Wait a minute, is a strength coach about to tell you not to eat protein?
No, but I am about to tell you that the current trend of throwing protein at any and everything is f*cking stupid and unnecessary.
If you're new here hi, I'm Justin. Online strength & conditioning coach for the parent that is sick of restarting their fitness routine every month. I've worked in the fitness industry since 2015 and in that time I've helped hundreds of real people just like you build bodies that life can't break. I bring a sort of educated, realistic and nuanced approach to health & fitness that influencers wouldn't understand.
Anyway, when the hell did this happen? When did we decide that protein being good for us means we should throw it in everything? I'd like to have a word with who decided this because they f*cked up so much stuff.
Like seriously, protein water? Protein Mars bars? What are we doing, man?
If you don't believe that those are real things, Google it.
People involved in fitness have always known that protein is important. That's not newsworthy. There's a documentary from the 70s called "Pumping Iron" that follows Arnold Schwarzenegger and the bodybuilders from that era and they are already talking about the importance of protein. Surprisingly, the things they say about it are almost better than a lot of what is said today, but you didn't hear them talking about protein waters and Mars bars, they talked mostly about chicken, steak, eggs... real foods.
I'm not against SOME supplemental protein like a whey powder, but even that should only be used as a SUPPLEMENT to a mostly whole foods diet.
So like I said, those involved in fitness have known about the important of protein for a very long time now, but somewhere along the line the mainstream media got its claws into it and sort of f*cked it all up. We've started thinking that a 130 lbs person needs 200 grams of protein every day.
"Protein is important for building and repairing muscle" turned into "you must only eat protein, protein must be in everything you eat and protein is the only thing that matters. Protein, protein, PROTEIN."
Oh, that gigantic muffin is super calorie dense and probably not great to eat a lot of? Not anymore, it's got protein in it now.
Chocolate bars are very high in added sugars and saturated fats so we probably shouldn't eat them super often, right? Wrong, protein. Eat up.
We've gotten to the point where we believe that the word "protein" makes something a health food. Protein chips, protein pasta, and I'm sorry but I still can't get past the protein Mars bar.
Yes, protein is an important part of our diet especially if you are participating in a regular exercise routine.
Carbs are also important, fats are important, FIBRE IS IMPORTANT.
I feel like I'm starting to ramble, so allow me to pause for a moment and take a deep breath.
*Inhale, exhaaaaaaaaaaaleeeeeeeee*
Alright, so my purpose here today is to tell you what protein actually does for our body, discuss how much we actually need(less than you think) and some easy ways to get it that don't involve chips.
Protein = muscles, right? On the surface, yes the main job of protein is to build and repair muscle tissue. But protein has more jobs than just muscle.
Every protein in our body is composed of amino acids. If our muscular system is a building, protein is the bricks that form the building and amino acids are the cement that form the bricks. These amino acids are folded a particular way within the protein, and the way they are folded determines the function that protein will serve.
In addition to muscle building, protein is a big contributor to DNA replication which is a massive and important process that is always ongoing within our bodies. Protein also serves as a catalyst for several different metabolic processes within our body AND it provides structural support for skin, hair and fingernail cells among others.
Ask any fitness professional and I can almost guarantee that "how much protein do I need to eat?" is in their top 3 most asked questions.
There have been many answers to that question over the years as science and data has evolved but we've often been led astray by bodybuilders and fitness influencers on social media.
I'd like to hark back to "Pumping Iron" for a second. Arnold talked about how he and the other bodybuilders in the 70s would eat about 1 gram of protein per pound of their bodyweight. So if Arnold weighed 230 lbs he would eat 230 grams of protein. Surprisingly, that's actually not far off and is better advice than some of the modern bodybuilders and influencers. I've seen some people with large social media followings say that we need to be eating 1.5-2 grams per pound of bodyweight and that they eat like 300-400 grams of protein per day, and because they are jacked and ripped(steroids) their advice is taken seriously.
I cannot emphasize enough that that is not backed by evidence at all.
Recently we've kind of settled on a definitive answer. Sort of.
Allow me to keep it stupidly simple for you. If you're not in a calorie deficit you don't need any more than 1.6 grams per kg of your bodyweight. If you are in a calorie deficit to lose weight you can bump that number up to 2.2 grams per kg of your bodyweight.
Having more than that won't hurt you, but it also won't give you extra benefits. You can take those calories from the superfluous protein that you would be eating and have them from carbs instead, which would actually benefit your training performance and therefore, your gains.
Finding that number is super easy but in the interest of being thorough I'll break it down using a person that weighs 150 lbs.
We need to find this persons weight in kilos, then multiply it by 1.6 or 2.2 depending on their situation.
150/2.2 = 68.2 kg
68.2 x 1.6 = 109.1. Round to 110.
68.2 x 2.2 = 150.
You may be asking why the number is higher if you're in a calorie deficit so let me tell you.
Carbohydrates are what we call protein sparing.
When we are in a calorie deficit our carb intake is lower so we don't have as much glycogen/glucose available to fuel our muscles for activity, so occasionally amino acids from protein will be broken down and converted into glucose for energy. This doesn't happen when we are not in a calorie deficit and have more carbs.
Protein amount is important, but protein quality is important too. I've mentioned amino acids a couple of times and in case you didn't know, amino acids are what form the proteins that build the muscle. There are 9 amino acids that are what we call "essential", meaning that our body cannot synthesize these amino acids on its own so we must get them through our diet. Foods that contain all 9 of these aminos in amounts that can trigger muscle protein synthesis are what we call complete protein sources, and herein lies the problem with all of these weird protein foods.
We want most of our protein to come from complete sources, and all of these foods that just have the word protein attached are not that. It's not that the protein from incomplete sources doesn't count, it does, but if we let too much of our protein come from these incomplete sources our muscles aren't going to get what they need to effectively recover and grow. Not to mention, the complete protein sources come with important things beyond just protein. For example: chicken contains a wide range of B vitamins, red meat is very high in iron and vitamin B12, and tofu contains mono and polyunsaturated fats as well as calcium and iron just to name a few.
You aren't going to get those things from a bag of Quest chips.
I think part of the reason things like the Quest chips, protein bars and whatever else became so popular is because we've been told that we need SO MUCH protein and it seems like it's really hard to get the necessary amount through the regular foods. I hope I've shown you that you don't actually need that much, and before I head out I'm going to show you how simple it is to get the amount that you need. Let's use this same 150 lbs person and we'll say that they are NOT in a calorie deficit so they are shooting for roughly 110 grams of protein.
BREAKFAST - 1 cup Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup oats, 1 tbsp flax seeds, 1 tbsp chocolate chips, 1/2 cup blueberries = ~29-32 grams protein
LUNCH - 100 grams sliced turkey, 100 grams sourdough bread, sliced carrots = 25-30 grams protein
SNACK - Whey shake, apple = 25-30 grams protein
DINNER - 150 grams chicken thigh, 1/2 cup rice, mixed greens = 40-45 grams protein
TOTAL = 120-135 grams protein
That's even more than this hypothetical person would need. See how simple that is?
ALSO, PLEASE don't take anything I wrote there as any sort of prescription or meal plan. This is purely meant as a quick example of some possibilities.
Before I head out, I'm going to answer another super common question that a lot of fitness pros receive, and that is "how do I increase my protein?"
- Make your existing servings bigger - This is easily the lowest hanging fruit for increasing protein. 1 egg becomes 2, 1/2 cup of Greek yogurt becomes 1 cup, 2 ounces chicken becomes 4 etc. Nobody out there consumes zero protein, so just take what you're already eating and just make it a little bigger.
- Opt for pre-cooked/packaged - There's nothing wrong with shooting for convenience. The cooked rotisserie chicken, the individual Greek yogurt cups, the beef jerky strips, the dried edamame are all very good and valid options to take with you on the go.
- Supplement - A protein supplement can be convenient and helpful in reaching your protein needs, provided that it's used as a SUPPLEMENT to a food based diet. Whenever possible opt for a whey or plant based shake instead of the weird bars and chips though, as the shakes are usually just dried and powdered food.
We don't have to reinvent the wheel or eat a bunch of weird sh*t to get more protein in our lives. Like most things in our health & fitness, it just takes a little bit more awareness and planning.
You can drop a comment here, or my DMs on social media are always open and I'm happy to chat.
Let's do better and be our best selves together.
I believe in you. See you next time.
-Justin
P.S. - If you're a tired parent that keeps telling yourself "I'll start working out next week" I want to to talk to you. Let's work together and build a routine that is simple, repeatable and survives your week.
Fill out my form and let's talk about online coaching.
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