What should I be aiming for?

Another post at forum.lowcarber.org that I have replied on about protein

Catherine wrote:

I put my average day’s diet into Fitday.com and found that I am eating 79% fat, 9% carbs and 12% protein.

What should I be aiming for?

I answered:

Hi Catherine,

As Liz53 has already said, this is an interesting question and I don’t think we will be the last people who are surprised how little protein there is in the protein foods that we eat. Most meats seem to be around about 20 to 25 grms of protein per 100 grms of food eaten or, if you’re old school, that will be 1 oz in 4 is protein. I find this is quite a useful rule of thumb as it provides a quick ready reckoner to make sure I eat enough protein each day.

Eggs by the way gives us around about 12 grams of protein each so they are ever useful for topping up your protein count if you think you’re a bit low and whilst many of us may take cheese for fat, it too has about 12% protein.

All these little things add up and just clarify for Whofan, yes your 4-oz steak will only be about 1 oz of protein in total as more than half of it is actually water and the rest is mainly fat.

Hope that helps,

Mark