Are You Eating Enough Protein for Your Body Weight?

Protein intake is always somewhat debated. The Australian RDI was set at 0.8g per kg of bodyweight for a sedentary older population. There’s a general consensus as well as recommendations from ISSN that between 1.2g to 3.3g per kg of bodyweight is acceptable. Of course, the answer as always is, “it depends on who I am dealing with”.

Now if you are not counting calories and just starting out, use the palm of your hand as a serve size. If you are counting calories, then some guidelines: generally for women, the range I use is around 1.5 to 2.2g and for men 1.5g to 3.3g. It can look like anything from 75g protein for a 50kg female through to a 100kg male at 330g protein per day.

Things I take into consideration: how much protein were you eating before you came to me, what’s your sport, your activity level, your build, any previous history of diets and what they looked like, how you have felt, hunger levels, and whether you crash in the afternoon, just to name a few.

Now for example, if you are someone that might only be eating say 1-2 eggs a day, maybe a little bit of chicken at night, then trying to increase your protein intake to 2-3 times that, this can at times cause a belly ache. So, this is why I say it depends on the person, and I generally try to give someone time to adapt to their new normal.

Primary sources of protein: Chicken (chicken thigh is my favourite as it’s higher in protein than the other cuts, cooks the best and reheats well too), eggs, egg whites, lean red meat (i.e. 96% mince), lamb backstrap, porterhouse steak, fish (i.e. salmon, tuna, or other deep sea fish is always the preference), Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese and whey or pea protein.

I always advocate to try and eat as much of your food as possible, but when it comes to protein this isn’t always possible to start with. Smoothies are a super easy way to help reach your target.

One of my own favourite recipes and tummy friendly:

• 1 scoop CMBT Protein
• 1 banana
• 250ml Vitasoy unsweetened almond milk
• 100g Gippsland yoghurt or Fitpro yoghurt
• handful of ice

This is a great post workout smoothie.

Find our delicious wholefoods protein powder RELOAD here.

There are so many amazing recipes, so your food or smoothies do not need to be boring or tasteless.

Keep up with Michelle on Instagram @michellereeves.com.au and check out her website https://michellereeves.com.au/.