How much protein is considered moderate?

[doxielove]

I used an online calculator that said for my height/weight/activity level I should eat 89 grams of protein daily. Since I don't know the metric system very well I used an online converter and got just over 3 ounces a day. I'm only 5' 3'' but that still seems a little low. Can anyone help me?

[svenskamae]

I don't think that 89 grams of protein is just over 3 ounces per day. I try to keep my protein grams under 60 per day, but I tend to eat 4 ounces of a protein at one meal, plus get some additional protein in cream for coffee, cheese, and nuts. I suggest you use an online tracker to see how many grams of protein are in specific foods that you eat, at a given amount. I'm female and your height, and 89 grams of protein sounds okay to me, but not the calculation of how much meat/fish/eggs/etc. goes into that.

Here's a rule of thumb that I read in Phinney and Volek's book: The rule of 7s. Assume there's about 7 grams of protein in 1 egg or in 1 ounce of meat or 1 ounce of cheese. According to that rule of thumb, you could eat a lot more than 3 ounces of meat for 89 grams of protein.

I see from your sig that you are Type 2 diabetic. I highly recommend the book Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, about eating lowcarb as a diabetic.

[Darkginger]

28g in an ounce (roughly) so yeah, that's about right. It seems very low though, for a daily amount - I'm sure I eat far more than that - it'd be about 4 eggs, and I've been known to have that many for breakfast!

Which plan are you following?

[LightlyStarched]

An ounce of protein-containing-foods isn't JUST protein. There is water and fat, maybe fiber... So converting "grams of protein" to ounces is incorrect.

For instance, I ate 3 eggs, 1 ounce swiss and 1 ounce of ham this morning for breakfast. The whole omelet probably weighed 6 ounces. However, it only contained 34 grams of protein.

[Liz1959]

Right, grams of protein does not equal grams of the food. I assume 6g protein per ounce of protein food(Bernstein).
So your 89/6=14.8 ounces of a protein food for your day.
Of course it varies some depending on whether you are eating pork steak or pork tenderloin. That's when it helps to use one of the online food trackers.

[Rhubarb]

Originally Posted by Liz1959

Right, grams of protein does not equal grams of the food. I assume 6g protein per ounce of protein food(Bernstein).
So your 89/6=14.8 ounces of a protein food for your day.
Of course it varies some depending on whether you are eating pork steak or pork tenderloin. That's when it helps to use one of the online food trackers.

Yes, just wanted to emphasize that the online trackers are really helpful with the macronutrient side of this.

[svenskamae]

Originally Posted by LightlyStarched

An ounce of protein-containing-foods isn't JUST protein. There is water and fat, maybe fiber... So converting "grams of protein" to ounces is incorrect.

For instance, I ate 3 eggs, 1 ounce swiss and 1 ounce of ham this morning for breakfast. The whole omelet probably weighed 6 ounces. However, it only contained 34 grams of protein.

I should note that I gave the 1 ounce equals 7 grams of protein as a rough rule of thumb, to say that the OPs original calculation didn't look right to me, and Phinney and Volek present it as only a rough rule of thumb. Using a tracker is, of course, much more accurate, but some people resist using a tracker and the rule may be better than no calculation at all.

[Ntombi]

You have to look at the protein in the food, it's not a one to one conversion.

For instance, 100g of a steak has 28g of protein. 100g of a chicken breast without skin has 31g of protein.

100g is about 3.5 ounces.

If you have a smartphone, there are tons of free apps that will give you this information, and of course, google is your friend on a computer or anywhere else.

You don't have to use it to log your food, it can help give you a basic framework.

[Punkin]

I eat somewhere between 50 and 60g per day. The only actual protein foods I eat are 1 egg (7g) and about 100g of meat a day (roughly 20g to 30g). The rest comes from the trace grams of protein that is found in veggies, cream, cheese and nuts. I am 5'3 as well.

[doxielove]

Thank you so much everyone for clarifying this for me! I'm doing a modified induction (again)...I can't really do OWL because I can't eat any fruits or grains without raising my blood sugar. I really wanted to do hcg but it didn't agree with my blood sugar, even though it seems lots of diabetics do well.

[cfine]

I did some research and came up with these numbers: 1oz. Beef-5grams 1oz.chicken-8grams 1oz.fish 6grams. 1oz.cheese-6grams. 1oz.nuts 6grams 1egg-6grams

[clackley]

"Moderate" is a relative term. This certainly applies when talking about the amount of protein. It appears that most people will never have to give much thought to the amount of protein they are consuming when doing an Atkins woe. It moderates itself for the most part.

However, if weight loss is becoming difficult, this is one thing to look at. Even though I considered myself a pretty savy low carber, I was really unaware of the amount of protein in my food.

The real point (in my opinion) is to eat 'enough protein', low carbs and then, the balance and majority should be in healthy fats (being careful not to consume more than approx. 6% of omega 6's which means, beware of corn oils, etc.).