How much protein do you need if you weigh 136 lbs and exercise 1 hour daily to lose weight?

Answer 1

Losing weight is not just a matter of eating protein and exercising for an hour daily. Assuming that your goal is to reduce your percentage of body fat, you probably should not be exercising for 1 hour every day.

Try thinking of it this way: two-thirds of your efforts should go into proper nutrition and one-third of your efforts should go into exercise. It is not possible to make specific recommendations for you. You should consult your own physician before making any serious physical changes. It's not clear from your question which sex you are. Instead, here are some general guidelines.

You are correct that protein is important. The rule is to consume 1 gram of protein from natural sources for each pound of body weight. So you should be consuming about 135-140 grams of protein daily. Eat a meal every three or four waking hours, and spread that total protein consumption over those meals.

It is critical to minimize your intake of refined processed carbohydrates. Ideally, you should not eat any (apart from the ocassional treat). Consume a total of not more than 25 grams of carbs daily when trying to lose weight and get all that consumption from (preferably organic) fresh vegetables.

Drink plenty of clean water daily--several quarts. Do not worry about fat consumption. (By selecting natural sources of proteins, you'll be consuming "good" fats naturally.) Do not consume any fruits or fruit juices.

Adjust these recommendations according to your results. For example, when you reach your desired percentage of body fat, you may be able to each 1 or 2 servings of fruit daily.

These are some initial, general nutritional guidelines that will help. Here are some general exercise guidelines that will help:

Do not do mild cardio (such as brisk walking) at all.

Do brief, high intensity cardio two (or three) times weekly. Any standard format of high intensity interval training or Graded Exercise Protocal is fine. The total weekly training time on this should not exceed 30 minutes.

Do a whole-body strength training routine about every 4 days. Focus on the basic, multi-joint exercises, which are squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, dips, and chins. Use perfect exercise technique and train intensely. Each work out should not exceed 40 minutes and you should not do more than 2 each week. (The best book on proper technique is Stuart McRobert's BUILD MUSCLE LOSE FAT LOOK GREAT.) To ensure systemic recovery, wait at least 24 or 48 hours after all DOMS (delayed onset muscular soreness) has disappeared before doing another strength training workout.

Get plenty of sleep.

Drink plenty of clean water--at least 3 quarts daily.

If you follow these guidelines, you'll be spending a lot less time exercising while obtaining much better results. Do serious strength training to build muscle, because muscle is many times more metabolically active than fat. The brief cardio sessions will provide all the fitness exercise you need. The key, though, is proper nutrition. If you teach yourself how to eat properly and naturally, you'll be glad that you did for the rest of your life.

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