![\"Scrabble](\"https:\/\/serprofas.com\/tcfse\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/protein-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>Protein is essential for many of the body’s processes (Photo: by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n A fundamental building block of the body, protein is a compound comprised of chains of smaller molecules called amino acids. Your body produces some, but you need to feed yourself the rest to nurture muscles, enzymes, hormones, and neurotransmitters.<\/p>\n Because protein is hard to break down, it takes more calories to digest it (i.e., eat more, burn more). As you can imagine, an exercise fiend like our friend Sam needs more protein, but sedentary folks need an adequate amount as well. Without it, you lose muscle faster as you age, and your body ages even faster.<\/p>\n You\u00a0don\u2019t have to stuff yourself silly\u00a0with salmon, steak, or shakes to\u00a0get the right amount of protein.\u00a0But you’ll want to read on to be sure you’re getting the right amount.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing like a stomach grumble to break\u00a0the silence in the room, but if you\u2019re always hungry, this may happen more often than you\u2019d like. Protein can help.\u00a0Research<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>shows\u00a0that a high-protein\u00a0diet can control hunger and\u00a0reduce your\u00a0overall appetite\u2014possibly by increasing leptin\u00a0levels, which \u201cturns off\u201d hunger, and helping\u00a0you\u00a0feel fuller\u00a0from the food you eat. But just how much does it take to do this?\u00a0Studies<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>show that eating 30 grams of protein at each meal\u00a0will keep the average person satisfied.<\/p>\n Your goal when dieting is to make sure your body \u201ceats\u201d as much fat and as little muscle as possible. But the more calories you cut, the more your body tries to consume that precious muscle. Increasing protein can help prevent this to a point, but cut your calories too much and you\u2019re bound to lose muscle mass.<\/p>\n To maintain health and muscle mass, aim for 0.36 grams of protein per pound. (Photo: U.S. Air Force\/Senior Airman Katrina Heikkinen)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n If\u00a0you\u2019re a healthy adult 19 or older, the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein<\/span><\/strong><\/a> to maintain health and muscle mass is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day or 0.36 grams per pound. That means a sedentary 50-year-old who weighs 150 pounds should have about 54 grams of protein a day to be healthy. But that\u2019s just the minimum amount. In a study by the American Journal of Physiology\u2013Endocrinology and Metabolism<\/a><\/span><\/strong> healthy adults ages 52 to 75 who consumed 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight built and preserved more muscle than those who stuck to the 0.8 minimum.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re like Sam, challenging yourself with exercise intensity and frequency, you probably need to eat more protein while dieting. Research<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>says you should shoot for 0.73 to 0.82 grams per one pound of body weight per day to maximize protein synthesis (i.e., beef up). You could go higher than this, but it\u2019s not going to help you gain muscle mass quicker.<\/p>\n Protein has many effects on health that have nothing to do with weight or muscle. There\u2019s growing evidence<\/a><\/span><\/strong> that a high-protein diet can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and build bone mass. So, Sam, along with the rest of the sedentary population, has nothing to lose by packing in the protein. (Unless that protein leads to a food allergy, but that\u2019s another story for another blog post!)<\/p>\nHow much protein is necessary to control hunger?<\/h4>\n
How much protein\u00a0do you need to\u00a0prevent muscle loss?<\/h4>\n
![\"Bicep](\"https:\/\/serprofas.com\/tcfse\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/muscle-loss-204x300.jpg\")
<\/a>How much protein do you need to maximize your rate of muscle mass growth?<\/h4>\n
It\u2019s More Than Weight Loss and Muscle Gain<\/h3>\n