ELIMINATE - GEAR 4

Too Much Protein!

     How much is enough, and what does that look like on your plate?

     While protein is necessary we often eat too much of it which can keep us out of the zone where we need to be in order to get the most benefit for our health. Too much protein can be taxing on the organs of your body and can be much more harmful than beneficial! Excess protein is not stored but can be converted to glucose and then stored as fat.  We want to eliminate any excess protein in our daily intake.

That means we really don’t need extra protein from bars, drinks, smoothies, shakes, etc. Just eat real food and don’t spend your money on these excess calories that have too much sugar and protein!

Unless you are a young athlete trying to pack on massive muscle, you only need a moderate amount of protein to supply your body with what it needs which is 40-70 grams for a female and 60-100 grams for a male. These numbers depend on your frame size, age, and your activity level. That's not really very much compared to the (SAD) Standard American Diet.

What this looks like, for example:

     A (4 oz) serving of chicken, beef, or fish is about the size of a deck of playing cards, (as shown below) and has between 25-30 grams of protein in that 4 ounces. If you have that protein on a salad, or have that protein with a side of veggies, and then you add (1 oz) of cheese, you would add another 7 grams of protein, from the cheese. Or let’s say that you add (1 oz) of seeds or nuts, you could have an additional 3-8 grams of protein, depending on the type of seeds or nuts. If you eat two meals a day, similar to this, you would double these numbers to account for both meals.

    You could total approximately 40-45 grams of protein per meal!! Taking two meals into consideration, you could easily end up with 80-90 grams of protein in a day.  In this scenario you could have over your amount of recommended, moderate protein. So for you ladies, you may not want to have that much protein with both meals.

    The illustrations below can be a good guideline for what 4 oz of protein might look like.

Each illustration would be approximately 30 grams of protein.

Not including the deck of cards!