I need something sweet…
…famous last words before digging into a bowl of ice cream while watching the 10 o’clock news. Our bodies can be tricky and a craving for sweets often masks the body’s need for protein. Instead of ice cream for that late night snack, how about a bowl of low fat cottage cheese mixed with berries?
So, how much protein do we really need in a day? According to the RDA, we need .8g/kg of body weight or approximately 30% of our calories from protein. Most fitness professionals will agree that this number is fine for the average couch potato but once you decide to get up and move you will need to add more protein to your day. A more acceptable range for those of us who make the effort to work out most days of the week would be more like 1.2-2.2 g/kg of body weight. This is a fairly large range and where you fall in this range depends on several factors including the following. Are you male or female? How old are you? What type of training are you doing? Do you have any health conditions that affect the way your body uses and breaks down protein?
Just like everything else we put into our bodies, it is important to ensure that you do not take in too much or too little protein. Over or under ingesting protein can cause many different problems from something as simple as feeling a bit run down to something as serious as calcium and bone loss. It is important to talk to your trainer about your current diet and what you can do to improve the way that you are eating to ensure the best possible results while training. We can help you find ways to add more protein to your diet and make certain that you are getting complete proteins or combining the appropriate protein sources to make complete proteins throughout the day.
Ditch the ice cream and we might even let you add a touch of maple syrup to your cottage cheese and berry mixture!