I’m currently rereading Phinney and Volek trying to figure out their recommendations on protein intake, and the term “reference weight” keeps popping up with no explanation. Can someone please explain this to me?
“We recommend daily protein intakes between 1.5 and 2.5 gram per day per kg of reference weight,” and in another spot, “between 1.5 and 2.0 grams per kilogram reference body weight (0.7 to 0.9 grams per pound reference weight).”
Wth is reference weight??
Typically when people talk about protein needs, it’s based off of lean body mass.
Perhaps that’s what is meant.
In one of his lectures, Dr. Phinney says it’s a weasel phrase, because they aren’t really in a position to recommend what weight a person should be. The reference is to the actuarial charts formerly put out by life insurance companies to indicate what weight a man or a woman should be for a given height. The ideal weight ranges worked out to about 12% body fat for men and 21% for women, or somewhere thereabouts, if I recall correctly.
For example, when I was five feet, eleven inches tall and weighed 150 pounds, I was right in the middle of the ideal range for my height. (Now that I’ve lost three inches to spinal damage and surgery, it’s a nice question whether my ideal weight should be that for my “real” height or that for my actual height.)
These charts were rendered totally useless by the U.S. dietary guidelines, of course, but you used to see them in doctors’ offices all the time. I suppose that in practice, Phinney’s and Volek’s “reference weight” boils down to whatever you think is a good weight for someone your height.
Dr Phinneys Virta Health chart has my protein range from 12-19 ounces for my 5’10” height. I love my protein 