Protein: How much should you be having?
Watch here: https://youtu.be/CnT3IYU1ysY
Since I talked about working out last week I felt it was necessary to cover some protein basics and how much you should be getting. My best friend and I recently had a conversation about how she was feeling so tired and realized she hadn’t been getting enough protein, and that led me to realize the same. When I used to take Absorb Plus to manage my Crohn’s, that provided enough protein for me everyday, but since going off a liquid diet and now working out multiple times a week, I hadn’t scaled up my protein intake adequately, leading to fatigue.
If you’re looking for a good resource on nutrition basics, I love following Dr. James DiNicolantonio on Instagram. His handle is drjamesdinic, which I’ll leave below.
Dr. James suggests 1g of protein per pound of body weight per day, or 30-50g per meal. For reference, one 8oz serving of chicken is about 70g of protein. 8oz of 93/7 lean ground turkey is about 40g. 2 eggs is about 10g. Greek yogurt is about 20g per serving. Please always check your ingredients. If your meat or yogurt has added ingredients, especially any kind of sugar, it’s not worth it. Grass fed and finished beef, pasture raised chickens and plain greek yogurt is best. I love adding in local honey or maple syrup to make my yogurt a little sweeter, as I definitely have a sweet tooth.
Now, your first thought when I said protein might’ve been protein powder. And I love talking about this because it’s so important to know that not all protein powders are made the same. So many have horrible ingredients that make you gain weight, feel sluggish and sick, can damage your kidneys and worse. Unfortunately, a lot of the good protein powders are more expensive, as you can imagine. I have learned, however, that I can fuel myself with food first, and then use a protein powder as a supplement – which it is. Protein powder and drinks shouldn’t be a staple. They’re not meant to replace full meals, although if it’s the difference between you eating and not eating, obviously make sure you’re getting nutrition! But only you can know what you have time for. Just please make sure to check ingredients. Look for coupons – my favorite brands: Owyn, Aloha, and Ancient Nutrition always have coupons and discounts and if you subscribe to their products, you can space out when you get them and how much and receive a discount and free shipping, which in my opinion makes it totally worth it.
Assignment
I personally don’t track what I eat because I have a tendency to overthink things. While I haven’t had a negative relationship with my body weight, and have been fortunate to have a fast metabolism, tracking doesn’t feel right for me because of how much my day to day changes with Crohn’s. However, I did track for a week in the past to get an idea of what I was eating. I also like to track only protein or only sugar to check in with myself. Keeping a piece of paper on your fridge or in your kitchen and jotting down how much protein you’re eating can be a good check in. I hope this has been helpful! Let me know in the comments or leave a review if you’re on the podcast – thank you for being here!
Show Notes
- www.instagram.com/drjamesdinic
- My favorite protein powders: Aloha, Owyn, Ancient Nutrition
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