How much protein is ok to eat in a day

[Tami F]

A doctor told my friend that over 80 grams of protein a day could hurt your kidneys.  I'm assuming he's not correct, but would like to see some info on this.

[Tom Denham]

People with kidney disease may need to restrict protein intake, but as long as you are eating real, whole foods, you will get sick of protein and stop eating it before you get nearly enough to cause harm. 

 

The standard around here is to include a serving of protein as big as the palm of your hand at three meals per day. Some people have palms that would lead to eating less than 80 grams and some would eat more. The reason we use the palm as a portion-sizer is that one size does not fit all. Bigger people need more protein and smaller people need less.

[MrsStick]

As long as you balance your protein out with veggies/fat, you should be fine. My Father in Law has gout from doing the Atkins diet and eating too much meat, but they never made enough veggies with any meal (in my opinion) to balance out his not eating bread. He was eating the same amount of meat but didn't add anything in to replace the bread so the protein proportion went up (does that make sense?). That's why I don't like Atkins - by limiting ALL carbs instead of just grains, you end up with people afraid to eat veggies and, therefore, just eating meat. Which causes problems. Sustainability is not in counting grams of carbohydrates. It's finding a way that you can eat without weighing, measuring, and counting.

 

If you're eating by the Whole30 standards with protein as 1-2 palms and an entire plate of veggies to balance it out, you should be fine.

[Vian]

I have heard estimates ranging from 0.7-2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. So I weigh about 200 pounds, that would be 140-400 grams. I usually get about 100-130 grams a day though. I love meat, but I don't like to stuff myself with it (says the girl going to the Brazillian churrascaria for lunch today) and I always eat a ton of veggies with it.

[James Murphy]

As Tom mentioned above, it is very difficult to eat protein to the point of being harmful to your kidneys (drinking it may be another story).  Consuming protein from whole foods is going to send a lot of signals to your brain that stop you from over-eating these foods.

 

It's pretty often that you'll hear that consuming too much protein will damage your kidneys, though.

 

The reason that people say this, is because when we metabolize proteins for energy, or convert it into glucose (both of which happen when we take in more than we need for protein synthesis) the release of nitrogen from the amino acids will occur.  Nitrogen will be converted to ammonia (toxic!) but then disposed of as a safe molecule, urea.  

 

In the absence of a kidney disease, we are able to convert quite a lot of ammonia into urea, which means that the toxic ammonia we get from protein metabolism is something a normal person can easily dispose of.  However, consuming more than 200-250 grams of protein regularly (obviously this number will vary from person to person) can potentially overload the enzymes needed to convert ammonia to urea, and can cause issues related to ammonia toxicity.  But good luck reaching that amount of protein through food!

 

The larger you are, and the more muscle mass you have, the greater your requirement for protein synthesis -- and therefore the larger amount you will need to consume before you will start to metabolize it for energy.  This is why using the palm-size measurement is a safe guideline for personalizing protein intake that is unlikely to harm your kidneys.

[ArcheoGator]

I read Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution a while ago. He is so much more strict than Whole30. In that book, he goes into detail about the misconception of kidney damage via protein. From what I remember, Robb Wolf addresses it as well.

 

As a diabetic, I figure the high glucose from high sugar carbs will lead me to dialysis; not my steak and fish.

 

In the meantime, I enjoy my protein; I am happy that I have large hands.