Protein weights

Rcoad1

Hi all,

I am a newbie to nutrition. So, you know how they say get so many grams of protein? Do they mean weigh out a piece of protein raw or cooked?

What about when I take that piece of now cooked protein and enter it into Cronometer it ends up being less protein than it weighs.

Which weight do I use for calculating my goal of so many grams of protein per lean mass?

Thanks

123Ace

What do you call a "piece of protein"? You probably know this but Every food has proteins in it and others stuffs(carbs, fats, water, minerals etc) so apples or eggs or pasta or any other food has proteins in it.

Raw or cooked is same when it come to protein itself (like protein powder) or most food that you can eat raw(like fruits). after raw eggs will have protease inhibitors for instance (and bacterias like salmonella etc) that will hinder the absorbtion of its proteins so some food need to be cooked obviously.

Humans need between 0.4g and 0.8g of proteins per kg (not pound) of rather lean bodyweight (like 15% body fat), if you consistently lift weight to build muscle it is more between 1.2g and 1.8g per kg. Beyond that it is just additional calories. Best way to get your proteins is from plants, whole (not deprived of fibers, minerals etc) preferentially.

Humans, even athlete, will not lack proteins if they eat enough calories and do not eat too much refine fat(oil, butter etc) or refine carbs (sugar, soda). Because proteins is everywhere in great quantity unlike other nutrients like omega3, fibers, few vitamins/minerals/phytonutrients.

I do not know if I helped you well but I'm sure other will compensate for it 😉

Rcoad1

Thank you 123Ace for your answer. Just to clarify, my question is about meat, of the animal variety. 😀.

Suppose I have a piece of filet mignon - raw it’s 120g, cooked it’s 100g and when I add it to my food diary I end up with 30.7g of protein. My question is which number am to use ? Thanks

123Ace

In short : you ate 30.7g of proteins.

I do not know much about animal's flesh cooking but I guess it lose a bit of water and fats in the process. Either case if the database tell you that 100g of cooked filet is 30.7g of proteins that mean you ate 30.7g of proteins the other 69.3g come from other stuffs than proteins (water, fat etc).

For example you are a man that weight 100kg and have 25% body fat, that mean your weight would be 90kg at a healthier 15% bodyfat.

So 90*0.8g=72g of proteins would be the need of this 100kg person. So by eating this 100g of cooked part of animal's body he would ate 30.7g of proteins so he'd need 42g more proteins to eat (which will happen naturally if you eat almost anything as there is proteins everywhere). 42g of proteins mean around 150g of filet or 160g of peanuts etc...

90*1.8g=162g of proteins is needed if this 100kg person is really consistently hard working the gym.

100g of meat or broccoli is not 100g of proteins, it has other stuffs that weight like water, fats, carbs etc. Cronometer will automatically add up the proteins(and other components) of every food you ate in your day, if the data was not missing(which happen quite often).

Susan_RD_101

@Rcoad1

It's helpful to add the qualifier "cooked" in the search bar when entering the animal protein you ate. I would also suggest only entering cooked meat, as this is what you are actually consuming.

Regarding protein requirements, a baseline recommendation of 0.8 g per kg of healthy body weight is recommended. However, this amount of protein should increase if you are athletic, eating a plant-based diet, or are an older adult. Sometimes, especially with weight loss, having slightly higher protein than this amount can be helpful since protein takes awhile to breakdown and increase the sensation of fullness.

Hope this helps!