[littlegg]

How much protein is recimmended for a 50 yr old women daily?

[TexasMommy]

The average "Active" person requires about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. Bodybuilders take in 1.5 to 3 times that amount. While a non-active elderly person might only need half that amount.

[blues4miles]

Wow 1g per lb? That seems high...I think the RDA is somewhere around 50g a day (don't know about age factor). Since upping mine I've been around 80 on a good day. However, I pay more attention to the % of my calories rather than the gram amount. I know some of the ladies on here aim for over 100, but I still think 1g per lb is a bit high...for those of us counting calories and eating less than 2000 calories a day usually I think it would be difficult for us to take in that much. Maybe start with trying to get in 50g a day, and then work on it from there, just my thoughts.

[srmb60]

I think the higher ranges are prefered for fitness moreso than weight loss goals. Miles is right that you'd have to work pretty hard to get 125 gms of protein into a 1200 cal diet. It can be done.

[christineu]

1 gram per pound is way off- it more like .5 grams per pound if you want a rough estimate, but that would be the high end. If you want to get more exact, I have the notes from the dietitian I saw & she used 0.8-1.0grams protein per kilogram of adjusted body weight (goal weight). In my case, my goal weight is around 180ish for now (will decide final goal when I get there), so my adjusted weight in kg is 82 (180/2.2). Multiple 82 by .8 & 1 and you get the 66-83 grams protein she recommended per day for me.

If you want an easier way, multiply your weight in pounds by 0.37 & 0.47- that gave me the same numbers...just remember you need to base it on your goal weight, because if you use your current weight, it would be hard to get that much protein in if you are restricting your calories significantly.

Another way to calculate protein requirements is by percentage of total calories- the recommendations they gave me were for 16%-20% of my calories coming from protein. Protein has 4 calories per gram, so if you are at 1400 calories per day, you would need 56- 70 grams protein per day

1400 x 0.16 = 224 calories from protein ---> 224/4 = 56 grams protein
1400 x 0.20 = 280 calories from protein ---> 280/4 = 70 grams protein

This is a lot higher then the 10% RDA of 50grams for a 2000 calorie diet- I would say that is the bare minimum you need to survive.
(If you can't tell, I like math )

For figuring out how many calories, the dietitian used 20 calories per kilogram adjusted (goal) weight- putting me at 1700 calories per day. If you don't want to convert to kg, multiple weight (or in this case, goal weight) by 0.95

And just another note on protein- be careful about getting too much at once, as our kidneys can only process so much at a time. You should really spread your protein evenly throughout your day & try not to eat more then 15-20 grams at a time (less if you don't have healthy kidneys).