I measure and monitor all my nutrition intakes (fat, carbs, sugar, salt, fibre, protein and cals) and together with some meds I am keeping my Type 2 figures under really good control. However, proteins are the one thing that puzzles me - there seems to be much conflicting guidance on the topic so I can’t arrive at a proper daily protein intake figure. On the one hand, NHS guidelines suggest x 0.75 gms per kilo body weight. I’m 70 kg so that would equate to 52.5 gms daily - this feels low and hard to achieve. Elsewhere, recommendations are frequently that between 10% and 35% of your daily calories should comprise protein. If I assume around 20% and I’m taking on 2170 calories daily, then using the gms to calories formula would equate to 109 gms of protein daily; more than double the NHS guide. Why are these so wildly different? (BTW, I average about 97 gms protein daily, tho’ I keep my red meat protein low at around 250 gms per week, so most of my protein comes from fish, dairy, white meat, nuts, seeds, grains etc.). Can anyone help?
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Protein intake - help!
- Thread starter KernowGuy
- Start date
- Status
Hi and welcome to the forum, I am sorry but I can't offer any help regarding intakes, but didn't want to read and not respond. There are some wonderful people on this forum with lots of experience and knowledge, I'm sure someone will be along who can help
Eddy Edson
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
I spent quite a lot of time looking into this question. Briefly, the conclusions I came to:
- A surprising lack of hard of evidence.
- The usual 0.7g - 0.85g/kg (depending on country) guidelines are best seen as kind of minimally adequate levels. You won't get sick eating just this much protein, but more may well be better.
- The most credible seeming experts generally seem to come up with a range of 1.2 g/kg - 1.6 g/kg.
This has a pretty good discussion with a real expert (ie not some Internet grifter):
EDIT: Also this is a good discussion between the researcher from the previous video and a better-known name, Prof Christopher Gardner:
- A surprising lack of hard of evidence.
- The usual 0.7g - 0.85g/kg (depending on country) guidelines are best seen as kind of minimally adequate levels. You won't get sick eating just this much protein, but more may well be better.
- The most credible seeming experts generally seem to come up with a range of 1.2 g/kg - 1.6 g/kg.
This has a pretty good discussion with a real expert (ie not some Internet grifter):
EDIT: Also this is a good discussion between the researcher from the previous video and a better-known name, Prof Christopher Gardner:
Last edited:
Hi Wannie and thanks for responding. I’ve had some really great and consistent feedback which has fully resolved my query and I feel much more comfortable about protein intake now. Really pleased I posted!
Hi Eddie and thanks for investing the time to help me resolve my query. I’ve had some great feedback and encouragingly consistent. It aligns pretty well with a range of 1.6g/kg so that further reinforces the solution. I’ll take a look a the links too. Really pleased I posted - great support network!
Gwynn
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
Its a very good question.
often, quite rightly people concentrate on carbs and cals but all the rest (protein, fibre, fats, saturated fats, cholesterol, sodium, fruit/veg portions) are important too.
I had the surprise of my life when I added vitamin and mineral analysis to the mix. Vitamins seemed generally ok but minerals were a different matter requiring suitable supplementation occasionally and careful adjustment of the daily diet.
Lately I have been also looking into Omega 3 and 6 and their ratio (which turns out to be important)
What I discovered overall was that it is good to see the levels of each aspect is in the right range however, taking some supplements (especially multi vitamins) easily pushed some aspects into 'excess' - zinc being the worst culprit.
It is good to see that I am not the only one on the planet that analyses things in such detail.
Overall I feel great and my diabetes and heart have been good ever since I started the analysis so I recommend it to anyone as an excellent health improver and mental exerciser (cos it can be really hard sometimes to get everything to tick all the boxes).
I couldn't manage now without it all and I hate flying blind too.
Along the way I too have come across a lot of conflicting advice and confusion as different countries have different advice. Worse there is some bad advice out there too so a lot of caution is advised.
often, quite rightly people concentrate on carbs and cals but all the rest (protein, fibre, fats, saturated fats, cholesterol, sodium, fruit/veg portions) are important too.
I had the surprise of my life when I added vitamin and mineral analysis to the mix. Vitamins seemed generally ok but minerals were a different matter requiring suitable supplementation occasionally and careful adjustment of the daily diet.
Lately I have been also looking into Omega 3 and 6 and their ratio (which turns out to be important)
What I discovered overall was that it is good to see the levels of each aspect is in the right range however, taking some supplements (especially multi vitamins) easily pushed some aspects into 'excess' - zinc being the worst culprit.
It is good to see that I am not the only one on the planet that analyses things in such detail.
Overall I feel great and my diabetes and heart have been good ever since I started the analysis so I recommend it to anyone as an excellent health improver and mental exerciser (cos it can be really hard sometimes to get everything to tick all the boxes).
I couldn't manage now without it all and I hate flying blind too.
Along the way I too have come across a lot of conflicting advice and confusion as different countries have different advice. Worse there is some bad advice out there too so a lot of caution is advised.
- Status