As a Personal Trainer, I often get asked these questions: Why didn't anyone else tell me that protein is so important? Why is protein so important? I’ve been told that too much protein is dangerous for me, how much is too much? Protein is crucial for many reasons and people who don't have the relevant nutritional knowledge will not know about the many benefits of protein. So I'm going to open with this quote from Kevin Coyne of Muscle Tech South Africa: "Protein is without a doubt one of the most important aspects of a balanced nutrition approach and attaining your goal physique. You can spend hours training to achieve a leaner toned body, use every supplement on the shelf or be as inventive with your nutrition as possible, but the truth is that without the inclusion of the correct amts of protein in your diet, you are simply going nowhere!"Okay, to put your mind at rest and without getting too technical, let’s look at a few reasons why we need “good” quality protein and adequate protein intake: Our body is made up of trillions of cells, these cells need food and most of their food comes from various protein sources. So to keep our cells healthy and rejunevated we need to feed them enough protein. Healthy cells equals a healthy, energetic, strong body with a good immune system. Protein is also needed to build muscle, tone and loose fat %. But you say, I don't want to become a bodybuilder and bulk up, don't stress the chances of that is very, very unlikely, espeically for females . However in order to tone up, muscle needs to be developed. Our muscles consist of millions of muscle fibres and essentially these muscle fibres are made up of protein. Protein is found in your bones, muscles, skin, enzymes, organs and blood.The higher our muscle % is vs our fat %, the more calories we will burn (muscle helps to burn calories), the faster our metabolism will run and thus result in a reduction of fat % loss. We know from the above points that protein is needed to build musle. This is a winning scenario to your weight loss or muscle building success. Think about this, if you owned a construction site, you could have all the equipment, workers and cash that you needed, but without the cement (as like unto protein) you need to bring it all together, you're not going to be building much...WHY IS “GOOD QUALITY” PROTEIN SO IMPORTANT?I’ve been told that too much protein is dangerous for me, how much is too much?So the big question would be is, how much protein is too much? High protein diets are generally well tolerated by healthy individuals and the only concern comes in for people who have a liver or kidney disease. Each person will need different amounts of protein depending on whether they are male or female, depending on their weight, height, body fat % vs lean body mass % etc. A body analysis test will help you to determine all this information and how much protein you should consume daily. As a Personal Trainer, I offer this service to my clients. So if you don’t have the opportunity to have a test conducted, then work on the basis of consuming approximately 20 g’s of protein at each snack/meal. So eating 5-6 small meals/snacks per day, you would therefore consume approximately 100-120 g’s of protein per day. The RDA of protein for “sedentary” individuals, according to the U.S. government standards, is 0.8 g’s per kg of body weight (this is conservative). Since I’m addressing those people who exercise regularly, your daily protein intake will be higher. For people who exercise regularly and for bodybuilders. The range goes from approximately 1.2 g’s -2 g’s of protein per kg of body weight. Consuming in excess of 2 g’s of protein per kg of body weight is not supported and researched, so this would be the answer to the question made here, how much protein is dangerous. If you are healthy and stay below 2 g’s per kg of body weight, protein should be your friend and not your enemy.
As a Personal Trainer, I often get asked these questions: Why didn't anyone else tell me that protein is so important? Why is protein so important?
I’ve been told that too much protein is dangerous for me, how much is too much?
Protein is crucial for many reasons and people who don't have the relevant nutritional knowledge will not know about the many benefits of protein.
So I'm going to open with this quote from Kevin Coyne of Muscle Tech South Africa:
"Protein is without a doubt one of the most important aspects of a balanced nutrition approach and attaining your goal physique. You can spend
hours training to achieve a leaner toned body, use every supplement on the shelf or be as inventive with your nutrition as possible, but the truth is
that without the inclusion of the correct amts of protein in your diet, you are simply going nowhere!"
Okay, to put your mind at rest and without getting too technical, let’s look at a few reasons why we need “good” quality
protein and adequate protein intake:
Our body is made up of trillions of cells, these cells need food and most of their food comes from various protein sources. So
to keep our cells healthy and rejunevated we need to feed them enough protein. Healthy cells equals a healthy, energetic,
strong body with a good immune system.
Protein is also needed to build muscle, tone and loose fat %. But you say, I don't want to become a bodybuilder and bulk up,
don't stress the chances of that is very, very unlikely, espeically for females . However in order to tone up, muscle needs to be
developed. Our muscles consist of millions of muscle fibres and essentially these muscle fibres are made up of protein.
Protein is found in your bones, muscles, skin, enzymes, organs and blood.
The higher our muscle % is vs our fat %, the more calories we will burn (muscle helps to burn calories), the faster our metabolism
will run and thus result in a reduction of fat % loss. We know from the above points that protein is needed to build musle. This is a
winning scenario to your weight loss or muscle building success.
Think about this, if you owned a construction site, you could have all the equipment, workers and cash that you needed, but
without the cement (as like unto protein) you need to bring it all together, you're not going to be building much...
WHY IS “GOOD QUALITY” PROTEIN SO IMPORTANT?
I’ve been told that too much protein is dangerous for me, how much is too much?
So the big question would be is, how much protein is too much? High protein diets are generally well tolerated by healthy
individuals and the only concern comes in for people who have a liver or kidney disease. Each person will need different
amounts of protein depending on whether they are male or female, depending on their weight, height, body fat % vs lean
body mass % etc. A body analysis test will help you to determine all this information and how much protein you should
consume daily. As a Personal Trainer, I offer this service to my clients. So if you don’t have the opportunity to have a test conducted, then
work on the basis of consuming approximately 20 g’s of protein at each snack/meal. So eating 5-6 small meals/snacks per day, you would
therefore consume approximately 100-120 g’s of protein per day. The RDA of protein for “sedentary” individuals, according to the U.S.
government standards, is 0.8 g’s per kg of body weight (this is conservative). Since I’m addressing those people who exercise regularly,
your daily protein intake will be higher. For people who exercise regularly and for bodybuilders. The range goes from approximately 1.2 g’s -
2 g’s of protein per kg of body weight. Consuming in excess of 2 g’s of protein per kg of body weight is not supported and researched, so
this would be the answer to the question made here, how much protein is dangerous. If you are healthy and stay below 2 g’s per kg of body
weight, protein should be your friend and not your enemy.
