Seeking some protein suggestions

#1

Hi everyone. It’s always been fairly easy for me to stay in keto (checking my pee sticks), but many YouTube “experts” (Thomas Delauer, Dr Berg) seem to vary in their own opinion on protein requirements and it gets confusing. I’d appreciate some protein suggestions. I typically do OMAD – mostly a big salad: greens, grass-fed beef, hard-boiled eggs, olive oil, nuts.

Here are some vitals:

Male, 56 years old.
201 lbs
23% body fat
146# lean tissue via DEXA scan a few weeks ago.
Six-month goals – lose approximately 10 pounds, but maintain (or ideally gain) lean tissue.

I do HIIT cardio about 3 times a week and pump iron 2X a week.

Thanks in advance, everyone.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

Our recommendation is 1.0-1.5 grams of protein / kilogram of lean body mass / day. Some experts advise up to 2.0 g/kg if you are trying to add muscle (in which case, you will also want foods rich in branched-chain amino acids).

So 146 lb. ÷ 2.2 = 66.36 kg of lean mass =>
66.36-99.5 or up to 132.72 g of protein =>
265-398.2 (9.35-14 oz.) or up to 530.88 g (18.7 oz.) of meat.

#3

Thank you so much, PaulL. :slight_smile:

(Bob M) #4

Impressive! When I got my DEXA scans done a few years ago, I only had less than 130#.

How tall are you?

As for protein, I typically eat about 2 pounds meat per day when I track it. Sorry, Paul, I think your numbers are off or meaningless.

I really don’t think it matters how much protein you eat. Technically, it MIGHT be possible to eat too much protein, but it’s hard to know what that is. I do note that when I ate over 220g (in one MEAL), I didn’t feel great. I’ve eaten many meals of 160g, though, and those didn’t bother me. (I was testing to see what happened to my blood sugar, using a CGM. What happened? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.)

#5

I do like DeLauer, but disagree with a lot he says as well, Berg is complete moron and just repeats what what he hear’s others say so he can post videos, he needs to stick with being a Chiropractor.

Seems you’re doing pretty good. Clearly make as much of your protein intake as much real food as possible, on top of what you’ve listed, Fish, Chicken, Pork etc. Use shakes if you’re not hitting your goals with food.

At 201 and 23% BF I’d say pick a weight you’d be happy at and eat 1g/lb of that bodyweight. You didn’t mention your height. I’d personally switch to lifting 3x a week since that’ll let you hit everything better and do the HIIT 2x week (or 3). When you say “pump iron” I take that as you’re lifting for real and not just “exercising with weights”. if that’s the case there is absolutely ZERO reason you can’t burn off 10lbs of fat and gain some descent muscle in a 6mo span!

Remember, more lean muscle mass equals higher RMR all day. Rather than making fat loss the focus (clearly that’s still big) switch your mindset to strength gains being the focus. The fat will still come off and you can have a more positive outlook during your lifting. If you’re lifting for 6mo and not gaining lean mass then you’re doing something wrong.

If you’re into YouTube and/or Podcasts check out Rob Goodwin. He’s a Keto bodybuilder, in his 50’s, amazing physique. He’s a gym owner and strength coach as well as a competitive lifter himself with some impressive titles. He does and coaches a modified what he calls a Primal/Keto Hybrid which is basically a Paleo/Keto /TKD Hybrid.

#6

I go with a popular opinion of 1-2g/kg for lean bodyweight protein need. If I were you, I probably would go for 150g protein, if it is difficult, somewhat less, that should be fine too. Allegedly, 100g is enough for certain people even when bulking but it’s an extreme case just like actually using up 2g/kg or more without steroids (but unnecessarily high protein is fine to some extent, it’s safer than risking a too low amount)… So I would experiment around my comfortable amount, I wouldn’t force-feed myself higher protein and wouldn’t keep my protein only at 2g/kg when I desire more as long as my body is fine with that (yep, that’s my case. my average is only 2 but I go way higher sometimes. I feel no problem, not even if I do OMAD. but I usually eat twice)…
The feedback of your body is very important, of course. But 1.5-1.8 g/kg must be enough for bulking. Maybe the 2 is for safety’s sake? Simplicity? I don’t even know my own lean bodyweight though an educated guess is easy…

(Bob M) #7

But these amounts ignore reality. For me, I easily (and I mean EASILY) can eat 2 pounds of meat a day. Here’s ribeye as an example, eating nothing but 2 pounds of ribeye:

24g/3 ounces * 16 ounces/pound * 2 pounds = 256 grams protein.
207 calories/3 ounces * 16 ounces/pound * 2 pounds = 2,208 calories

That means you’d have to not eat meat (… and eat what else exactly?) to get to say 180 grams a day. And if you’re exercising 5 days a week, with that much muscle mass, I assume 2,208 calories is low.

And this is ribeye, the fattiest steak.

Change that to what I like to eat, ham or some hunk of meat like eye of round:

Now, you’re getting slightly more protein, and less fat and fewer calories. At some point, something have to give, and I tend to err on “too much” protein relative to adding fat.

#8

I could easily eat that as well, except then it would cost more to feed myself a week than it does my 3 person family. Not realistic for most people.

#9

I can’t eat 2 pounds of meat a day (and rarely go over 1) but of course, many people eats 2, 3 or 4. What’s with that? They eat much protein and hopefully it works for them just fine…

I can do both 100g and 180g protein pretty easily (some more wouldn’t be a challenge I imagine, I keep myself from doing so), going lower (so eating only an adequate amount as I don’t need much) would be a huge challenge but people who can add fat often can do it.
And I always remember a woman from this forum (I didn’t see her since ages) who must eat below 60g protein a day on carnivore. That’s hardcore. I would be sooooooo doomed with just a 100g limit.

Not all of us just eat meat, that probably helps (I eat many eggs, that helps little :smiley: somewhat high protein is my fate).

But fine, let’s eat only meat. Not only ribeyes exist.
Pork ribs, 1kg. According to my database, it’s 2770 kcal, 160g protein, 230g fat.

Yep, a tiny ribeye steak here (if I make it myself, to be clear) costs as much as my pretty good and generous amount of food for 3 days (and I didn’t do it differently when I had much more money as this amount was enough). It’s good there are other cuts and other animals, way, way cheaper and great ones. Sometimes I wonder why the poorest people don’t live on meat (okay, chicken)? It’s one of the cheapest items here.
But it doesn’t matter we can’t afford it, many people can. Many people spend more money on very inferior food…

#10

Thanks for the all the great feedback, everyone…I got more replies than I predicted. :slight_smile: And my height – 5’ 11".

(Bob M) #11

I must be an outlier. For my first meal of the day (about 3 hours after a body weight workout of 1 hour, 9 minutes duration. each set to failure) today, I had one pound (about, slightly more actually) of eye round roast. That’s 720 calories, 133 grams of protein. Then, I had about 18 or so in a whey protein “shake” made with the liquid I got from sous vide of the eye round roast. That is, I took about 1/4 cup of whey protein, added it to the liquid I got, shook, drank.

That’s about 150 (likely a bit more) grams of protein for my first MEAL.

I added some suet and olives to that. And salt.

I’ll easily – and I mean easily – get another 100+ grams at dinner, since I pretty much just eat meat for dinner. Depends on what my wife makes, though. Might be tomato sauce with meat. That’s on the menu for this week, as is the other eye round roast I made.

So, I’m looking at 250-300 grams of protein today. In two meals.

Now, I might eat less tomorrow, as I only have the whey protein for the first meal after my workout, and only on those days (2x/week) I do body weight training. If I do aerobics, I don’t take it.

But it won’t be a lot less, as I like the leaner meats and, while I’m not carnivore, I don’t eat a lot of anything other than meat. I eat some, but not a lot.

For what I eat, I can’t see eating less than 250 grams per day.

And I tried “high fat” for a while – and was never full. That’s why I went for lower fat meats. (Let’s ignore that I am trying to eat higher saturated fat, but that’s its own post.)