Serving size - Paleo friends

[kate_ce1995]

For those of you eating higher protien diets, and/or paleo diets (which I haven't read as much about as you all...just what you post here), how much meat do you eat in a sitting? What do you consider a serving size?

I do eat a fairly low carb diet for dinners in particular, but I know the steak sizes are probably too big. And as I'm trying to get control of my weight, I'm trying to figure out how to cut back. We usually do have rice with dinner, but those new microwavable precooked rice packs are about right for the two of us.

Katy

[mle_ii]

I usually try to shoot for around 1 g protein per lb of lean body mass.

In the end I usually end up consuming 33% protein, 33% carbs, and 33% fat per calories when maintaining my weight.

[Lucy]

Katy,

I once heard that the body really doesn't benefit from more than 4 oz of meat at a time, so what I would do would be to save the rest (like maybe an oz) for another small feeding or between-meal-snack. I know that I felt MUCH better when doing this, partly because I was making up for it by eating large amounts of well cooked veggie mixtures.

4 OZ may be more of an average, so we ladies could probably do with 3 oz for one meal, and perhaps 2 for the other meals. This is why the "one pot recipes" are so wonderful, like stews for instance, and you know how it helps to make enough of that for leftovers -- a real time saver, and it's so cost effective, too. I think stews are such a great comfort food, especially on a cool fall or cold winter day. YumE!

Yours, Luce

[artteacher]

I would TOTALLY recommend getting "the Protein Power Diet" by Eades. It will give you the exact formula to calculate how much protein you should eat based on your height, weight, bone structure, and activity level. It isn't just a weight loss book. I'm 5'2, 110 lbs, very small bone structure and inactive-active, and should eat roughly 15 grams 4 times a day to maintain my muscle mass.

Love, Marsha

[Lucy]

Marsha,

I'm sure that that 15 g isn't all meat, but for our purposes, how many oz of meat would 15 grams amount to?

By the way, did that author say what percentage of the protein should be gotten from meat, fowl, fish, etc.?

Is this what would fall under the heading of a high protein diet?

Yours, Luce

[tex]

Apparently that's not a high protein diet, since 15 grams is only half an ounce, (0.525 oz. to be more specific). That seems rather low.

Tex

[mle_ii]

I usually try to shoot for around 1 g protein per lb of lean body mass.

In the end I usually end up consuming 33% protein, 33% carbs, and 33% fat per calories when maintaining my weight.

And just to be clear I mean protein per day and not per meal.

So for example it would be 135 g or so of protein per day, so about 44 g per meal. Though I'm weight lifting so if I weren't lifting weights and just maintaining my muscle mass I'd probably shoot for around .75 g per lb. So that'd be around 100 g protein or 33 g per meal. Which equals about 4 oz of boneless chicken breast cooked.

[artteacher]

Hi,

A 8 oz glass of milk is 8g of protein, one piece of bread is 2, 1 slice bacon is 2, one egg is 6g, and I think a piece of meat the size of a deck of cards is 10? Mike, do you remember?

Much of your required protein intake depends on your muscle mass, and your state of activity. When I was pregnant I started out at only 95 lbs, and was concerned about having a healthy baby, so I ate 20 grams of protein at each meal (which was pretty much 6 times a day). I gained 30 pounds each time and am proud to say I had babies that weighed 7lb8oz, 8lb, and 9lb. About the last one, my doctor said he had never seen such a big baby come out of such skinny person. (I'm assuming he meant skinny in the nicest possible way) And of course I didn't eat just protein: if you did you would lose weight and have terrible muscle cramps, and other problems. You know . .

Anyway, weight lifters and bodybuilders are the best resources MIKE HELP, but I'd be glad to help any way I can. KAREN TOO.

Love, Marsha

[mle_ii]

Hi,

A 8 oz glass of milk is 8g of protein, one piece of bread is 2, 1 slice bacon is 2, one egg is 6g, and I think a piece of meat the size of a deck of cards is 10? Mike, do you remember?

Much of your required protein intake depends on your muscle mass, and your state of activity. When I was pregnant I started out at only 95 lbs, and was concerned about having a healthy baby, so I ate 20 grams of protein at each meal (which was pretty much 6 times a day). I gained 30 pounds each time and am proud to say I had babies that weighed 7lb8oz, 8lb, and 9lb. About the last one, my doctor said he had never seen such a big baby come out of such skinny person. (I'm assuming he meant skinny in the nicest possible way) And of course I didn't eat just protein: if you did you would lose weight and have terrible muscle cramps, and other problems. You know . .

Anyway, weight lifters and bodybuilders are the best resources MIKE HELP, but I'd be glad to help any way I can. KAREN TOO.

Love, Marsha

Hi Marsha, I thought a deck of cards was around 4 oz, and that seems about right thinking about when I was weighing my food for when I was lifting. So about 33 g or so of protein. Aha, and I found this via google "A serving of meat is 3 to 4 ounces or about the size of a deck of cards".

And yes, definitly eat more than just protein. I usually feel best at around 33% for each of the macros. But it varies when I'm just maintaining vs when I'm trying to build muscle. So if you're not lifting or exercising intensely I'd say that 1 g per lb of lean mass is excessive and shoot for at most .75 g per lb of lean body mass.

So let's say you weigh 100 lbs and are 20% bf. That means you have 80 lbs of lean body mass. So if you were lifting that would mean 80 g of protein, if you are just maintaining your muscle mass then 60 g of protien would be adequate. 80 g would be about 9 oz chicken breast and 60 g would be about 7 oz chicken breast cooked. But remember there are other sources of protein in your diet besides meat.

Mike

Mike

[Lucy]

I'm sure that Marsha's book spells all of this out, but there are huge differences in metabolism, fat stores, and muscle mass, women vs. men. Then, when we get older (ah hmm) the muscle mass becomes a much smaller proportion of our body mass.

You guys burn up more calories sleeping than we women do doing hard labor. Who said life was fair, right ladies?

Still, it sure does make it difficult to compare notes sometimes, doesn't it?

I find that to have room and appetite enough to get in all the other sources of nutrients, particularly all the fruits and vegetables, that I need to eat less of the safe grain carbs and meats than are typically served at restaurants, so this means that I do much better eating at home in this respect, with the possible exception of eating at Chang's and one local Chinese restaurant that's been particularly helpful and trustworthy.

I can see how one would need to get calories and protein however they could when in the throws of active M.C. disease, however, but this is what I've discovered from working up to these foods after healing a bit. Some people may have trouble for years with some of the fruits and vegetables, I'm pretty sure.

Last night I found a site with all kinds of recipes that even we MI's could eat, and a few that would just need minor adjustments.

Yours, Luce

[mle_ii]

With regards to Women vs Men and protein, muscle mass is muscle mass. A womans muscle mass needs as much protein as a mans, that's why you should use lean body mass as an indicator for protein and not body weight, age, sex, or height. Go below what the body requires for protein and you will indeed lose mucle mass, gain more fat with the same calories and lose strength. Problably even lower than .75 g per lb of lean body mass might be ok, but I wouldn't go much lower than .6 g per lb of lean body mass as most studies seem to point to somewhere around this as benefitial and lower or much higher is not. Too much protein, like say greater than 1.5 g per lb of lean body mass is eliminated by the body and thus can increase the load on the kidney. Lower than .6 you end up catabolizing your muscle mass for other body requirements (injury repair, muscle building, etc).

Unfortuneatly most folks seem to think of weight as the indicator of health and not lean body mass. So folks go about losing weight and not losing fat. This leads in to other problems down the road.

For calories, indeed Men burn more than Woman, for calories a different multiplier for weight gain/loss/maintainence would be more accurate. In fact I find my body needs fewer calories to maintain body mass than most men, not sure why, could be thyroid (though it's been checked) or some other reason.

[Lucy]

Mike,

There's some great information in here. I wish we could have the method of calculating our lean body mass somewhere prominent in the site, so that newbies could easily find it. Meantime, would you like to explain it in a new post in the General Message room?

Yours, Luce

[harvest_table]

I heard an interview this morning on the today show about protein intakes...here is the article.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14563169/

Based on these calculations, I eat much more protein than I need.

Love,
Joanna

[mle_ii]

Mike,

There's some great information in here. I wish we could have the method of calculating our lean body mass somewhere prominent in the site, so that newbies could easily find it. Meantime, would you like to explain it in a new post in the General Message room?

Yours, Luce

Hi Luce,

I wish this were easy to answer. Any method, well besides an autopsy (sp) is just an estimate and I'm sure most here wouldn't want an autopsy. LOL ;) The method that I use is by using calipers, which most gyms can do for you. Seems the most accurate for me. Most other methods are either expensive (and not worth the expense) or not a very accurate method. Body impedence seems the most common, but isn't very accurate, though it might be good enough for the purposes of this.

I'll see if I can dig up more tomorrow.

Thanks,
Mike

[mle_ii]

I heard an interview this morning on the today show about protein intakes...here is the article.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14563169/

Based on these calculations, I eat much more protein than I need.

Love,
Joanna

Yikes! I wouldn't go with those numbers at all. I'm guessing those are food pyramid like numbers and I SOOOOO Love the food pyramid. NOT! ;) Taking their numbers let's just guess at where the rest of the calories come from. I'm guessing that they'd say max of 25% from fat (they did say low fat/lean protein), but I'm betting that'd be too high for them, but I'll just use it. If you think it'd be more let me know and I'll recalculate. We have 10% from protein. And that leaves 65% from carbs. Seems like more carbs then nessary.

So let's use the 120 lb 2000 calorie eating person. (I'm betting most 120 lb women couldn't eat 2000 calories and NOT gain weight though.) We end up with 50 g protein (6 oz of or 1.5 peices of chicken breasts), 55 g fat (about 4 tbsp olive oil) and 325 g of carbs (7.5 cups of rice, or 7 cups sweet potatoes or 10 bananas). Talk about carb overload!

So let's use my numbers and say the person is a 120 lb woman with the average body fat of 20% or 96 lbs lean. So that means anywhere from say 60 g protein at the low end to 96 g for the woman lifting weights. Let's use the .75 per lb figure for this exercise. That's 72 g protein or 288 calories or almost 15% protein by calories. And I'll bump the fat up to a generous 33%, so 660 calories or 73 g of fat. That leaves 1050 calories, or 237 g carbs or 53% of calories. Which means about 8 oz chicken breast (2 chicken breasts), 5.5 tbsp olive oil and 5.5 cups of rice or 7.5 bananas or 5 cups of sweetpotatoes.

The last looks more paleo to me unless the cavewoman came across a bees nest and ate the honey. :)

Mike