I dont think too much about percentages - I assume you can figure that out based on what I'm suggesting here. I recommend at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight that you want to weigh per day. Others in this forum might say its ok to have slightly less than what I recommend, but I have been eating more protein than that for over a decade and imo it is pretty easy to maintain a fairly lean body composition if your diet is very high in protein. I eat very little sugar or processed carbs and pay little attention to total calories now that I weigh close to what I want to weigh.

The thing that caught my eye is that you were under 1,000 calories and the only foods on your list that contain much protein at all are all foods that are high in fat (high fat foods are ok, but they're not so good when you're also eating lots of carbs and trying to lose weight). I'm guessing you probably only had about 30 or 40 grams of protein that day. Sugar, fruit juice and processed carbs including bread are not your friends when you are trying to lose weight. The biggest problem with those foods is they do not fill you up and your body converts them to fat pretty quickly.

I'm not logging the veggies I eat, unless they are high calorie ones like potatoes or avocado. That's where I get my feeling of being full from. That doesn't really change things much though - no appreciable calories or protein there.

1/5 Weight 168 Calories 1064 (604 under)

I was out clubbing last night, so didn't have much of an appetite.

Egg, Large Breakfast 1 Each 72
Juice, Pink Grapefruit Breakfast 1 Cup 96
Bread, Double Fiber Breakfast 1 Slice 70

Beef, Average of Cuts, Cooked, 0" Trim Lunch 4.5 Ounces 361
Dressing, Balsamic Vinaigrette Lunch 0.125 Cup 90
Potatoes, Red, Baby, Cooked Lunch 4 Ounces 101

Wine, Prosecco Dinner 2 Servings 178
Tequila, 80 Proof Dinner 1.5 Fluid ounces 96

Veggies are good. Very good. But you still needs lots of protein if you want to have a good body composition.

Cha's rec is more suitable for people who are lifting and looking to gain muscle mass. Cha is a very big, strong dude with a **** ton of muscle mass. What works for him is not particularly relevant to you. Also most of the advice doled out here is for dudes that want to get and look more muscular.

I think you could easily get away with less without compromising your health or ultimate appearance. I think 80g per day is perfectly fine for you. You could probably get away with even less. It does depend on your goals though. Do you have any specific fitness goals, or is just to look thinner and better?

Totally disagree and this is almost along the same lines as "women shouldn't lift weights or they'll bulk up". Everyone, including casual non lifting women, should be interested in retaining what lean mass they have during weight loss. The goal is to lose fat, eating more protein increases the rate of fat loss relative to lean mass.

I didnt suggest she eat 250+ grams of protein per day like I do. If she wants to weigh 80 lbs., 80 grams per day is fine. I doubt that is the case though.


I agree with Renton.

I suggest reading Josie's log if you arent already, and pay attention to the subject of protein over there.

1/6 Weight 164, but I was very dehydrated after a clubbing all nighter.
Calories 2093 (451 over)

Well I was over in calories today, but I think I needed it after a few days in a row of low calories. I was so exhausted I could barely get off the couch, and so I spent the day watching football, drinking prosecco and eating junk food.

Beef, Average of Cuts, Cooked, 0" Trim Lunch 3.5 Ounces 281
Egg, Large Lunch 2 Each 144
Potatoes, Red, Baby, Cooked Lunch 4 Ounces 101
Juice, Pink Grapefruit Lunch 1 Cup 96

Beef, Average of Cuts, Cooked, 0" Trim Dinner 3.5 Ounces 281
Potatoes, Red, Baby, Cooked Dinner 4 Ounces 101

Chips, Potato, Original Snacks 49 Pieces 523
Wine, Prosecco Snacks 1 Bottle 566

I'm solely going for weight loss, and I know I can do it this way, since I've done it before. I try and make sure I always have at least some protein with every meal, but its never more than a few ounces - there are just too many calories in it.

Not going to pick sides in the debate above, but this doesn't sound right.

26.1 grams of protein in 4 oz according to that^

Too many calories in protein, everything's salad

Ok - but that is about 10 percent of my daily calorie intake and you're telling me I would need to eat 7 of these in order to get my 170g of protein? I would be eating nothing but chicken breasts .

OP,

100 g of protein is a fine intermediate target.

100g is much more doable but I understand your reluctance to do it as it does limit the type of food you can eat. It's a pity there isn't a high protein wine

Yeah, I agree with this too. I don't know why you would think I don't.

Sure. But you want to show your work here on this one? Aragon has published some stuff showing that you can achieve positive nitrogen balance on much less than 1 g/lb.

This girl wants to lose 20lbs. I just don't think that eating 80g vs 160g is going to make a significant difference in how she ends up looking when she ends up there. Just because she eats 80g more protein per day, that's obviously not going to translate in to 80g more muscle conserved.

It's going to be much less. I honestly don't know how much it does translate into, but if you do, I'd be interested in seeing the calculations.

To be clear, I'm sure that 160 is better than 80. I'm just not sure it's significantly better than 80. I think the difference is likely to be marginal.

I actually think in her case lifting would be better than eating more protein. I'm fairly sure she would do better lifting and eating 80g/day than she would eating 160g/day and not lifting.

How can there be too many calories in protein? On a per gram basis, it's just as many as carbs and substantially less than alcohol or fat.

I'll cosign on the wisdom of Montecore. I guess my 80g is just too radical for the H&F masses. I'm not convinced there is significant benefit to more than that given what you're trying to accomplish. I'm not saying there's zero benefit either, just not enough to sweat it.

Melk,

Setting the target at 100 is the way to get her to actually average 80.

In case it wasn't clear, what I was saying is that 1+g/lb while appropriate for you is not necessary for her.

I'll skim it now and then. Josie's goals are quite different at this point IIRC.

You are indeed wise, my tall and poorly leveraged friend.

Yes, my goal is gaining muscle as well as losing fat. OP doesn’t want to increase muscle mass but should still be consuming protein to maintain muscle.

100 g of protein will be significantly more than what the current diet has, which I’m guessing is <50g. Any increase is a plus and more satiating too.

Positive nitrogen balance on a deficit seems very difficult even with superdosing protein, much less having just 80 grams. I'd imagine there's some kind of diminishing dose-response relationship between protein intake and nitrogen balance when in an aggressive calorie deficit such that you can't ever really have too much protein (providing calories are controlled).

I'm also pretty sure that malnourished people in poor countries would increase their muscle mass substantially by supplementing protein even in the absence of exercise. If OP is truly consuming less than 40g a day, she's probably not far from this model herself.

Yeah, she's obviously going to be negative, but the point is that all of these aggressive protein recommendations for making the gainz seem not absolutely necessary. It would seem the same thing should work in reverse.

I also agree that she can't (excluding weird edge cases) have too much protein.

The question is whether 80 vs 160 is really going to make a substantial difference over the next 3-4 months.


Probably. But a lot of that has to do with the fact that they're just getting enough cals. If we supplemented protein but took away an equivalent number of calories of carbs and/or fat and kept exercise the same, I'm not sure the difference would be very noticeable. Perhaps after many years of such an experiment loco could see a difference if they posted some lifts and noodz.