Are You Getting the Right Amount of Protein?

Jason Marr, BSeH, ND for Genuine Health • May 1, 2018

Getting the right amount of protein can benefit you in so many ways. From increasing your metabolism, helping you maintain a lean physique, building immunity and even helping you to feel fuller for longer, protein can help you reach your fitness goals faster and love how you feel every day.

So how much protein do you need? The Canadian Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) recommends 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. According to this calculation, the average sedentary woman requires 46 grams of protein per day, while the average sedentary man requires 56 grams.

However, daily reference guides only provide the bare minimum amount of a nutrient required to avoid deficiency. In order to thrive every day, you need more protein!

I tend to recommend more protein to my patients. For most people who have a job, walk around a little bit and use their brain at all during the day though, I generally recommend about 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, and that increases with physical activity and stress, too; both of which burn more protein.

Your Ideal Protein Amount
Find your activity level on the list below and grab a calculator to find your ideal amount of protein.
• Sedentary: 0.8g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per
day
• Average: 1.0g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day
• Active: 1.25g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day
• Athlete: 1.5g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day
• Maximum: 1.7g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day
Note: divide your weight in pounds by 2.21 to get your weight in kilograms.

Getting Quality Protein
This amount can be hard to get for a lot of people. Protein foods can be delicious, but fall in line with a law of diminishing returns: the more you eat, the less enjoyable it becomes (we’ve all seen that scene in The Great Outdoors where John Candy attempts to eat the great 96-er – and no, that’s not 96 grams, it’s 96 ounces, which is 2,700 grams of protein).

That’s why people use protein supplements – to make it convenient to fill in gaps with high quality, usable protein sources.

Make Protein Easy
Our fermented vegan proteins+ and fermented Greek yogurt proteins+ make it easy to get your optimal levels of protein.
• One serving of fermented vegan proteins+ provides 15 grams of usable protein from 7 fully-fermented plant-based protein sources of quinoa sprouts, spirulina, pea, alfalfa, hemp, mung beans and brown rice.
• One serving of fermented Greek yogurt proteins+ provides 20 grams of usable protein from fully fermented, grass-fed California dairy.
• On-the-go fermented vegan proteins+ bars, available in 4 delicious vegan flavors and 4 delicious fermented Greek yogurt proteins+ bar flavors, provide 15 grams of protein.

Plus, fermenting proteins makes them more bioavailable: fermentation increases the bioavailability of vegan proteins by 40% and dairy proteins by 25%!

Jason Marr graduated from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM), in Toronto, ON, and is the founder, owner and director of Evoke Integrative Medicine. He works exclusively with urban professionals, arming them with evidence- and science-informed, integrative tools to overcome fatigue, anxiety and burnout while maximizing performance, productivity and resilience in everyday life – enabling the ability to thrive in the face of stress.

Sources:
Arentson-Lantz E, Clairmont S, Paddon-Jones D, Tremblay A, Elango R. Protein: A nutrient in focus. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2015 Aug;
40(8):755-61.
Elango R, Ball RO, Pencharz PB. Recent advances in determining protein and amino acid requirements in humans. Br J Nutr. 2012 Aug;
108 Suppl 2:S22-30.
Stephens TV, Payne M, Ball RO, Pencharz PB, Elango R. Protein requirements of healthy pregnant women during early and late gestation are higher than current recommendations.

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