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Comment by peterwwillis | Hacker News Reader

to get enough protein if you're even moderately active, you have to eat A LOT - eggs, milk, meat, tuna

Any time someone specifies "A LOT" as a nutritional guide I get a little skeptical. Keep in mind when you're eating these foods the whole nutritional profile to determine if you're over-eating something (or filling yourself with LDLs). Try to balance the eggs, milk and meat with alternatives like quinoa, spirulina, lentils, bulgar, etc.

If you are going to go big on animal protein, naturally fed varieties generally have more vitamins and good fats. And of course, always drink whole milk vs the skim stuff (more vitamins + good fats - and it tastes better!!).

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I've for a while now used Boku Super Protein brand powder supplement. It's completely plant-derived and very diverse, unlike most other plant-based proteins, which only source from soy.

Call me a luddite, but the idea of "supplements" in general is wacky to me (unless you have a health disorder). If I want protein I get it from food. If I want vitamins I get it from food (or other crazy things like sunlight). These things exist in nature for a reason; science didn't create the notion of a healthy body.

In fact, i'd propose that some people think about their health a little too much (myself included). Do something outside and don't eat a lot of crap. K.I.S.S.

Sure, there's nothing wrong with that approach. But, for the same reason that you might put shoes on your feet when you go do something outside, you might find employing certain other technological advances useful in achieving your goals. We don't, after all, burn wood in our cars, we use gasoline -- even though the fundamental principle underlying both is the release of energy stored in hydrocarbon-based fuel. The difference is a step-function in refinement.

It depends on how goal-directed you are in this domain. Others may have higher, more specific, or more urgent health/fitness goals.

whey protein is really just the leftovers from cheese production ... it's not that unusual of a substance.

the recommendation if you're lifting to gain strength from a number of sources is 1g to 1.5g of protein per lb of body weight. for me that's 190 to 260g/day. it's A LOT...

Ah :) - I'm not the OP, but as an Uruguayan, that actually sounds like too little ! :)

We do eat a lot of meat over here though (I believe #1 per-capita in the world).

as an american living in argentina, i say, pass the morcilla : )

I'd say that with some Bife de Chorizo, you'll probably get those 190 to 260 g of protein easily :)

Actually it's 1-2g of protein per kg of weight, not lb. Unless you're on anabolic steroids or are on a protein sparing modified fast (PSMF) 1.5g of protein per lb isn't going to help you gain or retain more muscle.

Source: A week ago I read through all studies I could find on pubmed about optimal protein intake for muscle gain.

this is where i got my data - http://examine.com/faq/how-much-protein-do-i-need-every-day.... - and you're right. I aim for 200g/day which for me is 2g/kg and probably a bit more than i need. I've noticed if i work out and eat much less than that i don't recover as well.

It's 1g per lb of lean weight. That would be for a beginner, trained athletes aren't going to be putting on so much muscle so won't need so much protein.

Correct on the steroids and fasting though.

Even 1/g per pound is too much. A perfectly optimal level for bodybuilders is around .82g per pound. One can extrapolate from there for those not seeking hypertrophy. - http://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-...

Those studies all focus on trained individuals. As a novice you would be putting on more muscle than a trained bodybuilder or strength athlete.

It's worth pointing out as well that there is no disadvantage to consuming too much protein.

Strength standards for beginners.

http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/StrengthStandards....

there is no disadvantage to consuming too much protein.

Uh... there are many sources that cite problems with eating too much protein. Dehydration, kidney stress, calcium deficiency, heart disease, and other side-effects of increased fat or cholesterol levels of foods with large amounts of protein.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/468026-physiological-conse... http://breakingmuscle.com/nutrition/put-down-steak-youre-eat... http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=50...

None of those links actually cite a disadvantage. In fact from the second:

"Finally, the authors reiterate that even if you consume “unnecessarily high protein intakes” like 1.3 grams per pound of body weight per day, this still isn’t a risk to your kidneys unless you already had kidney disease."

Who's recommendation? I've seen recommendations all over the map.

The ones I often see are somewhere between .6g and 1g per lb of body weight, with 1g being the most common recommended on body building forums.

This article (http://mennohenselmans.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-...) calls the 1g/lb recommendation a total myth.

Another important question is whether the ratio is against total or lean body weight? If you've got a lot of fat, you may be over-calculating your protein needs.

Eating too much protein may or may not hurt. Some say excess protein taxes the kidneys (which filter it out into your piss). Some say your body ends up converting it to fat. (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/maki1.htm)

Also following recommendations from people who's goal it is to look like Lou Ferrigno may not make sense for most people.

So you don't think I'm attacking you, here's a pro-protein link: http://www.livestrong.com/article/556322-how-much-protein-is...

Who's right? Who knows?

Well numbers like that make sense when you take into account that the 1.5g figure applies readily to people like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdhOdJ_NVao

Better to eat too much protein than too little anyway.

Pubmet doesn't agree that whole milk has good fats

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001224/

But wikipedia claims that recent research blames artificial trans fats, not natural cis fats, for artery disease.

And skim milk tastes better than the fatty stuff. It turns out that taste is subjective and modifiable based on life experience. (That is why coffee is tolerable to adults)

Fat composition is affected by the diet of the cow. Grain fed dairy cows yield milk that's lacking in Vitamin K2. K2 is essential for regulating delivery of calcium in the body. Free calcium without K2 contributes to atherosclerosis (and other mis-placed calcium issues) without necessarily contributing to bone and dental health.

Also, most of the vitamins in milk are in the fat, which people usually remove.

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