How much protein should I be taking in?

You're likely doing things right with what you're doing already. Do you know how much protein you are consuming? That's the only way to know for sure, but if you were over-eating protein to the point of being in an average caloric surplus, I'd say cut back then and only then. To me it's better to put a focus on either 1)emphasizing strength/muscle building, or 2)fat loss, but you can accomplish both at the same time.

I'm the kind of person that has to track calories and macros, etc, because I get dishonest and unrealistic with myself if I don't use the objective data. If you can get away with "eye-balling" things then don't worry about logging and tracking such things, but be honest with yourself. If you really can't figure out where you are or what's going on diet wise, just start tracking to figure things out.

With lifting AND rowing...at 64? You definitely want MORE protein than LESS, so I'd keep protein higher and cut back on fat and/or carbs first to keep a deficit. Make sure your hydration/sleep/rest/recovery is sufficient and trust the process. If you're that new (few months) to lifting and rowing, then you don't need to worry about over-eating protein I'd imagine, you need it for recovery. Just focus on getting stronger.

1g of protein per 1 lb of body weight minimum.
At 64 you’re losing strength as it is. Need to make sure muscle mass isn’t going with it.

At 170 lbs I was getting in 200g of protein a day and I could’ve done more. Your body will regulate usage for you.

What is your current body weight, how much daily protein are you getting, and how many calories are you eating a day?

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I need to start counting cals and grams, and I'll get back in about a week.

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I'm willing to bet you are not eating as much protein as you might think

I always thought I was getting enough protein, and then I started actually measuring and tracking my macros, and I was not getting nearly as much as I thought

I try to get 220 g of daily protein. Before I starting tracking, I was maybe getting 120 g, despite calling my diet "high protein".

protein isnt the place to cut. its fat and carbs. protein has a muscle sparing effect and has by far the biggest effect on dietary induced thermogenesis.

for you, start at 150g and actually raise that as you cut calories or replace carb/fat calories with protien.

once you are at 60-65% of calories from protein....pretty much maxed out benefits unless you are doing a psmf.

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once you are at 60-65% of calories from protein....

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I’m 160 lbs and eating about 2,700 calories a day trying to gain. That would be about 350g of protein.

i didnt say when trying to gain lol

no need for protein leveraging of thermo effect of food(TEF) if trying to gain

dont get me wrong...eat 3 lbs of meat and a big protein shake and yea you will gain more than you thought possible but not needed like when cutting

but you will never need 2x bw ever no matter what even dante in his straight up bodybuilding days didnt want his guys eating more than that unless on massive doses of PED.

0.8-1.0 grams/lb of bodyweight (TARGET weight) is a good starting point for muscle growth.

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Here's what I do:

1g protein for every lb of lean body mass.

Think of this: Jimmy is 250lbs and morbidly obese. Does he need 250g of protein? The answer is no.

However, I only count legitimate proteins (whey, casein, egg, animal meats). Chickpea, tofu, vegan, impossible meats, have dog-crap tier amino acid profiles, so to me they are meaningless.

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agree and my theory/philosphy is in general...protein is the most satiating(outside of a few carbs like potatoes) and has by far the highest thermic effect from food, so the higher we can drive the protein, the lower we can go with overall calories while maintaining muscle.


but i also leverage the TEF. example, using 1k calories for simple math

if we are at 100g protein (40%) or 400cals...~20% minimum, if using whole food sources, will be burned from TEF. so roughly 80 cals minimum is dead and gone off the bat

well lets say we stall....now i raise protein to 125g or 50% or 500 cals and now keeping that 20% figure...now 100 cals is gone.

stall again, go up to 150g...now 125cals are gone etc etc


at a 2k calorie diet...start at 200g when you get to 300g thats 1200 cals from protein or 60%. that means we are burning roughly 250 cals just from the protein digestion.

hopefully this make sense. so instead of lowering cals, we replace carbs/fat with protein and we create a deficit using TEF.


same with walking. start with 5k. stall, raise protien, add 2500 steps....boom fatloss is moving again. repeat as needed. once protein gets too high....lower calories and start the process from the beginning.