Massively brings you complete coverage from the Warhammer Online beta!

How much protein is enough protein?

Posted: Jul 5th 2008 6:00AM by Jacki Donaldson
Filed under: Food and Nutrition

I consider myself a pretty good eater. I mostly consume fruits, veggies, non-red lean meats, some whole grains, and only an occasional basket of bread -- ah, my weakness. I'm sure I eat the appropriate amount of calories in a day -- not too many, not too few -- but one thing that makes me wonder a bit is this: Am I getting enough of the good stuff in my diet -- the protein, the fiber, the calcium, the iron? My mom and I discussed this the other evening while power walking through our neighborhood. Protein was the topic. After our walk, I came home and did some research. Here's what I found.

Apparently, most Americans get more than enough protein in their diets, according to Health Central's MyDietExercise.com. Sometimes, though, our erratic eating habits and tendencies toward fad diets throw our protein intake out of whack, which undermines energy, exercise performance, and overall health.

So how much exactly is enough protein? Well, it depends on a few factors, says Health Central -- like age, gender, and activity level. For me, after plugging my stats into their handy dandy calculator, I learned that I need 81 grams per day. Seems like a lot but check out how these common foods stack up in the protein department -- chicken has 35 grams per four-ounce breast and salmon has 23 grams per three-ounce serving. One six-ounce can of tuna has 40 grams, four ounces of cottage cheese has 14, and one egg has six.

This site says I don't need as much protein, more like 60 grams per day -- seems men and women both would do fine with this limit. As a rule, though, the average requirement is calculated based on 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. For instance, a 130 pound (59 kg) woman would need 47 grams of protein daily. Requirements for athletes would be higher.

Regardless of what tool I use to pin down my own protein requirement, it seems I'm likely doing just fine. The others, like fiber, calcium, and iron -- I'm not too sure about those yet. Once I do a little investigating, I'll let you know.

Related Headlines

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br> tags.

New Users

Current Users



That's Fit Features





Life Fit with Laura Lewis

How many calories burned? What is my BMI?
More weight loss tools!


Features
AOL Health Bloggers (57)
Ask Fitz! (73)
Ask Laura! (21)
ATIO: Summer Quick Fix Challenge (6)
ATIO: Wednesday Weigh-In (4)
ATIO: Weekly Weight-loss Results (4)
Celebrity Fitzness Report (39)
Daily Fit Tip (399)
Fit Beauty (87)
Fit Factor (92)
Fit Gadgets (28)
Fit Links (94)
Fit Mama (10)
Fit Pregnancy (22)
Fitku (13)
FitSpirit (43)
FitTV (6)
Fitzness Fiends (52)
Good, Fat, and the Hungry (0)
Gut Busters (4)
Healthy Handful (11)
How Many Calories? (103)
Jogging for Normal People (17)
Jumpstart Your Fitness (89)
Life Fit Chat with Laura Lewis (106)
Life Fit with Laura Lewis (57)
Meet the Bloggers (20)
One Small Step (7)
Podcasts (43)
Recipe Rehab (23)
Retro Review (3)
Road To Fitville (15)
Stress Less (34)
Taking Off Ten (12)
That's Fit In The Field (3)
The 5 (41)
The Daily Turn On! (108)
We Love To Gawk At Fit Celebs (56)
We Love To Gawk At Fit Celebs Weekly Roundup (31)
Week In Review (58)
Working In the Workouts (52)
Workplace Fitness (90)
You Are What You Eat (68)
Your Turn (21)
Healthy Living
Alternative Therapies (299)
Book Reviews (98)
Celebrities (822)
Cellulite (222)
Diet and Weight Loss (2378)
Eco-Travel (81)
Emotional Health (1274)
Fit Fashion (82)
Fitness (3595)
Food and Nutrition (4301)
General Health (5468)
Health and Technology (663)
Health in the Media (1264)
HealthWatch (465)
Healthy Aging (741)
Healthy Events (158)
Healthy Habits (2103)
Healthy Home (451)
Healthy Kids (1533)
Healthy Places (248)
Healthy Products (939)
Healthy Recipes (322)
Healthy Relationships (309)
Men's Health (1513)
Natural Beauty (231)
Natural Products (242)
Obesity (293)
Organic (217)
Spirituality and Inspiration (277)
Stress Reduction (540)
Sustainable Community (236)
Vegetarian (288)
Vitamins and Supplements (279)
Women's Health (2047)
Work/Home Balance (189)

RESOURCES

Powered by Blogsmith

Daily Fit Tip

Getting a pedicure is one of the best ways to relax after a hard day, but hitting the salon every time you feel stressed can get expensive. But no worries!...

 

Featured Stories

Sponsored Links

Most Commented On (60 days)

Recent Comments


Aches, pains? Find out what your symptoms mean:

Sites We Love

Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: