Personal Daily Protein Intake

Image from: www.cheapproteinpowder.org/

    There’s a lot of debate about this subject. How much protein should I be ingesting, relative to my goals? There’s the old, “1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight”. This is a good staple, but why generalize and why only determine protein? In a few steps you can determine all of your macronutrient requirements (macrowhat?).

What are macro-nutrients?
    A substance required by living organisms (you) in large amounts to survive - fats, carbohydrates, and protein. These are all sources of our energy (along with other purposes).
Basic purposes for:

Fat, 9 calories per gram - high concentration of energy, fat-soluble vitamin transfer, promote healthy hair and skin, and support for organs.
Carbohydrate, 4 calories per gram - ready source of energy, helps brain function, leads to amino acid delivery (insulin delivery).
Protein, 4 calories per gram - build and repair muscle, tendon and ligaments, and creating enzymes. Proteins are made up of amino acids (like the supplement you may take).

Now that the basics are covered, you can easily figure out why the food we eat has the number of
calories it does. Take a protein shake for example (I’m currently using Six Star Elite Series: 26 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat, and 8 grams of carbs).

(26 grams x 4cal) + (2 grams x 9cal) + (8 grams x 4cal) = 154cal

Although the calories are on the nutritional information, my main goal was to show you how things get the quantity of calories. So now you can determine how many calories things have based on their composition.

Now to start figuring out our own macro-nutrient requirements.

1) Determining daily needs (Macro-nutrient Split).

Think of your daily eating as a full 100%. Your macro-nutrient split should divide your 100% to be based around your goals (example 50% Carbohydrates, 30% Protein, and 20% Fats).
Always check with your physician about your needs, but there are some general guidelines for someone like a bodybuilder. A bulking bodybuilder’s macro split might look like this:

Protein - 40%
Carbs - 40%
Fats - 20%

2) Get BMR
From the above and using BMR, we know how much of our macro-nutrients we need to eat every day. If you aren’t familiar with BMR, check out my article and determine your own:
http://t-y-blog.blogspot.com/2011/12/be-more-responsible-bmr.html
   
So, my BMR is 3700cal. My split is 40% protein / 40% carbs / 20% fats.

3) Divide your calories to show the daily intake of each macro-nutrient

(example below of protein),
3700cal x 40% or 3700cal x 0.4 = 1480 Calories from protein,

4) Convert calories to grams

Since protein is 4 calories per gram,
 1480cal / 4 grams per cal (protein) = 370 grams of protein per day.

Do the same for the other 2 macro-nutrients and you can determine what to eat and how much each day. You might be thinking, why do I need this when there are automatic calculators out there? Well, I believe it’s better to know how it is derived, so the proof is in front of your own eyes. Is the 1.5 grams per pound rule correct? As shown in my calculations, I actually require more. So figure out your own and take control of your macro-nutrients.
Knowledge is power and knowing how to do little things like this will help in building a foundation in your training.

Feel free to email or comment.


Ty Pritchard
CanFit Pro Personal Training Specialist
tylerrpritchard@gmail.com