How much protein per day I How much protein for weight loss I How much protein should I eat per day
In this instructional vlog, Eric Roberts explains why protein is a crucial macronutrient and how to determine the right daily intake for different goals. He outlines three primary benefits of protein—its high satiety effect, its large thermic effect of food (TEF) that boosts daily calorie burn, and its unique role in building and preserving lean muscle mass. Roberts then provides simple body‑weight‑based formulas (in pounds) for protein targets for weight loss (goal body weight × 0.8‑1 g), weight maintenance (current body weight × 0.8‑1 g), and muscle‑building/weight gain (current body weight × 1‑1.2 g). He emphasizes flexibility, encouraging gradual increases and reassuring viewers that modest shortfalls are fine. The video addresses common concerns: eating above the target is harmless, excessive protein can become restrictive if goals are unrealistically high, and high protein intake does not damage healthy kidneys (unless pre‑existing kidney disease). A client case illustrates how overly aggressive targets can limit food variety, and Roberts suggests modest adjustments. Finally, he points viewers to a separate video with his top five practical ways to add more protein to the diet. The tone is conversational, supportive, and mildly enthusiastic, aiming to educate a general audience about protein nutrition.
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YouTube, what is going on? Welcome back to the channel. Welcome to the video. In this video, we're gonna be covering, hopefully— what? I don't even know what this thing is. It's like a magnet. Hopefully everything protein, everything you need to know about protein is going to get solved in this. Hopefully, if I do a good job, which I think I will, um, there might be one or two questions you have. Who knows, right? All right, that was a bit off. Let's, let's restart this over again. All right. YouTube, what is going on? Welcome back to the channel. Welcome to this video. In this video, we're gonna be covering everything You need to know about protein. We're gonna talk about why is protein important. We're gonna talk about how much you should be eating for muscle building, for weight loss, for just maintaining your weight, for overall health. Then we're gonna dive into some questions about is there too much protein? Is there such a thing? What happens if you eat over your protein goal? What is going on there? Is protein bad for the kidneys? Is it not? You know, can you eat too much protein and have adverse kidney effects? We'll talk about that as well, and then I'm gonna give you the top 5 ways to eat more protein. Because if you are watching this video, you probably can eat more protein in your diet, 'cause it is the most underconsumed macronutrient out there. And macronutrient just means macronutrient, protein, carbs, and fats. Protein is the most underconsumed macronutrient, but it's also the most important macronutrient. We're gonna talk about 3 main reasons why protein is so dang important to start. And number 1, it keeps you the most full. Protein is the most satiating macronutrient. What that means is just it keeps you full. It keeps you satisfied. And let's think about when talking about an overall bigger picture concept, right? If you are more full and you are more satisfied, what are you less likely to do? Snack, sweets, eat more calories, just, you know, consume more calories, which judging by most of the entire world, you know, there is an obesity epidemic going on. And so if you are able to fill yourself up more and be more satisfied, that is going to lead to in the long term less calorie consumption. That either means number one, helping you lose weight, or number two, helping you maintain The current weight that you are at, because you— when you lose weight, you obviously want to be able to maintain the weight that you have lost and maintain the healthy body fat and healthy body weight that you're at, correct? Correct. And so protein is so important for that because it keeps you full for the longest and it makes you the most satisfied. And not just from like a physical perspective, but literally every single cell inside of your body needs protein. It's very, very, very important. That's why it helps keep you so Satisfied because all of your cells are like, thanks, Carol, we appreciate it. Now, number 2 is gonna be something called TEF, which is the thermic effect of food. And there are 4 main ways that your body burns calories. I'll put a picture here above. There are 4 main ways your body burns calories throughout the day. And that is gonna be from number 1, your BMR, which is your basal metabolic rate, which just means how many calories your body burns at rest by, you know, just doing things like living and breathing and just laying in bed all day, that's how many calories your body would burn. Number 2 is gonna come from something called NEAT, which is your non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which just for the sake of this conversation just means how many steps you get per day, right? It doesn't actually— it does mean that, but it means all extraneous movement, like me doing this right now, that's NEAT, right? So that's number 2. Number 3, as you see, there is TEF, which is your thermic effect of food, which just means how many calories does your body have to burn in order to digest the food Mm-hmm. That you are intaking. And then last but not least, you see number 4 up there, EAT, which is just like exercise activity thermogenesis, which is just like how many calories your body burns through actual dedicated exercise. And as you can see, it's only 5%. So stop worrying about how many calories you burn during your workouts. That's another topic for another video. Let's go back to the TEF. So protein has the highest TEF, the highest thermic effect of food. That means out of all the macronutrients, Protein, carbs, and fats. Protein is going to burn the most calories. That literally increases your metabolism. People look at, how do I increase my metabolism? Eat more protein because your body has to burn more calories to digest protein. That is going to lead to, again, when we talk about, for example, being in a calorie deficit or making sure you maintain a healthy body weight, if your body burns more calories, it's either gonna help you lose weight or it's gonna help you maintain your weight, right? So having, and again, that takes up roughly 15 of how many calories your body burns throughout the day. And so if you can increase your TEF, that is going to increase how many calories you burn during the day, and that is going to increase your either weight loss progress or just be able to maintain your current weight a bit easier because you can burn a bit more calories. Last but certainly not least, it is the only macronutrient that is going to help build and retain lean muscle mass. This does 2 things for you. Number one, it does slightly increase your metabolism once again as well, because the more lean muscle mass you have, The more calories your body burns. Is it a massive, massive difference? Depends, but probably not a massive difference. But hey, any help I can get increasing my metabolism, I will absolutely do so, and I'm sure you will take that as well. But also, number 2, just from a general health perspective, having more lean muscle mass is going to help. It's going to increase your bone density, it's going to obviously increase your overall strength, your core strength, your lower back strength, your leg strength, and that's not just For, like, looking good, like, yeah, it'll help you look good naked. Like, the more lean muscle mass you have, the better you're gonna look naked or in a tank top or a bathing suit or whatever. That's just a fact. And so, you know, if you care about that, that is going to be helping you as well. But also just for a longevity perspective, one of the biggest reasons why, you know, people fall and break their hips is they don't have the required lean muscle mass in order to be able to, you know, have the strength and those kind of things. And so, you know, protein is massively important for a lean muscle mass perspective because, again, it's the only macronutrient that is going to help build and retain lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass building, obviously, and then obviously again, like retaining as you age. You wanna make sure you keep a high protein diet on top of the other 2 reasons we listed here above, right? So now that you know it's very important, how much should you be eating? So we're gonna cover weight loss, weight maintenance, and then muscle building/weight gain. Very, very quickly, I know I'm gonna get this question, so I'm gonna try to answer it for you. You're gonna ask me, well, Eric, I wanna lose fat and build muscle at the same time. That's perfectly fine. That is possible, check out this video I'm gonna put here above that literally explains exactly what it is, 'cause that's a whole different topic for a whole separate video, which is why I made a separate video on it. So if that's you and you're like, ah, but I wanna lose fat and build muscle, those are 2 different things, watch that video, please, I promise, okay? So that's number one. But for weight loss, what you will— how many grams of protein per day you are going to eat is gonna come in the form of an equation like this. Okay? So, what you're gonna do is you're gonna take your goal body weight, so GBW, goal body weight, and that's in pounds. People are gonna ask me, can you convert to kg? No. You can convert to kg. You can do it, I promise. Goal body weight in pounds times 0.8 to 1. So, for example, if you wanted to weigh 150 pounds, what you are going to do is you're gonna take 150 and you're gonna multiply between 0.8 to 1. If you wanna weigh 150, you should be eating roughly 120 to 150 grams per day. Now, let me cover 2 quick things. Number one, if you are coming from not eating a lot of protein at all, which is a lot of people, let's say right now you're eating 50 grams per day, which again, it's not uncommon for people to do. Going up to 120 grams per day is— that's a lot of protein, right? So what I would say is, like, If you don't get to 120 right away, chill out, man. It's all good. Don't worry about it. Just work your way up there. If you go from, you know, week 1 to week 2 eating 50 grams per day to 70 grams per day, that's a massive increase. And then you go from 70 grams to 85 grams, that's freaking awesome. 85 grams to 100 grams, great job. 85, you know, 100 grams to 120 grams, that's awesome. Please don't feel like you have to hit it spot on. Like, Again, work your way up to it, do the best you can, and over time you'll get better at eating more protein. Again, we'll talk about more ways to hit more protein, get more protein into your diet at the end of this video, but just make sure you don't obsess over like, oh my God, I'm not getting the number right away. It's all good, man. Please don't freak out over it. If you're getting better, that's all that matters. Okay? And then number 2, some people, let's say right now, if you are 270 pounds, right? You may have heard like, okay, goal body weight. Maybe you're setting a quote-unquote more realistic goal body weight of let's say 250 or 225 pounds right now, right? And you're like, Eric, like I weigh 275. Do I got to eat, you know, 250 grams of protein per day? No, you don't have to. I mean, if you want to, like go ahead, but like no, you don't have to do that. I would set it to your ultimate goal body weight. So again, for example, if you weigh 275, you know, if you, again, if you wanna end up weighing 150 or whatever the case may be, that's what you'd multiply it by. You don't have to multiply it by that 200 or 225 or whatever the case may be, because eating that much protein, I mean, I eat that much protein in a day, but like I'm very, you know, I'm trying to build muscle and all these kind of things, right? And I also enjoy protein a lot, but either way, it's a lot of protein to eat, right? So if you're, again, if you're getting that, you know, 130, 140, 150 grams per day, it's very, very, very good, right? 120 grams per day, that's very, very good. So please don't Yeah. Don't feel like you have to break your back to get protein. Is it important? Absolutely. But do I need you eating 250 grams per day? Probably not, no. So just kind of keep that in mind for weight loss. That's how many grams of protein you should be eating per day. Now, when you're talking about weight maintenance, very similar. I like to take— if you're at a point where you're weight maintenance, I would take roughly your body weight times 0.8 to 1. And again, that's your current body weight in pounds. And this is just because your body weight is probably close to your goal body weight, right? Like, if you're at maintenance, you're probably close to your goal body weight. So, as opposed to— I mean, you could use goal body weight, but I just use body weight times 0.8 to 1. So, again, if you're, you know, right now you're like 140, 150 and you're just like, hey, like, how much should I eat per day to, you know, have the health benefits and make sure I keep my lean muscle mass and doing all these things? Try to get roughly, you know, your body weight times 0.8 to 1. That's how many grams of protein per day. You should be eating. And again, that's in pounds, right? So you'll get all the health benefits, you'll get all the benefits of the TEF and all the stuff we talked about up here eating that much protein. So that's number 2. And number 3, when it comes to muscle building, typically what you want to do if you— and again, this is normally if you're going into a calorie surplus and you are looking to build lean muscle mass— I don't know what I just did there. You're looking to build lean muscle mass going into a calorie surplus. Typically speaking, you want to take your current body weight in pounds times 1 to 1.2. So again, let's just say if right now you weigh 170, try to get around 170 or more grams of protein and that's going to be most advantageous for you building lean muscle mass while you are in a calorie surplus. And again, because protein is the main and only macronutrient that helps you build and retain lean muscle mass. So if you're looking to build muscle, clearly you want more protein, right? So that's what I'd say as well. And again, if you're somebody who's like, Eric, I wanna lose fat and build muscle at the same time, what do I do? What do I pick? You would pick this right here, okay? Because if you're looking to lose fat and build muscle at the same time, watch the video I put up. I'm just gonna get way too in depth into it. Watch the video, it'll cover it all in there. But if you wanna lose fat, build muscle at the same time, I would probably pick This one right here, and probably lean more towards the goal bodyweight times 1 as much as you possibly can. So that is this section over here, all the information stuff. Now let's get into the questions over here. I'm literally not gonna use this pen at all, but I figured I would point with the pen that I'm using, or marker that I'm using. Can you have too much protein? What happens if you go over your protein goal? So if your protein goal is, you know, 120 to 150 grams per day, what happens if you eat 160 grams? Nothing. Your muscles will thank you. There's no adverse side effects to having more, going over your protein goal. If you go over your protein goal, awesome, man. And, you know, especially if you're somebody, again, if you're somebody who, you know, you wanna set a lower protein goal but you end up going over it, there's nothing wrong with that, man. So don't, you know, don't be afraid. It's all good and it means, like, you're— again, most people struggle. with getting protein, enough protein in, let alone, like, getting more protein than they're supposed to. So if that's you, like, you are a special individual and you should pat yourself on the back. Now, I will say this though, too much protein. Can you have too much protein? Yes, you can. And this is normally when you are on a calorie deficit and you're looking to lose body fat, right? We just said yes, protein is important. But what I have seen working with a lot of clients thus far, I've had this situation pop up where people set their protein goals so high that inevitably, subconsciously, they have to restrict other foods, right? So, perfect example, I had a client one time who her protein goal was so high and we didn't think it was that high, but we found out later on that, you know, She would get to lunch, for example, and she's like, I want this sandwich with 2 pieces of bread, right? But because I need more protein and I haven't hit my protein goal yet, I'm gonna have to take off 1 slice of bread, put on more turkey breast, and do all this kind of stuff. And then when she got to dinner, for example, she was like, well, I haven't hit my protein goal yet and I want some more— I want some sweet potatoes, but I can't really have those. So I guess I'll have like 2 morsels of sweet potatoes and eat more chicken breast. And it was like Because her protein goal was so high and she was trying to hit a higher protein number, that was causing her to be a bit restrictive. And she was having to then cut out certain foods, cut out certain food groups, because with the calories that she was allotted to, she was having so much protein she couldn't fit in other things that she enjoyed. And so what we did was we just simply backed down her protein by, I believe it was like 10 or 20 grams, not much, but that allowed her to then work in more foods that she enjoyed. She felt way less restricted. She stuck to her overall calories better, which again, the most important thing is hitting your overall calorie goal, whether it's weight loss, weight maintenance, or weight gain. Your overall calorie goal is the most important. So it allowed her to do that at a more consistent rate and she didn't, you know, feel as restricted and didn't hate her life as much. So if you're somebody who's like, Really pushing for that really, really, really high protein number and you're finding it hard to stay consistent or you're finding it hard to, you know, work in foods you enjoy, maybe just like, even though, again, like for example, let's say this is your range and your range is 120 to 150 grams per day. You get 108 grams instead of 120 grams, it's gonna be fine, Felicia, I promise. Like, it's all good. Like, don't worry about it. If you get 108 grams instead of 120, You're not making or breaking yourself. Again, there's a big difference between, like, if your goal is 120 to 150 grams per day versus, you know, and that's what you're supposed to get, and if you hit 108 grams or 100 grams, it's a big difference than eating, like, 40 grams per day. I'm not telling you to not eat any protein 'cause that's probably gonna backfire on you and you're gonna miss out on all the benefits. But, like, you know, if your end of your— if the bottom range of your goal is 120 and you hit 108 grams, Like, it's all good, dude. I promise. All right? Now, number 2, can eating too much protein cause kidney damage? And I'm gonna link a study here in the description of this video if you wanna check it out. But the short and sweet of it is no, unless you have preexisting kidney issues. That is a different topic. So if you're somebody who you know, and you would probably know this, but if you know you have preexisting kidney issues, check with your doctor. And again, I'm not a doctor, so check with your doctor regardless. Typically speaking, no. Eating too much protein is not going to cause kidney damage. I think they had people eat over 2 times, I believe the number was over 2 times their body weight in protein. So if somebody was weighing 150, they were eating like 300 grams of protein per day for, I believe, again, I'll have to, don't quote me on this, you can check the study. I think it was multiple years and they saw no adverse side effects. in their kidney function. So, you know, that myth, like, I don't even know where it came from, but that myth has proven not to be true. So you shouldn't be worried. Again, unless you have preexisting kidney issues, I would not be worried about eating too much protein to cause kidney damage 'cause we have just seen that's typically not the case, all right? And last but not least, top 5 ways to get more protein into your diet. I actually did an entire video on this and you can check it out. I will link it right here above. That video is dedicated to top 5 ways to get more protein into your diet. That's why I put it last. So if you got all this information now and you wanna work on getting in more protein into your diet, check out that video. I go in depth, my top 5 favorite ways to work in more protein. They're very actionable tips. You can start doing them today. They're very simple tips as well, by the way. They're not like, oh, jump through this hoop and do this and do that. No. Very simple tips. You can put into practice today. All right? So that is the top 5 ways to eat more protein. Other than that, guys, thank you so much for watching the video. Any questions, any concerns, drop below. If you found this video helpful, please feel free to give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, and let me know below. All right? Thanks.
