How much protein do I actually need a day?
For fat loss or muscle gain, 1.6 to 2.2 g per kilo of bodyweight. A 70 kg person lands at 112–154 g, which is where this plan sits. If you carry a lot of fat, base it on a target weight instead of current weight, otherwise the number gets unnecessarily large. Sedentary maintenance needs less — around 1.2 g/kg is plenty.
Is a high protein diet bad for your kidneys?
Not if your kidneys are healthy. Controlled trials in healthy adults, including some running two years at high intakes, show no decline in kidney function. The advice to restrict protein comes from treating people who already have chronic kidney disease, where it genuinely matters. If you have diagnosed kidney disease, this plan is not for you without a renal dietitian.
Do I need protein powder to hit 150 g?
No. This plan uses two shakes a week purely for convenience, and the swaps section shows how to replace them with yogurt, eggs or cottage cheese. Powder is just dried food that is cheap per gram of protein and takes two minutes. If you would rather chew your calories, chew them — the result is identical.
Can I build muscle while losing fat on this?
Yes, in specific circumstances: if you are new to lifting, returning after a break, or carrying significant body fat. That is body recomposition, and high protein plus resistance training is exactly what drives it. If you are lean and trained, gaining muscle in a deficit is very slow, and the realistic goal becomes keeping what you already have.
Will eating this much protein make me gain fat?
Only if it pushes your total calories above maintenance, which is true of any food. Protein is actually the hardest macro to store as fat — roughly 20–30% of its calories are burned just digesting it, against about 5% for fat. The plan sits near 1,800 calories, a deficit for most adults.
Can I do this plan vegetarian or vegan?
Vegetarian works well: eggs, dairy, tofu, tempeh, edamame and seitan get you to roughly 130 g without much strain. Vegan is harder because it removes eggs and dairy, and plant proteins arrive with more carbs attached, so total calories climb. Soy, seitan, lentils and a pea or soy isolate are the practical route.
What are the cheapest high protein foods?
Eggs, tinned tuna, chicken thighs, 5% beef mince, own-brand Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, dried lentils and frozen edamame. Cost per gram of protein, those beat every bar and most powders. The expensive items in this plan — steak, salmon, prawns, jerky — are the first things to cut if the budget is tight.
Should I eat protein before or after training?
Either. The old thirty-minute anabolic window does not hold up: muscle stays sensitive to protein for many hours after a session. What matters is total daily protein, and secondarily spreading it across three or four meals. Eat whenever it fits your day and stop timing it to the minute.
Why is this plan only 1,800 calories?
Because it is written for fat loss, where protein matters most. If you are gaining or maintaining, add 60 g of carbs and 15 g of fat a day and you are at roughly 2,200 without touching the protein. Use the calorie calculator to find your own number before you assume 1,800 is right.
What do I do after the seven days?
Repeat it, or keep the structure and rotate the proteins. The structure is the useful part: four meals, 35–48 g of protein each, carbs around training, fat as the calorie dial. If you want that structure built around your own weight, training days and food dislikes, the meal plan generator does it in about thirty seconds.
