Protein in grams and protein in ounces

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #15

@Jason
Do people eat three times a day?

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #16

WHOA. Dude. Not nice. Why don’t you explain it for the newbies.
Oh wait, you just did :slight_smile:

(Human) #17

Exactly. I’ve done my best to put the record straight but if I were a newbie I doubt I’d read 30 posts of bickering between people. I’d read the first post and move on. Ok, I’m done, I’m out.

#18

I thought we got rid of the douchebags with Facebook?

(Human) #19

What have I done wrong? The first post is misleading and incorrect. Written by a mod who is confused about how many grams in an ounce. I’ve tried to get it corrected. If that’s the wrong thing to do then I apologise. I tried self deprecating humour, I tried sarcasm, but nothing seems to be getting through. And now I’m the villain here as the mods close rank rather than just correct it. And to call someone a douchbag to their back… Really classy. I thought we’d got rid of the cabal with Facebook. It seems not.

(Meeping up the Science!) #21

I am pointing this out because you may not be aware: you are being far too literal and not nearly contextual enough. The majority of people have gotten the contextual nature of “4 ounces of protein.” Your rigid nitpicking on one detail on someone’s personal guidelines (note the headline says “Donna’s guidelines” which means it was never intended to be biblical doctrine) makes you appear like a cantankerous jerk at best, which you may not be aware of. I have refrained from replying in greater detail because it is irrelevent to me, largely, and I am only commenting now to give you some perspective out of respect. Frankly, your zealotry over one little phrase is sort of extreme and absurd. I work extensively with the metric system and am quite aware how many grams are in four ounces in the objective sense. When we talk about “eating protein, carbs, or fat” we almost always do so in the context of a gram-to-content ratio. This is understood on basically every single food forum on the entire internet regardless of country of origin.

Also, if we’re being nitpicky, 4 ounces is not 110 grams - it’s actually 113 grams and some change, in fact. If you are going to disagree, at least be correct with your measurements. One pound is 454 grams rounded up (453.5 technically).

If you object to my post, you’re welcome to write your own guidelines. In fact, I would encourage you to if you have experiences to share, as many perspectives are always valuable.

I haven’t bothered to edit it because the majority of people will get the context. If they dislike it they can ignore it. My feelings won’t be hurt. I also can’t be bothered to because, frankly, I don’t care if people are smart enough to read it. They are my personal guidelines.

I also am fascinated by human behavior, particularly on the internet. I feel no need to correct what does not need correcting. Typically people’s responses do all the work for me, in that regard.

#22

This forum has been one of the warmest, friendliest and welcoming forums I have ever been part of. I haven’t read every post (:scream:), but I have not encountered any touchiness or nastiness. Everyone makes suggestions and comments with gernerosity and understanding. No name calling or finger pointing…and I’m hoping we can keep that spirit of understanding and generosity of spirit. Thanks to all admins that help us stay balanced. :heart:

(Human) #23

I agree Rookie, all hail the admins for keeping us stay balanced. Oh hang on, it’s me being called a nitpicking cantankerous jerk, but it’s ok the comments were “out of respect”

#24

I did it to your face. If it had been behind your back I wouldn’t have posted it. You are the one who has been pedantic and snarky. IT was really unnecessary IMO so I commented. Donna puts in a lot of time and effort to helping people here. Are we standing up for her when you are having a go? You betcha.

Donna actually said…

I wonder what “at worst” would be?

I suggest you leave this alone now.

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #25

@Jason
Wait.
Why wouldn’t you want a newbie doing 4 oz of protein per meal? It’s a perfect serving size!
4 oz of beef, pork, chicken, fish. Excellent portion size.

(Human) #26

4oz of meat would be a perfect size, yes. But “protein” doesn’t magically mean “meat” when we talk about it in ounces instead of grams. Protein means protein to most people. Same as carbs means carbs, it doesn’t mean rice or source of carbohydrates when we talk about it in ounces. It’s vague and ambiguous. That’s all I was saying all along but by pointing it out apparently it’s me who’s the arsehole

Anyway, I didn’t come here to be on the receiving end of admins who try to use insults to shut people down or passive-aggressive threats to leave it alone now, so please delete my account.

(Sarah Hung) #27

I would like to back Jason up here because when I read this post I was left with the idea of 4oz of protein and not 4oz of protein source.
I live in Hong Kong and so there could easily be a cultural difference in the words between my understanding and that of a person from the USA.
But I think this forum should try to be iinternational and thus the use of words and how people from different cultures will interpret them is important.
Jason pointed out that there could be confusion but rather than addressing this people got defensive.

(Richard Morris) #28

We don’t need to use admin powers to win arguments — that is not what this place is. Admins are users too with the same right to an opinion as every other user.

Dietetic measurements were forever screwed up intentionally by dietitians who wanted to use SI units to make them INTENTIONALLY obscure for the US consumer and to pretend to a veneer of scientific rigour. This is why in the USA food is always measured in imperial units (cups, teaspoons, ounces, pounds, gallons) and nutrients are measured in SI units (grams, kgs, millilitres, litres). Why would they want it to be obscure? So you would hire a dietitian to help you formulate a diet plan, obviously. It’s jargon, not physical measurement.

It is even more ridiculous than that as they don’t even use the SI unit for energy equivalent (kilojoules) but use the imperial unit for heat energy (calorie) but … and here is the bit that does my head in, they Capitalize it to multiply it by 1000. Some something that is 5000 calories is 5 Calories. This is why I tend to write kCal to avoid all confusion.

You really want to see it get silly look at body mass based nutrient RDIs. Body masses in the IS are traditionally measure using imperial measurements, and of course nutrients in SI units … leading to the ridiculous ratio of “grams of protein per pound of lean body mass”.

Anyway back to the subject at hand, when discussing components of a meal when a dietitian refers to a protein component of a meal in Ounces - then they are conventionally talking about the food (usually a meat of some kind) and not the nutrient “Protein” (which dietitians usually capitalize). You would never find a dietitian referring to ounces of a nutrient.

Jason is correct that ounces and grams are both mass measurements, but they are used in different contexts in nutrition. Donna is, I believe, using them in the correct context. I suggest the blame for this entire argument belongs with dietitians who foisted the whole silly idea upon us in the first place.

#29

Richard, you are an amazing communicator with a big warm heart. Thank you

(Human) #30

So just for clarity, and for the record as this is in the newbie section, there are 28g of Protein in 4oz of protein. That’s not going to confuse anyone.

(Richard Morris) #31

I fixed that - by splitting the discussion of advice for newbies, with the discussion on protein as a meal component versus as the nutrient. Now both conversations are retained, we can keep the confusion to a minimum.

#32

That really makes no sense now! If you mean that the % of protein in a 4oz serving of protein is 28, then I would challenge that. The % of protein varies depending on what you are eating. And now we are getting into something complicated for Newbies rather than a simple rule. Oh wait… that is why this ridiculous part of the thread has been moved to Protein and also why @Donna made the suggestion simple in the first place. I believe you were the first person to bring up the term arsehole but I am happy to agree with you on that point.

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #33
  • bangs head on wall *
(Human) #34

Thank you for being the voice of sanity @richard.

@Donna I meant grams not percentages. Because most meats (which is where most people get most of their protein from) are about 1/4 Protein by weight. So 4oz of meat would have about 1oz of Protein in it. And 1oz is about 28g. As @Richard noted above Protein is usually capitalised when it’s talked about as a macro-nutrient which is where the confusion has come from. I must admit in all the years I’ve been reading this food stuff I’ve never noticed that.

(Cheryl Meyers) #35

Actually, it wasn’t clear to me. :blush: