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It says 1.2-1.6 grams of protein and healthy fats per kilogram of body weight, from animal and plant sources (including milk). Is that really advocating for mor

It says 1.2-1.6 grams of protein and healthy fats per kilogram of body weight, from animal and plant sources (including milk). Is that really advocating for more meat?

omgJustTest 9mo ago
90g of protein, what is recommended for me, is like 4 hamburgers or a 16oz steak per day ...
- tejohnso 9mo ago
  Doesn't make sense to me that a 400lb obese person would need to consume the same amount of protein as a 400lb lean muscle bodybuilder. All of the protein recommendations I've seen were for lean mass. You don't feed fat.
  - deinonychus 9mo ago
    > Doesn't make sense to me that a 400lb obese person would need to consume the same amount of protein as a 400lb lean muscle bodybuilder. yeah both of those people are extreme cases that would break this very crude formula
  - SoftTalker 9mo ago
    Correct, and the guideline on the "realfood.gov" site doesn't say it but all the protein g/kg body weight I've seen (mostly relative to weight training or building muscle) are in terms of kg of lean body mass, not total body weight.
  - omgJustTest 9mo ago
    I am not 400lbs... I don't know if you are implying that... if so check your math: 1.2g/kg * 90kg (~200lbs-lean) = 108g of protein. each person, on average, in the US would be eating one 16oz steak or 3-5 hamburgers every day.
    - stubish 9mo ago
      A 16oz steak is over 50% protein, or over double your entire daily target. Hamburger count could be right, if you are eating McDonald's burgers or similar. But then you are not following the guidelines, with far too much processed grains and added sugars.
      - omgJustTest 9mo ago
        Your beef is with wiki or facts : "high scores: braised eye-of-round steak 40.62; broiled t-bone steak (porterhouse) 32.11; grilled lean steak 31.0 " numbers are grams per hundred grams or wiki also reports 25% as the average, thus your factor of 2 error in weight (400 instead of 200). Sincerely, You-cannot-read-or-convert-units-or-gather-info-correctly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foods_by_protein_content https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foods_by_protein_conte...
        omgJustTest 9mo ago
        For some more perspective: Cranberry's & nut mix - 34g (total) have 8g of protein 1 cup of milk - roughly 8g of protein This is a pretty light breakfast of 16g of protein. How about a 'big, bold breakfast': 2 eggs - 12 g of protein 4 bacon strips - 12 g of protein 1 cup of hash browns - 3 g of protein (other carbs pancakes etc going to have < 1g of protein) So in the 'big, bold breakfast' => 27 g of proteins, I would be 3g behind my daily, average protein intake for the morning. 2 hamburgers for lunch, that's 30g of protein, keeping me close to my daily, average protein intake for lunch. 8 oz steak for dinner, thats 56g of protein. In total: 27+30+56 = 112g of protein, just 4 g over needed daily, average intake of protein. Resisting the sarcasm, this is not reasonable. [1] Perkins https://perkinsmenus.com/hearty-mans-combo/#:~:text=Two%20eggs%2C%20smoked%20sausage%2C%20bacon,of%20America's%20favorite%20breakfast%20places. https://perkinsmenus.com/hearty-mans-combo/#:~:text=Two%20eg...
  - maerF0x0 9mo ago
    All these things are actually rules of thumb that aim to be easy, and less focused on accurate. A reasonably close rule of thumb can actually be 1g of protein per cm of height. Also not accurately represented is that your body absorbs less protein per gram consumed the older you get. (I couldnt find a source with an actual ratio, just recommendations for _more_ as you get older). When listening to folks like Layne Norton, they have said that surprisingly many people who simply increase their protein inadvertently begin to lose weight due to greater satiety per net calorie. (remember, roughly 20% of protein calories are lost in digesting/absorbing/converting the protein)
- deinonychus 9mo ago
  do you think that's a lot or a little? does that sound realistic or unrealistic?
- Aurornis 9mo ago
  Nobody should be getting all of their protein from meat, though. Even a cup of cooked rice or a slice of bread has several grams of protein.
- brainwad 9mo ago
  That's not really a lot of protein on a low carb diet like they are suggesting.
- blks 9mo ago
  If you don’t forget to count proteins from all the grains and other products, then you may realise you don’t need that much meat (or any meat at all).
- tomjakubowski 9mo ago
  People, even meat-eaters, tend to get much of their protein intake from the long tail of non-meat foods they consume. Lots of foods (especially grains and legumes) have a little bit of protein, and that adds up.
- avazhi 9mo ago
  Nobody said you have to get all your protein from meat…
woodruffw 9mo ago
The implication is that the current food pyramid disproportionately weights against proteins and fats. Assuming that Americans follow the current pyramid (this is a hell of an assumption), then any change to the pyramid that asks them to change their diets in favor of more protein and fat is likely to result in them eating more meat. In reality, I don't think anybody in the US follows the food pyramid religiously. But I do think people (try to) follow the main strokes of what the government tells them is a healthy dietary balance, and so any recommendation to increase their fat/protein intake will result in more meat consumption even if the guidelines doesn't itself proscribe that as the only source.
- jaredwiener 9mo ago
  The food pyramid was phased out in 2011: https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/nov/07/food-pyramid-history-my-plate-healthy-diet/ https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/nov/07/food-pyramid-...
  - Y_Y 9mo ago
    You can't phase out common "knowledge"!
    - JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
      True. But you can stop recommending bad science. The original food pyramid was an industry wish list.
- ericd 9mo ago
  As I see it, the point of this new pyramid is not to add more emphasis to meat specifically, but to undo some of the past vilification of fat (note the emphasis on whole milk and full fat dairy), and to move emphasis away from carbs as the basis of the diet. And honestly, I think that's pretty much correct - the low fat movement was a disaster for our collective health, because food manufacturers added more sugar to compensate for the bad effects on taste that that has, and because if you eat a good amount of full fat stuff, there's not nearly as much need to snack between meals. If you go to Western Europe, they're not drinking lots of skim milk, and if you eat things from the bakeries, there's more butter and not as much low quality vegetable oil or sugar. When my French cousins come here, they find lots of the stuff sold here revoltingly sweet.
seawsurf 9mo ago
This can be an outrageous amount for a normal individual. These proportions are used for bodybuilders and powerlifters. And even then this rule is not perfect because of individual genetics, metabolism rates, activity level, percentage of lean mass, etc. Americans (US citizens) really do eat a lot. What the hell
- HoJojoMojo 9mo ago
  These numbers are actually "disappearance" they include an immense amount of food waste as well so the average American is probably almost half a body builder and leaving food on their plate at a restaurant while more of it is going bad at home and in their grocery.
- MattRix 9mo ago
  yeah, and it’s also worth noting that the usual guidelines you hear like “eat 1g of protein for each pound you weigh” are actually meant to be 1g of protein per pound of lean mass, which for many people is significantly smaller amount.
- giantg2 9mo ago
  1.5g/kg for a 90kg person is 135g. You can get almost half that daily need from a chicken breast or a few ounces of fish. Two meals of that and a few non-meat things like rice and beans, lentils, peanut butter, etc and you're set, even towards the higher end of the recommended range. That's doesn't seem outrageous at all.
- jdlshore 9mo ago
  I think most commenters are missing two things: 1. It’s proteins and fats, not just protein. The site specifically calls out avocado as an example. 2. It’s from meat and vegetable sources. Other commenters have mentioned that you get more protein from non-meat sources than you expect.
  - seawsurf 9mo ago
    People are also forgetting the importance of fiber for satiety and gut health.
dkarl 9mo ago
The public health discourse about protein is in a weird place right now. The recommendations are higher than ever, yet people are constantly told not to think about protein, or to worry about excess protein intake instead. Case in point: the Mayo Clinic article titled "Are you getting enough protein?"[0] It claims that protein is only a concern for people who are undereating or on weight loss drugs, yet it cites protein recommendations that many people find challenging to meet (1.1g/kg for active people, more if you're over 40 or doing strength or endurance workouts.) To top it off, it's illustrated with a handful of nuts, which are pretty marginal sources of protein. It's bizarrely mixed messaging. [0] https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/are-you-getting-too-much-protein https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speak...
ctoa 9mo ago
When I did strength sports and would eat ~180g protein a day (which for me was 1.8g/100kg), I ate a lot less meat than you would think, I was carefully tracking all my food for a while and you have to count the whole diet. I really like this study of a population of highly trained athletes and their diets/protein intake: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27710150/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27710150/ In that study they eat > 1.2g protein/kg body weight, but 43% of that is "plant sources", meaning grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. Like one serving of oatmeal is 6g, things you don't think of as "protein" add up and you have to count them. The athletes in that study are Dutch and 19% of their protein intake came from bread. But what always happens with protein recommendations is that they say "x grams protein/kg bodyweight" but people hear "protein is meat, you are telling me to eat x grams/kg bodyweight of meat." Very few people ever look closely enough at their diet to develop an intuitive sense for counting macros.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
- aucisson_masque 9mo ago
  Protein from grain food isn’t as well absorbed as protein from meat, milk, fish. Roughly, 2g of protein from bean equal 1g meat protein.
  - ctoa 9mo ago
    Yes, but the standards aren't based on "the best protein to absorb", they are based on whole diet consumption. Studies like the one I linked to are where the recommendations come from. It is a misunderstanding to read a recommendation for 1.2g/kg (or whatever) as saying that the 1.2g is supposed to all be meat quality protein. It's supposed to be the protein in your total mixed diet. Your diet contains many sources of protein lower quality than beans (as in the linked study with high level Dutch athletes getting 19% of their protein from bread), you do need to count those. They do add up and if you don't, you end up assuming you need way more protein than you do.
    - 9mo ago

It says 1.2-1.6 grams of protein and healthy fats per kilogram of body weight, from animal and plant sources (including milk). Is that really advocating for more meat?

omgJustTest 9mo ago

90g of protein, what is recommended for me, is like 4 hamburgers or a 16oz steak per day ...

tejohnso 9mo ago
Doesn't make sense to me that a 400lb obese person would need to consume the same amount of protein as a 400lb lean muscle bodybuilder. All of the protein recommendations I've seen were for lean mass. You don't feed fat.
- deinonychus 9mo ago
  > Doesn't make sense to me that a 400lb obese person would need to consume the same amount of protein as a 400lb lean muscle bodybuilder. yeah both of those people are extreme cases that would break this very crude formula
- SoftTalker 9mo ago
  Correct, and the guideline on the "realfood.gov" site doesn't say it but all the protein g/kg body weight I've seen (mostly relative to weight training or building muscle) are in terms of kg of lean body mass, not total body weight.
- omgJustTest 9mo ago
  I am not 400lbs... I don't know if you are implying that... if so check your math: 1.2g/kg * 90kg (~200lbs-lean) = 108g of protein. each person, on average, in the US would be eating one 16oz steak or 3-5 hamburgers every day.
  - stubish 9mo ago
    A 16oz steak is over 50% protein, or over double your entire daily target. Hamburger count could be right, if you are eating McDonald's burgers or similar. But then you are not following the guidelines, with far too much processed grains and added sugars.
    - omgJustTest 9mo ago
      Your beef is with wiki or facts : "high scores: braised eye-of-round steak 40.62; broiled t-bone steak (porterhouse) 32.11; grilled lean steak 31.0 " numbers are grams per hundred grams or wiki also reports 25% as the average, thus your factor of 2 error in weight (400 instead of 200). Sincerely, You-cannot-read-or-convert-units-or-gather-info-correctly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foods_by_protein_content https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foods_by_protein_conte...
      - omgJustTest 9mo ago
        For some more perspective: Cranberry's & nut mix - 34g (total) have 8g of protein 1 cup of milk - roughly 8g of protein This is a pretty light breakfast of 16g of protein. How about a 'big, bold breakfast': 2 eggs - 12 g of protein 4 bacon strips - 12 g of protein 1 cup of hash browns - 3 g of protein (other carbs pancakes etc going to have < 1g of protein) So in the 'big, bold breakfast' => 27 g of proteins, I would be 3g behind my daily, average protein intake for the morning. 2 hamburgers for lunch, that's 30g of protein, keeping me close to my daily, average protein intake for lunch. 8 oz steak for dinner, thats 56g of protein. In total: 27+30+56 = 112g of protein, just 4 g over needed daily, average intake of protein. Resisting the sarcasm, this is not reasonable. [1] Perkins https://perkinsmenus.com/hearty-mans-combo/#:~:text=Two%20eggs%2C%20smoked%20sausage%2C%20bacon,of%20America's%20favorite%20breakfast%20places. https://perkinsmenus.com/hearty-mans-combo/#:~:text=Two%20eg...
- maerF0x0 9mo ago
  All these things are actually rules of thumb that aim to be easy, and less focused on accurate. A reasonably close rule of thumb can actually be 1g of protein per cm of height. Also not accurately represented is that your body absorbs less protein per gram consumed the older you get. (I couldnt find a source with an actual ratio, just recommendations for _more_ as you get older). When listening to folks like Layne Norton, they have said that surprisingly many people who simply increase their protein inadvertently begin to lose weight due to greater satiety per net calorie. (remember, roughly 20% of protein calories are lost in digesting/absorbing/converting the protein)
deinonychus 9mo ago
do you think that's a lot or a little? does that sound realistic or unrealistic?
Aurornis 9mo ago
Nobody should be getting all of their protein from meat, though. Even a cup of cooked rice or a slice of bread has several grams of protein.
brainwad 9mo ago
That's not really a lot of protein on a low carb diet like they are suggesting.
blks 9mo ago
If you don’t forget to count proteins from all the grains and other products, then you may realise you don’t need that much meat (or any meat at all).
tomjakubowski 9mo ago
People, even meat-eaters, tend to get much of their protein intake from the long tail of non-meat foods they consume. Lots of foods (especially grains and legumes) have a little bit of protein, and that adds up.
avazhi 9mo ago
Nobody said you have to get all your protein from meat…

woodruffw 9mo ago

The implication is that the current food pyramid disproportionately weights against proteins and fats. Assuming that Americans follow the current pyramid (this is a hell of an assumption), then any change to the pyramid that asks them to change their diets in favor of more protein and fat is likely to result in them eating more meat. In reality, I don't think anybody in the US follows the food pyramid religiously. But I do think people (try to) follow the main strokes of what the government tells them is a healthy dietary balance, and so any recommendation to increase their fat/protein intake will result in more meat consumption even if the guidelines doesn't itself proscribe that as the only source.

jaredwiener 9mo ago
The food pyramid was phased out in 2011: https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/nov/07/food-pyramid-history-my-plate-healthy-diet/ https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/nov/07/food-pyramid-...
- Y_Y 9mo ago
  You can't phase out common "knowledge"!
  - JumpCrisscross 9mo ago
    True. But you can stop recommending bad science. The original food pyramid was an industry wish list.
ericd 9mo ago
As I see it, the point of this new pyramid is not to add more emphasis to meat specifically, but to undo some of the past vilification of fat (note the emphasis on whole milk and full fat dairy), and to move emphasis away from carbs as the basis of the diet. And honestly, I think that's pretty much correct - the low fat movement was a disaster for our collective health, because food manufacturers added more sugar to compensate for the bad effects on taste that that has, and because if you eat a good amount of full fat stuff, there's not nearly as much need to snack between meals. If you go to Western Europe, they're not drinking lots of skim milk, and if you eat things from the bakeries, there's more butter and not as much low quality vegetable oil or sugar. When my French cousins come here, they find lots of the stuff sold here revoltingly sweet.

seawsurf 9mo ago

This can be an outrageous amount for a normal individual. These proportions are used for bodybuilders and powerlifters. And even then this rule is not perfect because of individual genetics, metabolism rates, activity level, percentage of lean mass, etc. Americans (US citizens) really do eat a lot. What the hell

HoJojoMojo 9mo ago
These numbers are actually "disappearance" they include an immense amount of food waste as well so the average American is probably almost half a body builder and leaving food on their plate at a restaurant while more of it is going bad at home and in their grocery.
MattRix 9mo ago
yeah, and it’s also worth noting that the usual guidelines you hear like “eat 1g of protein for each pound you weigh” are actually meant to be 1g of protein per pound of lean mass, which for many people is significantly smaller amount.
giantg2 9mo ago
1.5g/kg for a 90kg person is 135g. You can get almost half that daily need from a chicken breast or a few ounces of fish. Two meals of that and a few non-meat things like rice and beans, lentils, peanut butter, etc and you're set, even towards the higher end of the recommended range. That's doesn't seem outrageous at all.
jdlshore 9mo ago
I think most commenters are missing two things: 1. It’s proteins and fats, not just protein. The site specifically calls out avocado as an example. 2. It’s from meat and vegetable sources. Other commenters have mentioned that you get more protein from non-meat sources than you expect.
- seawsurf 9mo ago
  People are also forgetting the importance of fiber for satiety and gut health.

dkarl 9mo ago

The public health discourse about protein is in a weird place right now. The recommendations are higher than ever, yet people are constantly told not to think about protein, or to worry about excess protein intake instead. Case in point: the Mayo Clinic article titled "Are you getting enough protein?"[0] It claims that protein is only a concern for people who are undereating or on weight loss drugs, yet it cites protein recommendations that many people find challenging to meet (1.1g/kg for active people, more if you're over 40 or doing strength or endurance workouts.) To top it off, it's illustrated with a handful of nuts, which are pretty marginal sources of protein. It's bizarrely mixed messaging. [0] https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/are-you-getting-too-much-protein https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speak...

ctoa 9mo ago

When I did strength sports and would eat ~180g protein a day (which for me was 1.8g/100kg), I ate a lot less meat than you would think, I was carefully tracking all my food for a while and you have to count the whole diet. I really like this study of a population of highly trained athletes and their diets/protein intake: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27710150/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27710150/ In that study they eat > 1.2g protein/kg body weight, but 43% of that is "plant sources", meaning grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. Like one serving of oatmeal is 6g, things you don't think of as "protein" add up and you have to count them. The athletes in that study are Dutch and 19% of their protein intake came from bread. But what always happens with protein recommendations is that they say "x grams protein/kg bodyweight" but people hear "protein is meat, you are telling me to eat x grams/kg bodyweight of meat." Very few people ever look closely enough at their diet to develop an intuitive sense for counting macros.

deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
aucisson_masque 9mo ago
Protein from grain food isn’t as well absorbed as protein from meat, milk, fish. Roughly, 2g of protein from bean equal 1g meat protein.
- ctoa 9mo ago
  Yes, but the standards aren't based on "the best protein to absorb", they are based on whole diet consumption. Studies like the one I linked to are where the recommendations come from. It is a misunderstanding to read a recommendation for 1.2g/kg (or whatever) as saying that the 1.2g is supposed to all be meat quality protein. It's supposed to be the protein in your total mixed diet. Your diet contains many sources of protein lower quality than beans (as in the linked study with high level Dutch athletes getting 19% of their protein from bread), you do need to count those. They do add up and if you don't, you end up assuming you need way more protein than you do.
  - 9mo ago