within the normal range of healthy variation and to prevent both from spiking throughout the day. You accomplish this by keeping carbs sub-20 grams or less. Don’t eat within 2-3 hours of going to bed because it will interfere with your sleep. Sufficient good sleep is absolutely necessary for good health.

If you can manage it, time your last meal of the day to end 10-12 hours before you start the first meal the next day. Overnight IF is easy and has many benefits, not the least of which is cleaning out the system in prep for the new day. 12 hours IF is better than 10, but either is way better than nothing.

How much percetage of protein is 75 grams on a 1500 calorie diet
(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #14

The standard government recommendation for protein is 0.6 grams of protein per kilogram of lean body mass a day. Our recommendation on these forums is 1.0-1.5 g/kg LBM/day. Some keto researchers recommend going as high a 2.0 grams.

Remember that most meats are around 25% protein, and a good rule of thumb is 7 g/oz. So if you want 50 grams of protein, you need to eat 200 g of meat. Does that help?

Benjamin Bikman and his research team have demonstrated that the body’s response to protein depends on the amount of carbohydrate in the diet. On a high-carb diet, the more protein the more insulin, kicking us out of ketosis. But on a low-carbohydrate diet, the increase in insulin is matched by an increase in glucagon, so that the ratio of insulin to glucagon remains low, and ketosis continues.

ETA: Protein requirements vary greatly, but there appears to be an instinct for how much protein to eat. So eat an amount of meat that feels right, and then eat enough fat to satisfy your hunger, all the while keeping your carb intake low. That should do it.

(Bob M) #15

I’m close, but adjacent. For instance, for lunch, I had all meat, but did have Tajin seasoning. Usually am very close at lunch, but sometimes have olives and/or capers and/or pickled mushrooms. At dinner, I might eat vegetables, depending on what my wife makes. Many nights, I don’t.

I’m also eating a high saturated fat diet, which often means chocolate and cacao butter.

I’m also periodically testing a TKD (targeted keto diet), where I eat some carbs the meal after my exercise. I say “periodically”, because I don’t always remember to make something over the weekend, for use during the week. Also, some things I’ve tried, like sweet potatoes, affect me negatively. Was using spaghetti squash, as that does not seem to affect me. But those are no longer in season.

So, I’m also testing a TKD, assuming I can find something that offers some carbs and does not affect me. I do think (though could be placebo effect) some carbs the day I work out helps my mood. Not sure about muscle gains, though.