I recently came across a website that talked about protein/carbo/fat intake. I'm curious to hear if people agree with the percentages of protein that people should ingest per day for weight loss.
-------------
"It's helpful to have both protein and carbohydrates in your meals. If you severely restrict carbohydrates, you'll "bonk" and slow down your metabolism. You'll also lose muscle. See, when you run too low on carbohydrate, the body first tries to burn fat, but if fat burning is too slow to provide enough energy, your body starts using protein for energy (gluconeogenesis). If you overly restrict protein, you won't build muscle, and you increase the risk that your body will feed on muscle mass.
Many people do quite well measuring their portions simply by the amount of protein or carbohydrate they could enclose inside of their two hands cupped together. If that doesn't work for you and you're counting calories, figure that a gram of protein is about 4 calories, so is a gram of carbohydrate. A gram of fat is about 9 calories. In general, you should target roughly equal amounts of protein and carbohydrate (about 40% of total daily calories from each). Fat should account for only about 20% of your total intake. For a person with a lean weight of 150 pounds aiming to eat 1800 calories a day for weight loss, this breaks down to 0.4 x 1800 / 4 = 180 grams daily of protein and carbohydrate, and about .2 x 1800 / 9 = 40 grams of fat. So if you're having 6 meals a day, each one would be about 30 grams of protein, 30 grams of carbohydrate, and just over 6 grams of fat."
Credit: www.hussman.org/fitness/#nutrition
-------------
"It's helpful to have both protein and carbohydrates in your meals. If you severely restrict carbohydrates, you'll "bonk" and slow down your metabolism. You'll also lose muscle. See, when you run too low on carbohydrate, the body first tries to burn fat, but if fat burning is too slow to provide enough energy, your body starts using protein for energy (gluconeogenesis). If you overly restrict protein, you won't build muscle, and you increase the risk that your body will feed on muscle mass.
Many people do quite well measuring their portions simply by the amount of protein or carbohydrate they could enclose inside of their two hands cupped together. If that doesn't work for you and you're counting calories, figure that a gram of protein is about 4 calories, so is a gram of carbohydrate. A gram of fat is about 9 calories. In general, you should target roughly equal amounts of protein and carbohydrate (about 40% of total daily calories from each). Fat should account for only about 20% of your total intake. For a person with a lean weight of 150 pounds aiming to eat 1800 calories a day for weight loss, this breaks down to 0.4 x 1800 / 4 = 180 grams daily of protein and carbohydrate, and about .2 x 1800 / 9 = 40 grams of fat. So if you're having 6 meals a day, each one would be about 30 grams of protein, 30 grams of carbohydrate, and just over 6 grams of fat."
Credit: www.hussman.org/fitness/#nutrition
