Protein is a very important nutrient that can often be misunderstood when it comes to the everyday person’s diet. When we think of protein, our minds might well immediately jump to bodybuilders or athletes tucking into protein shakes, but getting enough protein is vital for your body to function properly whether you work out regularly or not. Getting sufficient protein has been responsible for a myth linking increased intake to kidney problems, however in a study observing a group ingesting between 1.6-1.9g of protein per KG of bodyweight found no evidence of this issue. If you do have a pre-existing kidney issue, do consult with a healthcare professional to see whether this would be detrimental for you.

How Much Protein Should I Have In My Diet?

It’s generally recommended that at the very minimum you should be eating around 0.8g of protein per KG of your bodyweight in order to encourage effective recovery from injury, preserved bone health, strong immune function and appropriate wound healing. For someone weighing around 70kg, this would be around 50-60g ideally per day. To determine what distribution of food this is, do make sure to look at the nutrition breakdown on the packaging of your food to see the amount of protein inside. A 50g chicken breast might have around 30g of protein, so it’s important to check the exact distribution so that you’re getting an adequate amount. Ingesting over 1.4kg per KG of bodyweight for the normal person generally sees no further effect on the body, so do bear that in mind.

How Much Protein Should I Eat As An Older Person?

As you age, your sensitivity to protein decreases. This means that you will need to ingest more protein to see the same kind of response from your muscular system. If you are older, you might wish to aim for around 1g per KG of bodyweight, which can also make it very easy to calculate whether you’re getting enough throughout the day. If you do eat plant based protein versus animal protein, there is generally a difference in how much you should be ingesting. This is down to the amino acid leucine, which is a trigger for the body to start the process of protein synthesis. From our research, it would be necessary for anyone eating plant based protein to up their intake to around 50g per serving, to get the same results as someone eating around 25-30g of animal protein. You might find it easier to try writing down exactly what you’re eating for each of your meals and working out the protein intake from this. There are apps out there that can make this process much easier, including MyFitnessPal, which you can use to log each meal and even scan barcodes of the food you’re eating. Once you’ve done this for a few meals, you’ll get more into the hang of working out how much protein you should be eating a day and can get into the good habit of ensuring you’re eating enough.

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How Should Protein Intake Be Distributed Throughout The Day?

If you’re an everyday person maintaining good health or recovering from an injury, simply trying to get the amount of protein you should be eating is going to be all you need to focus on. These are the building blocks of good health and recovery. If you’re working out or are an athlete, there are going to be more ideal times to eat protein – likely directly after your workout for good recovery, but this is worth researching individually to your sport. If you’re someone who doesn’t enjoy eating a lot of food, you can find a good quality protein supplement to take as a snack mid-morning or mid-afternoon between meals if you’re finding you’re not getting enough protein throughout the day. If you need some help just identifying what brand would be best, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us and we’d be happy to help you out! You may find it beneficial to take an amino acid supplement, especially one made with leucine, as this will help to just kickstart that protein synthesis but it really isn’t 100% necessary if you can get enough in your food.

There is a slight stigma attached to good protein intake, particularly amongst women and protein intake when strength training. The common theme is often believing that ingesting enough protein will make you bulky, and this is another myth that we’ll dispell here. Bodybuilders work exceptionally hard to build muscle bulk, so if you are getting active and taking in enough protein, this is not going to make you bulky. Instead, it’s going to make sure that you’re not depleting your body of nutrients, that you can recover after workouts, not become injured, and that your immunity remains strong.

We hope you found this article helpful! If you did find this topic interesting, do let us know and we’d be happy to produce more of this sort of content. If you are struggling with back pain at the minute, remember to check out our FREE Back In Shape membership area for more specific advice on mistakes you could be making at home, stretches that can help and exercises to strengthen your body. You can find this at www.backinshapeapp.com. If you did have any questions about today’s topic, please do get in touch with us through our social media channels, or by tuning in to our live videos that we’re hosting every weekday on our Facebook and YouTube!

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