I track with MFP and I noticed everyday my total protein intake is always in the negative, so I'm assuming that means I consumed too much protein...is this a bad thing?!?! How will it affect my weight loss efforts?

MFP? what's that?

protein is not a bad thing. you almost cannot eat too much if you're calorie-restricted - what you want to track is your carbs and your fat. you can go low-carb OR low-fat, but you can't do both.

MFP= My Fitness Pal

My protein is almost always over. What is the goal they give you and how much do you go over?

i just figured out what mfp was and signed up - i don't like it.

i use sparkpeople - they don't give you hard and fast, they give you ranges to work within.

according to MFP, i'm WAY over my protein - but nuts to them, lol.

in mfp, my daily calories is 1200. with sparkpeople, the range is 1780-2130 (more accurate, actually, as mfp didn't ask the right questions and doesn't allow for customization).

protein in sparkpeople is 60-186 - mfp says 45 and yeah - WAY over, i am, lol.


here's the easy way to do it: figure out the daily calories you want to work with.

multiply that by 30%, then divide the number by 4 - that's how many grams of protein you need per day.

the rest, divide 40/30 - whichever one you want as fat, divide by 9; the carb portion, divide by 4. (you can do 50/20, as well, but i wouldn't recommend 20% fat, really, bec too many of your nutrients need fat to be uptaken).

there ya go - all the grams you need for the day.


PS: i don't follow either calorie range but neither site will let me put in my own.

My daily target is 52 and I always go over by at least 10 and I'm always under my calorie budget! I guess too much protein wont kill me

MFP bases its protein recommendations on the RDA, which is set at .8 grams/kg. At least that's what I recall them basing their recommendation on. That being said, the RDA advice is very antiquated. It's based on decades old research.

Based on better, newer, more advanced research... protein intake should definitely be higher than the RDA's suggestions in my opinion. Especially for individuals who are exercising.

I like MFP... but I wouldn't sweat the fact that you eat more protein than they suggest, assuming you don't have any health contraindications.

okay, found the customize settings in mfp and it just shot to the top of my like list: after a few goings around the block, it let me set my calories/protein/fat/etc to exactly what i want AND gave me a projected weight loss based on it.

that's cool.

You can't have enough protein. Your body will never store excess protein as fat. Only sugar and fat go into fat.

Protein
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritio...ein/index.html

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