You might want to have a look at this message board. I find them quite helpful - and motivational too.
IANA expert in weight training, but that mention of 70 grams of protein sounds awfully small to me, especially if you want to look good at the end of your months of exercising. If you don’t give your body enough protein to repair the muscle fibers you’ve been breaking down, then you at best will be working inefficiently.
Regarding the point about milk protein, I quote from the current issue of Planet Muscle (which I just found and love – the no BS muscle mag): “whey… with gentle low-temperature processing and filtration…can be stripped of most of its lactose, fat, cholesterol and water.”
It specifically mentions cross flow microfiltration and ion exchange methods as ones that get rid of the lactose. If that’s your problem, go for the whey. If you have a philosophical problem with milk or egg products of any kind, I guess you’re stuck with soy, which doesn’t suck.
Also, here’s something from that board mentioned above:
Some might argue that you need MORE protein during cutting so that you minimize muscle catabolism.
However, excess calories are still excess calories even if they are protein so if you’re the type who eats 300g/day or more, I would reduce it when cutting.
**If you’re at around 1g/lb of body weight, I wouldn’t go any lower. **(But that’s not an opinion based on experience, just what I’ve collected from various sources.)
Conventional wisdom says 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (which is, of course, 2.2 pounds), much less than your 1g per pound. In addition, for every hour of exercise, increase it by 30 grams.
I stand corrected. 0.8g/kg is the standard if you are not aiming to build muscles. If you are to muscle building, it should be 1.8g/kg:
Martha McKittrick, RD, CDE, WebMDHealth’s nutrition expert: “The ideal amount of protein to build muscle is 1.8 grams per kilogram of body weight (this comes out to 125 grams a day). [Excess amounts will not harm you (unless you have a kidney that is not functioning optimally), however there is no need to take in this amount of protein. It will not promote a greater growth of muscle and it might actually slow your loss of body fat from the extra calories. …”