I'm an old guy. Following the science, it's recommended that the elderly take in 1-1.2 gram of protein daily for every 1 kilogram of bodyweight in order to mitigate age related muscle degradation (versus 0.8 grams for younger people). That recommendation is for sedentary to moderately active old farts. As activity increases, so does protein recommendation.
Besides being old, I work on the farm every day and still do at least 120 minutes per week of yoga/boxing/bodyweight workouts/sprints. I keep a myfitnesspal diary which computes on average, a 120 gram per day protein requirement for me, and that doesn't compute the "old man" requirement. If I worked out at 30 the way I do now, I'd probably look like a gym musclehead. As it is, at 63, all that work just keeps the muscle I have. Congratulations, slowing metabolism, you win.
Hence, it is very difficult for me to meet my daily protein requirements with a balanced, varied diet without going over maximum recommendations on things like fats, sugars, and cholesterol. Eggs, for instance, give you nearly the same amounts of fat as protein, and they throw your cholesterol through the roof. Hence if I eat a lot of eggs (which I do a few times a week), I then have to make up for the fat with low fat food which is also often low in protein. I could do something like eat salmon and beans every day, but that would get boring.
Hence I eat a varied diet to meet my other daily dietary requirements, but supplement with protein shakes to meet my protein requirements. More often than not, that's a protein shake around 4-5PM as my "dinner" to assist with intermittent fasting while getting in that last bit of protein I need to get close to my daily requirement.
This is just me though. You guys do you.
