Bodyfat, lean body mass, protein requirements OR Math 101

First off, let me apologize for this post. I meant to finish weeks ago and technology got in the way. I won't get into the details but I will say...damn charts! I will also say to those of you with ADD and zero interest in math, don't bother reading further. OK, you've been warned.

So by now we know that protein is our friend. Eating the right amount definitely aids us in losing weight and it will also fill us up more than carbs will. I have had some questions about protein intake and the general answer is somewhere between .8 to 2 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight per day. But if you desire to get your nerd on...I am posting below the tables from a book labeled "PROTEIN POWER". I feel like this is a good way to calculate the protein you take in:

First off, both men and women measure your hips (at the WIDEST point) and abdomen (at the NAVEL) 3 times and get an average. Divide the the waist measurement by the hip measurement.

Men- A number greater than 1 means you have a hip and leg pattern of distributing fat. A number of 1 or greater is an abdominal pattern

Women-A number .8 or less is hip and leg. A number greater than .8 is abdominal

Why is this important? Because if you have an abdominal pattern of distributing fat, it is much more serious for your health. A person with abdominal fat storage is more likely to develop elevated blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar.

After the Hip-to-Waist ratio, continue on to get a bodyfat and lean body mass number

For WOMEN:
Take your average hip and abdomen numbers and also your height in inches without shoes.
Add together your Hip constant to your Abdomen constant (in the chart below) and subtract your Height constant.

Hip Waist Bodyfat Constants

For example, let's say we have a 47 year old woman who is 5'2'' or 62 inches with a Hip measurement of 40 and an abdomen of 30, your bodyfat would be 47.44 (Hip Constant)+21.33(Abdomen Constant)-37.39(Height Constant)=Bodyfat of 30.98

Let's find her bodyfat in pounds. In this example, let's say this person weighs 145.
145 X .3098= 44.921 or roughly 45 pounds of fat. That would leave 100 pounds of LEAN BODY MASS.

FOR MEN:
Measure your wrist at the point where it bends, in between the wrist bone and the hand 3 times. Get an average. Subtract your average wrist measurement from your average waist measurement. Weigh yourself and using the chart below, find your bodyfat percentage.

Wrist Minus Waist


The calculation for lean body mass is the same for men. Let's say our male is 25, weighs 200 and had a waist measurement of 35 and a wrist measurement of 7. His waist minus wrist is 28 and following the chart, makes for a bodyfat of 15 percent. Multiplying 200 by .15 gives us 30 pounds of fat and 170 pounds of lean body mass.

Please keep in mind these are APPROXIMATIONS. If you want to go hard core, you can get hydrostatic weighing performed on you and know exactly what your bodyfat is (and stop obsessing about it!). Here's a link:
http://www.southernct.edu/exercise_science/humanperformancelaboratory/

Now that we have the approximate bodyfat and lean body mass for both of our fake subjects, we can determine several things. The first is ideal weight.

Age                     MALES                                   FEMALES
10-30                  12-18%                                    20-26%
31-40                  13-19%                                    21-27%
41-50                  14-20%                                    22-28%
51-60                  16-20%                                    22-30%
61 and older        17-21%                                    22-31%

To find you ideal weight range, take the 2 percentage numbers from your age and sex and subtract from 100.

For our 47 year old woman, 100-22=78 and 100-28=72.
For our 25 year old man, 100-12=88 and 100-18=82.

Next, divide your lean body mass by those numbers and multiply by 100
Our woman will be (100/78) X 100=128 and (100/72) X 100=138
Our man will be (170/88) X 100=193 and (170/82) X 100=207

Using this example, our woman should lose anywhere from 7 to 17 pounds and our man is ideal and could even afford to gain a bit of weight.

Now using our lean body mass numbers, we can find the protein requirements for these two individuals. Simply take the lean body mass and multiply the appropriate factor below.

Sedentary=No physical activity whatsoever use 0.5
Moderately active=if you average 20 to 30 minutes of exercise 2-3 times a week use 0.6
Active=if you exercise more than 30 minutes 3-5 times a week use 0.7
Very Active=if you exercise an hour or more 5 or more times a week use 0.8
Athlete= use 0.9

*If you are 40% or more above your ideal weight, you need to move up a category because of the stress of carrying all that extra weight around.

In our example, we will say our woman is moderately active and our man is active .
Our woman needs 60 grams of protein a day. Or roughly 20 grams a meal.
Our man needs 119 grams of protein a day. Or roughly 30 grams a meal.

Please remember, these are MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS. People aspiring to lean out and improve performance need to increase protein intake. Just as an example, our 200 pound man could eat up to 2 grams for every kg of bodyweight. In his case, 200 pounds=90 KG, so 90 multiplied by 2 is 180 grams of protein a day.

The point of this post is to make sure you are getting ENOUGH protein. Just to give you an idea, a  3-4 ounce piece of chicken breast has 30-35 grams of protein. So if you are our 47-year old woman, 8 ounces of chicken and you are at your minimum. Not too hard, right?

Well....it is if you are a vegetarian or (gulp) vegan. More on that later! Also, more on QUALITY of proteins....but for now, I just leave you to your calculations!