How do you "actually" eat 1 gram of protein per lb of bodyweight?

So I'm 27 6 foot tall, about 210 pounds. Not too much body fat, unsure of the exact percentage roughly 12-14. If I flex my abs and jam a ruler against my stomach till it hits muscle, it shows I have about 1/2 inch layer of fat. I only lift weights at the gym one day a week (really make it a heavy power workout), but I generally do some physically demanding sports or other activities a few days a week.

On to my question. Even though I have been gaining muscle, I feel as if I'm not getting enough protein in my diet, and I'd probably be in a little better shape if i did. I've heard many many times that your supposed to get about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight a day, that's 210 grams for me, that just seems like a ridiculous amount, I don't really see how it can be done, especially on a daily basis. Heres a couple of my main limiting factors.

1. Can't drink enough protein shakes in one day. I know protein shakes are loaded with alot, but me personally, if I drink too many I get feeling really sick. I mainly use optimum whey, which has about 40-50 grams per shake, but I can only drink one of these per day, or I'll end up feeling terrible. Maybe its all the artaficial sweeteners. And its not just that brand, any brand will do it, pretty much more than one shake a day is not good for me. I know there are protein bars, but they are about the same, one a day is enough for me, and if I were to drink a shake, I'd better not eat a bar also.

2. Cost and time. I love Lean beef, chicken breast, fish, etc. However actually eating enough meat to meet my protein demands seems almost impossible. That takes almost 2 pounds of steak to meet the requirement, which is way too expensive. Not to mention the time involved in cooking the meat. Expecially when you consider you should ideally eat like 6 meals a day. How's an average working person supposed to cook a meat based meal multiple times a day. I can usually only find time to really have 1 good meat based meal a day, usually dinner.

I do use things like beef jerky, but its one of the few convinient sources of good protein I know of, but I can't afford, nor could I stand to eat more than 1 bag a day.

Heres an example of a "good" day for me protein wise, not all days are nearly this good. This isn't "all" I'm eating, (I'm getting my intake of grains/wheats, etc as well) I'm just only listing the main protein sources.

Morning breakfast before work
lean pocket 11 grams
yogurt 5 grams
total 16

lunch break at work
pack of beef jerky 42 grams
turkey sandwich probably about 10g
total 52

dinner time
chicken teriaki or cashew chicken, or something similar, whatever the girlfriend cooks. she cooks alot of different typs of lean meat dishes, mostly chicken. I probably get about 1/2 pound of chicken in some of the good ones.
that's probably about 50 grams

Then assuming I work out, or do something else strenuous I'll likely drink a protein shake, 2 scoops of optimum in skim milk would be roughly 50 grams.

Add those all up and I'm still only at about 168 grams. Far shy of the 210. And that's on a good day, many days I miss out on a pack of jerky, or the shake, or dinner has a little less protein, or whatever.

I really can't find much time in the day to eat much more, nor do I think I could find room in my stomach. Even if I did squeeze in a handful of nuts, or a small protein bar somewhere in the day, that still wouldn't come close to making up the 42 gram deficit that still exists even on a good day.

I just don't see how its possible to get that much protein in a daily basis without.....
a) breaking the bank
b) consuming more time than the average working person has to spend.
3) loading up on too many artificial sources like shakes.
4) over-eating, and or getting full.

Any advice?

[QUOTE=carl1864;434310561]So I'm 27 6 foot tall, about 210 pounds. Not too much body fat, unsure of the exact percentage roughly 12-14. If I flex my abs and jam a ruler against my stomach till it hits muscle, it shows I have about 1/2 inch layer of fat. I only lift weights at the gym one day a week (really make it a heavy power workout), but I generally do some physically demanding sports or other activities a few days a week.

On to my question. Even though I have been gaining muscle, I feel as if I'm not getting enough protein in my diet, and I'd probably be in a little better shape if i did. I've heard many many times that your supposed to get about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight a day, that's 210 grams for me, that just seems like a ridiculous amount, I don't really see how it can be done, especially on a daily basis. Heres a couple of my main limiting factors.

1. Can't drink enough protein shakes in one day. I know protein shakes are loaded with alot, but me personally, if I drink too many I get feeling really sick. I mainly use optimum whey, which has about 40-50 grams per shake, but I can only drink one of these per day, or I'll end up feeling terrible. Maybe its all the artaficial sweeteners. And its not just that brand, any brand will do it, pretty much more than one shake a day is not good for me. I know there are protein bars, but they are about the same, one a day is enough for me, and if I were to drink a shake, I'd better not eat a bar also.

2. Cost and time. I love Lean beef, chicken breast, fish, etc. However actually eating enough meat to meet my protein demands seems almost impossible. That takes almost 2 pounds of steak to meet the requirement, which is way too expensive. Not to mention the time involved in cooking the meat. Expecially when you consider you should ideally eat like 6 meals a day. How's an average working person supposed to cook a meat based meal multiple times a day. I can usually only find time to really have 1 good meat based meal a day, usually dinner.

I do use things like beef jerky, but its one of the few convinient sources of good protein I know of, but I can't afford, nor could I stand to eat more than 1 bag a day.

Heres an example of a "good" day for me protein wise, not all days are nearly this good. This isn't "all" I'm eating, (I'm getting my intake of grains/wheats, etc as well) I'm just only listing the main protein sources.

Morning breakfast before work
lean pocket 11 grams
yogurt 5 grams
total 16

lunch break at work
pack of beef jerky 42 grams
turkey sandwich probably about 10g
total 52

dinner time
chicken teriaki or cashew chicken, or something similar, whatever the girlfriend cooks. she cooks alot of different typs of lean meat dishes, mostly chicken. I probably get about 1/2 pound of chicken in some of the good ones.
that's probably about 50 grams

Then assuming I work out, or do something else strenuous I'll likely drink a protein shake, 2 scoops of optimum in skim milk would be roughly 50 grams.

Add those all up and I'm still only at about 168 grams. Far shy of the 210. And that's on a good day, many days I miss out on a pack of jerky, or the shake, or dinner has a little less protein, or whatever.

I really can't find much time in the day to eat much more, nor do I think I could find room in my stomach. Even if I did squeeze in a handful of nuts, or a small protein bar somewhere in the day, that still wouldn't come close to making up the 42 gram deficit that still exists even on a good day.

I just don't see how its possible to get that much protein in a daily basis without.....
a) breaking the bank
b) consuming more time than the average working person has to spend.
3) loading up on too many artificial sources like shakes.
4) over-eating, and or getting full.

Any advice?[/QUOTE]

168g is enough. 1g/lb is just an overestimation.

you are fully underestimating your food intake.

think of what a sandwich consists of. mostly the bread and the cheese, not just the turkey. both of those have about 10g of protein each.

you said a 1/2 lb of chicken sometimes. 1 chicken breast is about 40-50grams. a half pound is going to be more than that.

do you drink milk? that is also going to boost your intake by 8grams every 8 ounches.

eat a more substantial breakfast

Everyone always underestimates the grainz proteinz.

Tip: Skip the yogurt and eat LF cottage cheese mixed with PB or whey.

Some ideas for you...

Have you tried mixing your protein shakes with oatmeal to see if that helps?
Tinned tuna is a relatively cheap source of protein. Get about 40g protein per 125g tin.
Nuts and peanut butter has a good % protein and healthy fats too.

1) strong lurker
2) lol at jaming ruler into stomach
3) eggs, tuna, turkey, chicken. all cheap, full of protein, and easy as hell to prepare.

Carl,

Although this is my first post here, I've been working out on and off for many years and also reading a lot. In my humble opinion, you're right there as far as protein intake is concerned. I see a lot of similarities between you and I and here's what I'd recommend. First, I'd like to point out that your protein intake is only a little short of what you should be consuming IF I'm correct in my assumption that you want to lose fat/build muscle (opposed to going for the Ronnie Coleman look). The reason I say your intake is fine is this -- you need to be consuming 1g/lb of LEAN weight, not body weight. Hence, if we assume you're at 13%bf, you'll need to consume 182g of protein, rather than the 210 you're referring to. And having read other folks' comments, I also feel you're much closer to the 182 number rather than the 162 you think you're getting. As far as similarities are concerned, I also work an 8-5 job and don't have much time during the week to prepare "good" meals. However, here's some quick meals you could easily prepare.

When I wake up in the morning, I eat my scrambled eggs with reduced fat shredded cheese and whole wheat toast with spray butter and a crapload of 98%ff ham + a 4-5 oz freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. Quantities are up to you, but I only eat 5 whites + 1 yolk (22g), 10g from the ham, 4g from the bread, and 8g from the shredded cheese for a solid 44g of protein. A trick here to save time - crack and scramble your eggs and throw the shredded cheese in there the night before so you can start cooking immediately when you wake up. This way you save a few min. I've timed myself and, being that I inhale that stuff, it takes me just over 15 min to cook/consume this meal. Hopefully you don't have a long commute to work, I'm lucky my job is 10 min away.

Another simple meal - although not everyone at the office is extatic about it when the smell gets out - is you good ole' tuna sandwich, or in my case it's a tuna melt. I can't eat tuna straight up on a sandwich, gotta throw some cheese on there. I started replacing the single slice full fat swiss cheese 110cal with the same shredded cheese I use for my scrambled eggs and cut my total cals from cheese by half while keeping same amount of protein. If you're lucky as I am to have a toaster at work, it takes me 2 min to spread the tuna on it and put the cheese and then 10 min in the toaster. If you don't have one, hope you can eat the tune "raw". Of course, I mix it in with some pickle juice, cellery, olives, mustard?? (yea some people do it) for flavor. Bonus ingredient: EGGWHITES :) If you feel like it mix it with some chopped or minced eggwhites from hard boiled eggs for additional 6-10g of protein. Of course the trick here is you need to have the tuna mix ready the night before. Ideally, I make it on Sunday evening and enough of it to last me throughout the week. Good thing about the tuna is, the flavor doesn't change at all if you keep refrigerated. I would recommend you eat a fruit with this meal as well. Not only does it help with some good carbs, but your mouth will like that too ;P

For a mid-morning snack, I eat a few raw almonds and an apple, but you could do apple +pb or pb sandwich.

Afternoon snack: Often I'd eat plain ff yogurt with honey or even protein powder mixed in and maybe some fruits. Hopefully you guys have a nice big fridge at work like I do here - 1/2 of it is my stuff and the other half, the other 12 people here :)

Like you, I'm not big on the powders. It actually kills my appetite if I take first thing in the morning (which is when your muscles are craving it) and I'm not happy about that. I do try to force myself to take it at least once a day on my off days, because 50g is 1/3 of my daily intake and without it it'll be hard. On my workout days, it's easier. I take it right after workout and have no problem stuffing my face an hour later with a big natural balanced meal. It works out perfectly, because I have more than enough time to prepare a good meal once I get home. Normally it's either steak or chicken salad with crapload of veggies, especially olives and avocados AND lotsa evoo plus either feta cheese or cottage cheese, no croutons. Can you guess the bonus ingredient? Yep, eggwhites again.

And lastly, I would strongly recommend you take some casein 30-60 min before bed mixed with milk (opposed to water, which is what I mix my whey with post-workout or first thing in the a.m.). 2 scoops is a lot for me, it's about the same as the whey, so like 55-60g if you drink with milk, and I have hard time falling asleep on a full stomack. So I do 1-1.25 scoops and less milk and that gets me close to 40g more protein.

Jeez, so sorry for the long post but it was my first and I had to arrive in style :) Last suggestion - TRY (I know it's hard) but try to throw in couple more workout days in there. I know you said you play sports, so do I, but you need to hit the weights more than 1x/week. I recommend you try to do 1 day/week plus both Sat and Sunday on the weekends. Hope you're not having to deal with a headache from reading this giant post and I did more good than bad. Keep us posted.

for cost:
-Costco for tuna
-Buy bulk egg whites
-Buy beef in bulk if you can
-Just watch for specials and do it smart.. don't buy organic skinless boneless chicken.. buy regular stuff and just pick the meat off etc. etc..

for time:
-precook all at once... maybe a slow cooker?? and bulk cook... I usually only cook once a day.. first thing in morning.. i'll toss a whack load of chicken breasts in the oven while i do my morning cardio or when showering etc.. and then take it all out, put in tupperware and hit the road.

protein powder:
you have any lactose issues?? maybe switch to an isolate..

[QUOTE=Brad155;434342011]1) strong lurker
[/QUOTE]

LMAO

+

I'd go with omega-3 eggs/milk

Sup guys, I'm new here at the forums and also new at bodybuilding. I need some advise on my current diet. I think it's ok but maybe it's lacking more protein.

Please tell me if it is ok or if it needs more.


Breakfast (at 6am right before gym)

-2 hard boiled eggs. I eat the whole egg (6g each) = 12g
-Then 8oz of creatine before going to the gym
-Then after gym, 1 serving of Up Your Mass (42g)


Morning Snack

- 2 servings of Cream of Wheat with milk (10g) + 16 ounces of milk 16g = total of 26g


Lunch at 1pm

- 1 chicken breast (don't know how many g)
- 1 chicken leg (don't know either)
- some cooked red beans (don't know either)
- some salad


Afternoon Snack

- Some almonds like 10 or 15...


Dinner

-1 can of Tuna in vegetable oil with some salad or fiber crackers



So, how is it? Is it good or not? Do you think I should add something?

Please provide me with some good advise

I want to get big!

Its easy. I hit 244g yesterday without even trying.


12 ounces greek yogurt
3 eggs
10oz chicken breast
13oz beef round

It actually surprised me how easy it was. I didn't realize until I added my calories together for the day.

What helps is cooking my daily meat at one time. So I can cook my lunch and dinner together and just save the extra for the following meal. Also you can try having Sunday a "cook" day where you make meals for the entire week.

eggs has good protein, add oatmeal has protein too, and great source of carbs

I usually eat it with my mouth. J/k

Skip the lean pocket and eat some eggs. Those are cheap.

I eat 1g per lb of LBM 170g~ when cutting and 1.25g per lb of LBM when bulking.

chicken brat in sourdough bun 25g protein
italian smoked turkey sausage 15g protein per serving
turkey bacon and potatoes 2g per slice (i ate 1lb today)
4oz of chicken breasts is 24g protein (16 ounces = 1 pound, 100g protein in just 1lb chicken breast)
85% lean ground beef and refried bean tostadas 25g protein per tostada (ate 4 in one night)
2 slices whole wheat bread with 4 tbs peanut butter & 2.5 cups 2% milk = 60g protein


farwwwkkk im eating good brahs. should rep myself on dis summah time 30lbs bulk. next stop 200 kids.

whey normally tastes 1000% times better in milk

[QUOTE=Brad155;434342011]1) strong lurker
2) lol at jaming ruler into stomach
3) eggs, tuna, turkey, chicken. all cheap, full of protein, and easy as hell to prepare.[/QUOTE]

Lol. Try cooking food in advance - that way you can buy in bulk to save some money & won't have to worry about cooking it up at time of consumption. If you're really struggling you can add protein to other meals such as oatmeal, yoghurt, egg whites etc to bump protein levels.

[QUOTE=LatinStud1;891266781]Sup guys, I'm new here at the forums and also new at bodybuilding. I need some advise on my current diet. I think it's ok but maybe it's lacking more protein.

Please tell me if it is ok or if it needs more.


Breakfast (at 6am right before gym)

-2 hard boiled eggs. I eat the whole egg (6g each) = 12g
-Then 8oz of creatine before going to the gym
-Then after gym, 1 serving of Up Your Mass (42g)

I want to get big![/QUOTE]

you need to eat a more balanced brekfast thats for sure, maybe try scrambling the eggs onto some slices of brown bread or some oatmeal

[QUOTE=liftNfish;434317201]you are fully underestimating your food intake.

think of what a sandwich consists of. mostly the bread and the cheese, not just the turkey. both of those have about 10g of protein each.

you said a [B]1/2 lb of chicken sometimes. 1 chicken breast is about 40-50grams. a half pound is going to be more than that.[/B]

do you drink milk? that is also going to boost your intake by 8grams every 8 ounches.[/QUOTE]

8 oz is half a pound. a single [B]large[/B] chicken breast is usually 6-9oz. 8 oz chicken breast has ~50g protein. HERP DERP

[QUOTE=carl1864;434310561]So I'm 27 6 foot tall, about 210 pounds. Not too much body fat, unsure of the exact percentage roughly 12-14. If I flex my abs and jam a ruler against my stomach till it hits muscle, it shows I have about 1/2 inch layer of fat. I only lift weights at the gym one day a week (really make it a heavy power workout), but I generally do some physically demanding sports or other activities a few days a week.

On to my question. Even though I have been gaining muscle, I feel as if I'm not getting enough protein in my diet, and I'd probably be in a little better shape if i did. I've heard many many times that your supposed to get about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight a day, that's 210 grams for me, that just seems like a ridiculous amount, I don't really see how it can be done, especially on a daily basis. Heres a couple of my main limiting factors.

1. Can't drink enough protein shakes in one day. I know protein shakes are loaded with alot, but me personally, if I drink too many I get feeling really sick. I mainly use optimum whey, which has about 40-50 grams per shake, but I can only drink one of these per day, or I'll end up feeling terrible. Maybe its all the artaficial sweeteners. And its not just that brand, any brand will do it, pretty much more than one shake a day is not good for me. I know there are protein bars, but they are about the same, one a day is enough for me, and if I were to drink a shake, I'd better not eat a bar also.

2. Cost and time. I love Lean beef, chicken breast, fish, etc. However actually eating enough meat to meet my protein demands seems almost impossible. That takes almost 2 pounds of steak to meet the requirement, which is way too expensive. Not to mention the time involved in cooking the meat. Expecially when you consider you should ideally eat like 6 meals a day. How's an average working person supposed to cook a meat based meal multiple times a day. I can usually only find time to really have 1 good meat based meal a day, usually dinner.

I do use things like beef jerky, but its one of the few convinient sources of good protein I know of, but I can't afford, nor could I stand to eat more than 1 bag a day.

Heres an example of a "good" day for me protein wise, not all days are nearly this good. This isn't "all" I'm eating, (I'm getting my intake of grains/wheats, etc as well) I'm just only listing the main protein sources.

Morning breakfast before work
lean pocket 11 grams
yogurt 5 grams
total 16

lunch break at work
pack of beef jerky 42 grams
turkey sandwich probably about 10g
total 52

dinner time
chicken teriaki or cashew chicken, or something similar, whatever the girlfriend cooks. she cooks alot of different typs of lean meat dishes, mostly chicken. I probably get about 1/2 pound of chicken in some of the good ones.
that's probably about 50 grams

Then assuming I work out, or do something else strenuous I'll likely drink a protein shake, 2 scoops of optimum in skim milk would be roughly 50 grams.

Add those all up and I'm still only at about 168 grams. Far shy of the 210. And that's on a good day, many days I miss out on a pack of jerky, or the shake, or dinner has a little less protein, or whatever.

I really can't find much time in the day to eat much more, nor do I think I could find room in my stomach. Even if I did squeeze in a handful of nuts, or a small protein bar somewhere in the day, that still wouldn't come close to making up the 42 gram deficit that still exists even on a good day.

I just don't see how its possible to get that much protein in a daily basis without.....
a) breaking the bank
b) consuming more time than the average working person has to spend.
3) loading up on too many artificial sources like shakes.
4) over-eating, and or getting full.

Any advice?[/QUOTE]
just eat more whole foods and this is pretty much what i follow.
breakfast
10 egg whites half cup of spinach 38 or so grams of protein
half cup of oatmeal with skim milk
16 to 20 oz of skim milk

snack 1
non fat plain greek yogurt 20g
beef jerky 11g / tuna 24g

lunch
2 chicken breasts 46g
1 cup white rice 4g
1 cup of mixed veggies 4g

snack 2
non fat plain greek yogurt 20
beef jerky 11g / tuna 24g

dinner
2 chicken breasts 46g
1 cup white rice 4g
1 cup of mixed veggies 4g

total around 260g of protein with no powder
and in order to help being less busy through out the week and worrying about cooking the food
pick a day that you are off and meal prep lunch and dinner for the week so thats about 14 meals and do that every week

[QUOTE=y0lked;891289531]chicken brat in sourdough bun 25g protein
italian smoked turkey sausage 15g protein per serving
turkey bacon and potatoes 2g per slice (i ate 1lb today)
4oz of chicken breasts is 24g protein (16 ounces = 1 pound, 100g protein in just 1lb chicken breast)
85% lean ground beef and refried bean tostadas 25g protein per tostada (ate 4 in one night)
2 slices whole wheat bread with 4 tbs peanut butter & 2.5 cups 2% milk = 60g protein


farwwwkkk im eating good brahs. should rep myself on dis summah time 30lbs bulk. next stop 200 kids.[/QUOTE]

Race you too 200

[QUOTE=BDurney112;1591418511]just eat more whole foods and this is pretty much what i follow.
breakfast
10 egg whites half cup of spinach 38 or so grams of protein
half cup of oatmeal with skim milk
16 to 20 oz of skim milk

snack 1
non fat plain greek yogurt 20g
beef jerky 11g / tuna 24g

lunch
2 chicken breasts 46g
1 cup white rice 4g
1 cup of mixed veggies 4g

snack 2
non fat plain greek yogurt 20
beef jerky 11g / tuna 24g

dinner
2 chicken breasts 46g
1 cup white rice 4g
1 cup of mixed veggies 4g

total around 260g of protein with no powder
and in order to help being less busy through out the week and worrying about cooking the food
pick a day that you are off and meal prep lunch and dinner for the week so thats about 14 meals and do that every week[/QUOTE]

"eat more whole foods".

Egg whites and skimmed milk...

Eat the damn yolk

Go*gle protein sources. You’ll see stuff listed that you may not have thought of such as Edamame and various fish.

Pretty sure OP figured this out 9-ish years ago, when this thread was created