Most North Americans get enough protein.
Or so I thought….
You see, I assumed I was a “typical” North American, getting way, way more protein that I truly need.
But, after tracking just a short few days on MyFitnessPal, I found I wasn’t!
Protein is essential for your body to function optimally. Proteins are part of every cell in your body!
Proteins, what they’re made of, amino acids are needed to:
- build and repair muscle, tissue, skin, nails and hair
- build hormones and enzymes
- made red blood cells
How much protein you need depends on a number of factors:
- Your age
- Your gender
- How much you workout (and what type of working out you do)
- If you’re trying to lose or gain weight
The people with the highest protein needs are:
- People consuming too few calories. When calorie intake is low, protein is burned for energy. The body converts amino acids from protein into glucose to be used for energy. When the protein is used for energy, it cannot do it’s main job: build and repair muscles!
- Untrained people starting an exercise program
- Growing teenage athletes
- Endurance athletes
When calorie intake is low, protein is burned for energy. When the protein is used for energy, it can’t do it’s main job: build and repair muscles!
But even adults who exercise most days and adults building muscle mass need more than the Recommended Daily Allowance of 0.8 g of protein per kg of body weight per day.
What happens to a lot of people, and what happened in my case, is that eating healthfully and adding resistance training in actually increased the proportion of calories I should have been getting from protein.
Since I wasn’t keeping a close eye on this, I was inadvertently not getting enough of this essential nutrient!
Particular to my case was the fact that I choose almond milk over cow or soy, which is very low in protein – hence the addition of whey protein powder to my chocolate almond milk!
Now I’m on top of my protein needs and happily am getting enough 🙂
Wonder if you’re get enough?
Shoot me an email at hello@aprilsaunders.wpengine.com and I’ll let you know what your protein needs actually are.
Be sure to tell me:
- Your gender
- Your age
- Weight
- Target Weight
- What you do for exercise
Talk soon 🙂
~April
It’s a joy to find someone who can think like that