episode 124: the protein episode: what you need, why you need it and how to get it
This is the protein episode. Why you need it, how much you need and how to get it.
Protein is the foundation of a nourishing, satisfying, satiating diet and is essential if you are working on fat loss. If you’ve ever wondered about your protein goal for weight loss, you’ll get the answer here.
In today’s episode I’m covering all of the specifics you need to know without getting over complex or too science-y.
Here’s what I’m talking about:
Why protein matters in terms of muscle gain and loss and complex cellular processes that you take for granted cellular functioning your body,
Why women need to be even more focused on protein
Why and how protein plays a significant role in fat loss
Why protein is the most satiating of the 3 macros
A realistic daily protein goal for weight loss
How much protein you need per day
How to make slow, sustainable changes to your protein intake
Some key differences between plant and animal protein and how to choose what works best for you
How protein impacts cravings
Why the RDA guidelines on food labels aren’t enough
Protein is a game changer if you have struggled to lose weight and keep it off, if you are constantly snacking late at night and between meals and/or if you deal with intense cravings.
Eating more protein can often feel scary and overwhelming for people and my goal with this episode is to address those concerns and offer simple, usable tips to make changes that will last.
I have even more resources about how to add protein to your diet in this blog post and this ultimate guide to protein bars.
Download the macro cheat sheet I referenced here
(Note: In this episode I reference edamame as not having all the essential amino acids. That is incorrect--edamame happens to be one of the few plant based proteins that DOES have all 9 essential amino acids). This article gives a helpful list of nearly complete plant based proteins.
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[00:00:00] Hey everyone. It's episode 124 of The Diet Diaries, and today I'm gonna talk about protein. I kind of feel like this episode is a little bit long overdue. I have done a lot of Instagram posts about this. But it is always a really kind of hot topic of conversation, um, between, with clients, with friends, people are always just kind of like, I feel like asking me what's the deal with protein?
[00:00:28] There's a lot of misconceptions, there's a lot of myths, there's a lot of misunderstandings. Um, so I want to share with you today all of the relevant info that you need to know so that you can. Figure out how to incorporate protein into your diet. And by diet I just mean your way of eating in a way that works for you.
[00:00:49] But that also overlaps with your body's kind of physiological needs and aligns or lines up with your goals. Um, so it's kind of like this three part thing where we've got, there's the biological, physiological needs. There's kind of like the laws of science and how protein affects our body physically.
[00:01:07] There is our eating kind of preferences. And then there are our goals, right? And how do we get those three things to overlap? That is sort of like the sweet spot. Another reason why diets don't work, because diets don't take into account preferences. Um, they also often don't take into account our body's physiological needs.
[00:01:26] They kind of only focus on goals and approach them in a very kind of all or nothing way. Before I dive in, I've been doing this every week, just a friendly reminder about the spring weekend retreat. Registration is going to close May 1st. So this episode is gonna air on Monday, April 17th. That's actually gonna be two weeks from today.
[00:01:45] The retreat is May 19th, the 21st. So we're getting really close. And if you. Or ready to make moves, it's time to make the move. Right. I've been talking about this since I think December, January, um, and I know so many of you have shown a lot of interest and have been clicking on the links and reaching out and sending emails.
[00:02:02] Um, so this is it, like now is the time. You've got two weeks to kind of make a final decision. I know it's not easy to make yourself a priority in this way, um, from a time standpoint, from a financial standpoint, from an inconveniencing other people's standpoint. And I will tell you that. Creating a way and giving yourself your own undivided attention is a total game changer.
[00:02:26] Um, so. Reach out if you've got questions. I'm gonna link all the details in the show notes We are going to be having. It's gonna be a series of mini workshops. It's a really small personal environment. It's, um, we're gonna be spending the weekend together. Um, it's a beautiful renovated house up in the Catskill Mountains.
[00:02:43] It's all inclusive. Um, that includes dinner with a private chef, um, all other breakfast, lunches, dinners, all the workshops, a little goodie bag, all the stuff. Um, That's that. Let's dive in. Let's talk protein. Okay, so I have a lot of notes kind of written on this. There's a lot of things to cover and I'm gonna do it as kind of systematically and with as much organization as possible.
[00:03:06] Everything will be in the show notes, obviously for you to refer back to as well. And I probably will include, I think maybe a link to a couple of, um, kind of helpful resources or worksheets that. I'll kind of mention, so right off the top, right off the bat here, why does protein matter? Like why is this such a hot topic?
[00:03:26] So protein is the building block. There's a, there's many reasons, and I'm gonna give you them in no particular order. Protein is the building block of muscle, and muscle is a very metabolically active organ in your body. There's a couple of, um, researchers and scientists that I'm following who are referring to muscle as the organ of longevity, and I think that's amazing.
[00:03:47] Um, how much muscle you have on your body. There are some direct correlations. To, um, uh, lifespan to fall risk to injury risk. So as you are getting older, which we are all getting older every single day, the amount of muscle that you have on your body directly impacts your overall wellbeing and your quality of life as you continue to age day by day.
[00:04:12] Um, women. My primary audience is women. We are losing muscle at a rate of three to 8% per decade after the age of 30. Now, I know you heard 3% over the course of 10 years, and you're like, oh, that's nothing. But if you add that up af, they're the age of 30. That's really young. So by the time you're 60, that's 9%.
[00:04:33] That's almost, it could be even higher. That's the low end. If it's 8%. In 30 years, by the time you're 60, you've lost close to 25% of your muscle mass. That is massive and that is definitely gonna have a huge impact on your quality of life, your ability to move, um, your mobility, your confidence, your ability to walk long distances, to pick up heavy grocery bags, just like functional day-to-day life stuff.
[00:05:01] Protein is the building block of muscle. If you are not eating enough protein, that rate of muscle loss will accelerate even more. Now, here's the thing. A lot of you are thinking, well, if I look on like the, you know, the label on the side of like the food packaging, it basically tells me that I need 50 to 60 grams of protein a day.
[00:05:19] And what I will say is that that is the amount that is recommended so that you are not deficient. That is not what is recommended to, for optimization, for optimal life, for optimal health. Very, very far off. Eating 50 to 60 grams of protein is basically just enough to like keep you alive, right? That's, that's what that number is.
[00:05:41] So that is not a fair. Accurate or helpful number in terms of what you actually need day to day. I'm gonna get into how to calculate that number and there's kind of like a little bit of a range. Um, I'm gonna get into that, but I wanna kind of go back and just kind of continue talking through why protein is so important.
[00:05:58] So it's the building block of muscle. So eating enough protein, which is well above that, 50 to 60 grams a day. Is going to help mitigate muscle loss and can also help you along with strength training, help you gain muscle or at, at the very least, maintain the muscle so that you're not losing as fast at a, you know, at a very deep physiological level.
[00:06:20] Proteins are involved in every cellular function of your body. They are part of enzymes and hormones and they facilit. The most, um, detailed, complicated of chemical processes throughout your body that we don't need to think about or talk about, but that allow you to live the way you do without even thinking twice about it.
[00:06:40] All the things we take for granted, the complexity of the reactions and the, the kind of domino effects of things that happen in our body every second of every day is mind blowing. And protein is a. Huge part of that. In addition to muscle, your, um, tendons and ligaments are also made of protein. And if you've heard of collagen, which I'm sure you've had, because the new trend is to take collagen supplements for your hair, skin, nail, and joints.
[00:07:08] Um, our connective tissues, the specifically, um, tendons and ligaments are made up of collagen. Sidebar. I talked about this on Instagram stories recently, but I'll say it here cause it's totally relevant when we eat protein. Our body breaks it down into amino acids. Those are the building blocks of protein.
[00:07:26] Your body doesn't know where that original protein came from. If it came from a collagen powder, it came from a steak. If it came from yogurt, if it came from tofu, it came from edamame. So your body's gonna break it down into its amino acids and it's gonna shuttle it off to wherever it needs it. Your body doesn't say, oh, Jordana just had a scoop of collagen powder in her smoothie.
[00:07:48] So I'm gonna take that protein, I'm gonna shuttle it over to the hair, skin, and nail department. Like it doesn't work that way. So put collagen into your smoothies. Yogurt, it's coffee, all of the things, because it's a really simple, easy way to get extra protein. Not because it actually benefits your hair, cannas.
[00:08:07] There's no research that backs that up. That is marketing. If you've seen an improvement, great. It could be just because maybe you're eating more protein in general, not because it's specifically coming from collagen. Um, so just wanted to kind of sidebar mention that. So couple of other reasons why protein is important.
[00:08:24] Again, in no particular order, I haven't even gotten to like the food part of it yet. Protein has what's called um, It, it, it, it requires the most energy to digest. So it takes more energy to digest protein than it does carbs or fats. Um, so if you are someone who is focusing on fat loss, that plays a role, it's not a huge difference.
[00:08:46] But it, there is enough of a difference that it is called out and noted kind of across the board, um, as it's, um, has the, uh, highest thermogenic needs, right? Thermo always refers to like heat and kind of metabolism. Um, so it just requires the most energy. And when I say energy, I mean calories. Calories are unit energy.
[00:09:06] So protein. Uses up more calories to basically mat, digest and metabolize than carbs or fats do. So if you are someone who is focusing on fat loss, if you're eating more protein, then your body is going to be using up more energy to digest that protein, burning more calories. Okay? This is science, right?
[00:09:23] This is straight up science. This is not. Necessarily a reason why protein is better, but these are like the facts and we have to look at them and be able to kind of incorporate them into this conversation objectively. Um, again, doesn't make protein good and carbs and fat bad because they don't require as many calories.
[00:09:38] It's just how the body works. So let's kind of now get into like the food piece of things. Protein is the most satiating of the three macros, the three macronutrients, macros being short for macronutrients being proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. It is the most satiating. It will meaning it will cause you and help you to feel full, the fastest and the easiest.
[00:10:01] One of the reasons that that happens is because there are nerve endings in your gut that actually respond. Sense amino acids. Remember, amino acids are the building blocks of protein. So as the food is getting broken down in your digestive tract, there are nerve endings in your gut that can sense those amino acids, and then they send a signal to your brain to trigger fullness.
[00:10:24] It's pretty fucking cool. Um, So that is huge. So if you are eating a meal without protein, you are not getting that, that, um, communication to the brain, right? You are having to rely more heavily on volume, on eating a large volume of food to get mechanically full, meaning to kind of like fill your stomach and you're not getting as much of that.
[00:10:48] Um, kind of, I'm gonna say like chemical fullness. And by chemical I just mean like the signaling that's happening from the amino acids to the nerve endings up to the. Both are important. You want to leverage both to feel full, not really just one or the other. Um, and that's why like if you've ever eaten, like, I don't know, I can't think of an example, but like if you've ever like just eaten like a really high protein meal, like you feel satiated pretty quickly.
[00:11:16] Um, and that is one of the reasons why protein also plays a huge role in cutting down on cravings. It's, we don't, we can't really overeat protein unless it's like a super fatty cut of protein and then you're kind of getting a lot of that savoriness and kind of that like umami flavor. Um, like if you're in like a really fatty cut of brisket.
[00:11:38] Um, I'm trying to think of like something else that's really just what's coming to mind. A meat like that might be easier to overheat, but leaner cuts of. You're not gonna overeat that the way you would eat overeat, like chips or cookies or any kind of, um, uh, higher carb, higher fat food. So protein helps cut down on cravings, um, and.
[00:12:01] If you eat, especially eating a protein with a carb or with a fat, that's like a really nice combo, especially if you we're thinking about snacks, which I will talk about snacks a little bit. Um, pairing protein with a carb can help kind of mitigate, um, the impact on blood sugar. When you eat the carb, it'll actually cause your blood sugar to grow plus, which is a good thing.
[00:12:21] Um, and the more protein that you spread out across your meals, across the. The less likely you are to have really strong cravings that you can't feel, that you feel like you can't control. Um, and kind of in tandem with that, because protein is emo shading, it's gonna help you reduce snacking, right? If you are having.
[00:12:43] A, um, sufficient portion of protein at every meal. I'm gonna talk about what that is. That is going to play a huge role in getting you to that four to six hour window between meals so that you're not feeling hungry an hour and a half to even, sometimes three hours later if you are consistently feeling hungry or looking for food.
[00:13:04] One, two, I'm gonna even go up to three hours after meals consistently, once in a while, three hours, fine, but consist. You are probably either A, not eating any protein at that meal, or B, not eating enough. Um, because again, we can't feel full enough just on carbs and fats. You have to eat so much of it. If you have a fat law goal, eventually that's going to catch up, right?
[00:13:31] Because you have to eat more food, more calories, and that's going to, you're not gonna be able to be. A cold wart deficit if you're having to eat such a large volume of full food to stay full because you're not eating enough protein, which can get you full faster without as much volume essentially. So that kind of talks through why protein matters.
[00:13:54] All right? I really believe I've experienced this in myself. This is what the research shows. This is what I see in my clients. That protein is the foundation of making changes around food. You cannot make long-term changes around cravings, emotional eating, fat loss, um, portions, all of these things without understanding and learning how to incorporate more protein into your diet.
[00:14:26] Um, when you see people trying to do it without protein, It's much harder, it's a much bigger struggle. And when you, the then, if you, if you're looking at the stuff I started, the, the why protein is so important that I started with in terms of, um, muscle loss, maintaining muscle mass, um, uh, you know, fall risk mortality and all of that.
[00:14:52] Like, you cannot, you cannot underestimate the importance of protein right across all of these. Um, kind of components. So if you're listening to this and you're already like, oh my God, I don't eat protein at breakfast, I only eat like a little bit. I don't eat protein at every meal. I get it. The majority of people are coming from a very carb focused diet.
[00:15:17] And throughout the course of this episode, I am going to, this is definitely gonna be a longer episode. We're already 15 minutes in and I haven't even talked about half of what I wanna talk about. This is gonna be a long episode. There's a lot to cover. Um, I am going to give you very doable, actionable. Um, tips, skills to work on, to incorporate slowly.
[00:15:34] This isn't a, you go from eating 50 grams of protein a day to eating a hundred grams of protein a day tomorrow, it will be overwhelming. You'll do it for three days. You'll be like, I can't do this. This is terrible. This is a nightmare, and you'll stop. Like anything slow, small, doable increments, it could take you months to build up to the protein level that is more optimal for your needs.
[00:15:56] All right, so. I wanna also briefly talk about, kind of before I start to get into more of like the tactical things about how much you need and when to eat it and how to get it. I'd mentioned a couple times that proteins are made up of amino acids and there are 20 total amino acids that we are, that we get through food.
[00:16:20] There are nine. Let me, let me, let me back that up for a second. There are 20 total amino acids. Nine of those are called essential amino acids, which our bodies cannot make. So before I said there's 20 amino acids. We get through food. That is true, but 11 of those are bodies can actually make on our own.
[00:16:39] There are nine of them that our bodies cannot make, that we have to get through food. That is why you've probably heard the term essential amino acids. Called essential because you can't, you have to eat them. That's the only way to get them, and they are essential for you to survive and live. I am gonna talk about animal protein and plant protein, and I will say that animal protein gets you all the essential amino acids, plant proteins do not.
[00:17:06] You have to pull them from different plant protein sources. So let's say for instance, um,
[00:17:16] I don't know. I'm trying to think of, of an example, like edamame right? Is not gonna. All of the essential amino acids. So you might have to pair edamame with lentils, with tofu, with pea protein. You have to pull it from different sources, which means you're going to need to eat more food. And I would say that most people who eat a plant-based diet are not thinking about all the.
[00:17:37] Amino acids, they're probably deficient in some. And so if you are someone who is eating a plant-based diet, this is definitely something you want to be aware of. You wanna be getting yourself a list, the nine essential amino acids. I can even post them in the show notes. And you wanna be looking at what are your go-to protein sources and making sure that you're getting them in some combination, because over a long period of time that will cause you will have, you will have issues.
[00:18:02] Um, they're not called essential for nothing. So, I'm not, this is not an episode about animal protein is better than plant protein. Plant protein is better than animal protein. I have worked with clients who have eaten only animal protein. I have worked with clients, clients who have been plant-based.
[00:18:21] There is no judgment. That is a values-based decision that you choose for yourself, but also you can't ignore the science. The science is the science. Amino acids. We can't, we can't like say, oh, I wanna eat a plant-based diet and then ignore the fact that I'm not getting all the amino acids I need. Right?
[00:18:38] Like that's, you have to also take the science, I kind of said that at the beginning, like those kind of three parts. You have to take the science into account when you're making these decisions for yourself. Um, okay, so let's now start to talk about, I'm gonna go back to plant-based proteins. I'm gonna kind of weave it in.
[00:18:59] Let's talk about what is serving. Let's talk about how much protein you need today. Don't freak out. I'm gonna tell you right now. Do not freak out. I am going to give you numbers you can do with them, what you will. Numbers can be helpful. Sometimes they can be unhelpful, but this is a podcast. I'm talking to a wide group of people.
[00:19:17] So you're gonna take what feels helpful for you and you're gonna put the rest aside, a good starting point. To get an idea of where you want, how much protein a day is to take your body weight and multiply it times 0.75. Now, if you are someone who is currently. In a bigger body, right? And you are carrying a lot of extra body fat that's gonna give you a really high number of protein, more than you need, right?
[00:19:51] So you can drop that, that multiplier down to like 0.4 or 0.5. So, and if you're unsure as to kind of where you fall, just send me a message. Um, I don't wanna use like bmi, I don't want to use that stuff. If you know that your body that you are carrying around, I'm gonna say 30 to 40 extra pounds of body fat right now, you're not gonna use that multiplier.
[00:20:17] You're gonna use like 0.45 to 0.5 to get your grams of protein per day. If you are kind of more in like a, um, you know, I'm gonna say kind of like average body weight, um, you know, maybe you've got like me, so I weigh. Anywhere between a hundred seventy five, a hundred eighty pounds. I'm a size 12, right? Do I have extra body fat on me?
[00:20:42] Yeah, I do. Like we, this is not what this episode is about. I'm still gonna use that 0.75 multiplier. So for me, it comes out to like around, I think it's like around a hundred thirty five, a hundred forty grams a day. The number that you get is going to be a lot. It's going to shock you. It's going to freak you out.
[00:20:55] Take a breath. It's okay. That is not something you need to do tomorrow, and that's not a hard and fast number. I would take that number and give yourself like, you know, Take like even 20 to 25 grams off of that. Give yourself like a window every day cuz having to hit like a very specific number. Not that you ever need to do that, but even in the context of if you are someone who that's helpful for hitting a pinpoint number is hard, having a range is more helpful.
[00:21:23] So you can even say 0.65 to 0.75. Right. And kind of give yourself that range that is. I think a really helpful way of doing it. So take your body weight, multiply it times 0.65 to 0.75. If you are someone who is in a bigger body right now, you're gonna use a smaller number 0.45 to to, let's say 0.45 to 0.55, and that's gonna give you a number that feels much more realistic as you if you are working on fat loss.
[00:21:50] And as you start to lose some of that fat. This reminds me of another reason why protein is very important, which I'm gonna talk about in the context of fat loss, then you would slow. Increase, right? You would then start to change your multiplier. This brings up a very, very important point, and I actually wanted to do a separate episode about this, so I'm not gonna get into into it in too much detail.
[00:22:11] But the term weight loss is thrown around all the time. I don't care about weight loss, I care about fat loss. You can lose weight in a whole variety of ways that actually have nothing to do with body fat. Primarily you can lose water weight, and you can lose muscle mass. If you've ever gone on a crash diet, if you've ever gone on a low carb diet, done a juice cleanse, and you've lost a on the scale, a bunch of pounds in like four or five days, that's all water.
[00:22:40] That's not body fat. You are losing weight, you're not losing fat, and pretty much anyone who wants to lose weight actually wants to lose body fat. I can tell you, nobody wants to lose muscle. Losing muscle is unhealthy. And so if you are not eating enough protein, let's say you, let's say you're working on fat loss and you're bo, you're in a caloric deficit, you're on a diet and you're only eating 50 to 60 grams of protein a day, you will be losing muscle mass.
[00:23:06] So you'll be accelerating that three to 8% per decade. You'll be accelerating that and thinking that you're doing your body, that you're doing something good cuz you're losing weight when in actuality, If you're losing weight and you're losing it through muscle, you are not healthier, right? That's going to increase.
[00:23:22] That's gonna impact your bone density. So if you're a woman, you're already at risk for osteoporosis. As you lose muscle mass, that's less load on your bones, it's going to impact bone density and again, If and when you fall, you're gonna be much more likely to break a bone and to have an injury. It's gonna make you, it's gonna impact your mobility, your capacity to move, pick up heavy things.
[00:23:44] And I'm not, I'm not even talking about deadlifting, I'm not talking about strength training. I'm talking about day-to-day life, going to the grocery store, moving boxes around your house, picking up your 30 pound grandkid, right? Um, you have to be eating enough protein. All the time. And if you are in fat loss for all the reasons I mentioned around, it's more filling.
[00:24:04] It helps with crazy cravings. It's gonna help you, um, snack less. It's gonna help you maintain muscle and lose fat instead. Okay? So it's like, well now, so now you've got this number in your head, a range of numbers. And if you know right now that you're only eating probably 50 to 60 grams of protein a.
[00:24:27] Your next bump up, you're gonna think about increasing by like 10 grams a day. That's it. And 10 grams a day is gonna be really easy to get. You're not trying to get to this number right away. Mm-hmm. I want you to think in like 10 gram um increments. 10 gram increments, so that will feel really doable. And something that you can, there's no rush, right?
[00:24:52] Like you've got plenty of time. And so the way you're gonna do that is you're gonna think about it, start thinking about it like this. You're gonna use your palm. Your palm is about one serving of protein. And when I say your palm, I mean the area and also the thickness. So I'm gonna think about like a chicken breast, right?
[00:25:10] If you don't eat me, just bear with me. Um, a chicken breast is, you know, you could think about like one palm, one thickness, and that's gonna be around 25 to 30 grams of protein.
[00:25:25] So that starts, you start to then kind of conte kind of equate, right? If you, let's say your goal right now is to get to 75 grams of protein a day. Well, that would be one serving of protein at each B, right? If one serving of protein is a palm and that's 25 to 30 grams and you were trying to get 75 grams, 75 divided by that.
[00:25:45] 25 in your palm is three one serving a protein per meal. Could you double up? Could you have two chicken breasts at lunch and one at dinner if you're struggling at breakfast? Yes. From an overall protein consumption standpoint, yes. From a. Mitigating cravings, snacking, sat, tidy standpoint, it's not as beneficial, right?
[00:26:06] Cause you're not having protein at that breakfast and you're just eating carbs and fats. You're gonna get hungry a lot sooner and you're gonna be snacking and you're gonna be looking for stuff. So there's kind of multiple facets we need to be looking at. Um, with meat, it's very easy, right? In lean meats, if you're eating a fattier cut of.
[00:26:24] You're still getting like a really good amount of protein, but then you're also getting some fat along with that. Um, if you're thinking about something like Greek yogurt or cottage cheese, which, you know, kind of thinking about that in terms of like a palm serving is like a little awkward. Um, I kind of think about it as like a generous cup, handful.
[00:26:42] And again, I know you're not scooping your hand into a thing of Greek yogurt, but you take, if you take your hand and you cup it and you think a ve generous cup handful would be like a serving of Greek yogurt or cottage. Um, and then if we look at plant-based protein, so aside from, so tofu is, I'm gonna talk about, you know what I'm going to, I'm gonna come back to this cuz this is gonna take me off into another topic that I want to talk through.
[00:27:08] Um, I'm pausing to look at my notes, which I don't often do, but there's so much to go through here. All right, so we've talked about. Eventual goal protein. We've talked about how you're going to get there, which is gonna be in 10 grand increments per day, and I don't mean 75 tomorrow, 85 the next day, 95. I mean, you're gonna work on increasing by 10 grams a day and do that for a few weeks.
[00:27:30] And then once you start to feel good about that, then you're gonna increase another 10 grams a day for a few weeks. Take your time. You want this to be super doable. If it starts to create stress, if it gets overwhelming, you're gonna throw up your hands and be like, I can't do this, and that is the last thing I want to happen.
[00:27:48] Um, and we've talked about kind of what a portion is now. As you think about your overall protein goal. So if, let's say like for me, I can very easily eat 130 to 140 grams of protein a day. I have been doing that for so long, it takes very little effort for me to do that. It's, I just, it just happens. Um, I do that because at, I have a lot of protein at breakfast, whether it's Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, or um, a smoothie.
[00:28:15] I'm easily getting 30 grams of protein sometimes. I always have a protein at lunch. I always have some type of like meat and animal protein, whether it's chicken tenders, whether it's chicken thighs, or I pick up prepared chicken breasts. And then from some of the other ingredients, like if I added lentils in my salad or edamame or those little parm crisps, right?
[00:28:33] Other foods have protein, they're just not efficient. I'm gonna talk about that next. And then dinner again is gonna be some type of fish or meat, always. Um, I cannot eat a meal without protein. I won't be full afterwards. I could eat a giant plate of pasta, like a massive quantity of pasta, and still be looking for food afterwards if there's no protein.
[00:28:55] Um, and that is true for a lot of people. You just don't realize that's what's happening. And so it's a, sometimes like a hard pill to swallow. Um, you don't have to give up. This isn't about giving up food. This is about reprioritizing protein and then letting some of these other foods kind of be like the supportive food instead of the main food.
[00:29:15] Because when you're prioritizing protein, you won't need to eat as much of that food to feel full. And you will, if you're working on fat loss, you will end up eating less overall. Right? So let's say you're someone who has like a giant plate of pasta for dinner with like sauce and cheese. Okay. Is there some protein in that?
[00:29:33] Yeah, there's some protein in it. There's probably like maybe 10 to 15 grams of protein in that total, like in the pasta. Um, and I'm talking about like plain white pasta. I'm not even talking about the high protein pastas, which is still not enough protein. I'm not talking about like pasta alternatives.
[00:29:48] Just, you know, there's too many different like variables that we could go off on. If, let's say you were to add, um, I don't know, some chicken with that and you had a serving a palm. Which is about four ounces, right? So if you wanna know the ounces, right? A palm, is it gonna be four to five ounces ish?
[00:30:09] Everyone has a different size palm. This is not like an exact science, but it is good enough, right? You don't need to weigh everything. You don't need to measure everything. You can use your palm to eyeball, right? So let's say you have a piece of chicken that's about four ounces, and if you eat that, let's say you kind of start to prioritize that.
[00:30:25] First you eat some of the chicken and then like you're having the pasta with. You will get fuller faster and you won't need to eat as much of that pasta. So you still get to enjoy the pasta, the texture, the satisfaction of it, the comfort of it, whatever that pasta is for you. And it's the carb. So we do need a car at every meal, but you won't need to eat as much.
[00:30:44] And pasta's a very calorie dense food and it's very easy to overeat. So if you're eating your chicken with it, and it could be beef, it could be fish. I'm just using chicken as an any protein source as an example. It will start to fill you up. You won't need to eat as much of the pasta. You will eat less overall.
[00:31:01] And that is one way that protein helps with fat loss. There's no dieting, there's no pasta's bad, there's no, you can't have pasta. There's no, I'm cutting out carbs. There is, we are actually adding food, we're adding protein, and then naturally you will eat less of that more calorie dense food that's making it harder for you to lose.
[00:31:26] So I can't remember how I got off on that tangent, but it's all super important stuff. I was talking about how I get that much protein per day. Um, when you think about wherever you're at, we talked about increasing by 10 grams per day of like for a couple of weeks. You can also think about just focusing on one.
[00:31:52] If you have a meal where you're not eating any protein, that could be a good place to start because if you're having a protein and a meal with almost no protein or no efficient protein source, I'm about to talk about what that is, um, then you're gonna be much more likely to get hungry between that meal and the next have more cravings.
[00:32:13] And those cravings can sometimes pop up later in the day. Even if you are having protein at like that lunch and. There can be sort of like these residual cravings that happen as a result of what you're eating or not eating in the morning. I'm not saying you have to start with breakfast. Breakfast is very often a place where people are not eating protein, so that's why I tend to mention it.
[00:32:35] Um, so I want to talk about efficient sources of protein. I'm looking at my notes here. This is, we're kind of getting into. Kind of like the last part of this. I hear from people all the time. Quinoa is a great source of protein. Nuts are a great source of protein. Peanut butters a great source of protein.
[00:32:58] There are protein. There is protein in those foods. Yes, I think two tablespoons of peanut butter has seven grams of protein. I can't remember off the top of my head what is serving of quinoa hats, but along with that protein, that food is made up. A lot more carbs and or a lot more fat. We can just take the peanut butter for ins.
[00:33:19] For example, two tablespoons of peanut butter has, I think it's about 16 to 18 grams of fat and seven grams of protein. So to get that seven grams of protein, you're also eating 18 grams of fat. That's not bad. We need fat. But it is a very inefficient way to get protein. I used to talk about, and you'll hear people talk about good sources of protein.
[00:33:45] This is not about good and bad. This is about efficient and inefficient. If you have to eat a whole bunch of carbs or fat in order to get that protein, that is an inefficient source of protein. An efficient source of protein would be lean animal protein. And depending, definitely low fat dairy, some full fat dairy.
[00:34:11] It depends. It's not really full fat. It might be like four to 5%. Dairy are some of the most efficient sources. Um, whey protein supplement powder. And tofu and fish and shellfish. So let me run through that list again. Your most efficient sources of protein, Turkey, lean Turkey, chicken or pork, that's, I don't mean lean, like 99% fat free.
[00:34:33] That stuff is disgusting. Please don't buy that. Like there's no way you're enjoying that. Have some fat in your meat. 80 20 ground beef, that's a lot of fat. You're getting a lot of fat along with that protein. 90 10 ground beef sweet spot. That 93, 90 7% fat free stuff that is gross. You need fat Gibbs It flavor.
[00:34:53] That's why chicken breasts are like a dried, like, you know, chicken thighs are nice, right? They have a lot more flavor. Um, chicken breasts have their place depends. Lean Turkey chicken or pork lean beef. Fish slash selfish, low fat, and some full fat dairy. Again, I do not recommend fat-free dairy because it tastes like crap.
[00:35:15] Um, whey protein, and there's other protein powders too. Pea protein powders, we can get plant-based. Um, there's egg white protein powder, obviously there's collagen, which does not have, uh, that's missing in esen. I think definitely one, maybe two essential amino acids. Still a great efficient source of protein and tofu.
[00:35:34] All of those, you're gonna have one serving, you're gonna get 25 to 30 grams of protein and pretty much a little bit of carbs. Like the yogurt has naturally like occurring sugars in it, and if there's any added sugar, right? So you wanna be on the lookout for that. So you have to be, when I talk about dairy, cottage cheese isn't usually an issue with, but yogurt, if they're adding a lot of sugar into that yogurt, into that Greek yogurt, that doesn't, that becomes a not efficient source of protein.
[00:36:00] You can just look at the label on the side of the. Look at the grams of protein, at the grams of fat. Look at the grams of carbs from a very, make it as simplistic as possible. You want the number of grams of protein to be the biggest number if this is your protein source, right? That is not gonna be true for quinoa, for peanut butter, for lentils, for edamame.
[00:36:23] And tho and and I. Those are all great foods. I'm gonna talk about them a little bit more. Again, this is science. This is. Plant animal protein is better than plant protein or vice versa. This is science. We have to get clinical and objective about this, and we have to strip out the emotion and you have to just get honest with yourself about how you're getting the food that your body needs and what your goals are.
[00:36:46] And if you are someone who wants to lose body fat, you have to be eating sufficient protein, and that is not 50 to 60 grams. Of bare minimum a day that is working towards that number that I gave you earlier, that 0.65 to 0.75 times your body weight or 0.45 to 0.55 if you are currently overweight or have obesity.
[00:37:13] Um, it just is like, this is science, right? I know we wanna get emotionally charged and get defensive and, and disagree. It's not about that. You have to be able to look at these things objectively. So I just mentioned lentils and edamame. I eat lentils and Edam. All the time. I put lentils in and in my, my salads very often I will make sometimes, um, a side dish with lentils.
[00:37:42] Lentils are a phenomenal, one of my most favorite sources of plant-based protein because they have a lot of protein. They have more than beans, they have more than other, um, legumes, more than chickpeas, and they have a ton of fiber. I'm not talking about fiber, it's a separate episode, but so do, so do ed.
[00:37:58] They have a lot of protein and a lot of fiber. And fiber helps with fullness too. So if you are someone who is totally plant-based or who likes to eat more of a plant-based diet, lentils, edamame, or your best friends, quinoa. Mm, not so much. Quinoa has like, I think it's like five or six grams of protein per serving.
[00:38:16] It's very little and like 38 grams of carbs. And again, I'm just, I, I can't not say it. Carbs not because carbs are bad. It's because when we need protein, we need to get it from efficient sources. If you have quinoa as your source of protein, so let's say you have like a serving of quinoa, that then is also your serving of carbs.
[00:38:36] If you have your quinoa and then you have like beans with that are pasta. With that, you are eating a very carbohydrate dense meal. Money, more carbs than your body needs at one. And therefore more calories probably than your body needs at one setting. Um, if you are someone who eats completely plant-based, you have to eat more carbs to get the protein that you need to get to that level.
[00:39:03] For most folks who eat a totally plant-based diet, a hundred grams of protein a day is where it can ki like for some people, like it maxes out and I know a lot of folks struggle to get. But just keep in mind that in order to get to that a hundred gram level, you are eating a lot of carbs with that.
[00:39:19] That's just a fact. So if you are someone who's trying to lose fat and you're in a totally plant-based diet, you're eating a lot of carbs more probably than your body needs energetically. Um, and so again, this is just science. This is not about things being good or bad or right or wrong. If eating plant-based is very important to you as a person and it's connected to your values, awesome.
[00:39:45] Do it. And also, you just have to be aware of how the science works. Like it's that simple. Um, so, oh, cheese. Forgot to talk about cheese. Cheese has protein in it. Cheese is also a fat, nuts and cheese nut. Butters and cheese are fat. They have protein in them, so they can be kind of like a supplement. Like I mentioned, I've put like those parm crisps in my salad.
[00:40:10] They actually have a really nice amount of protein in them, but it's like one whole serving has I think like 12 grams of protein and 12 grams of fat. I can't use that as my only source of protein. If I needed to get 25 grams of protein in a meal, i'd then also I'd have to get three servings, which would also be 36 grams of fat in a meal.
[00:40:27] Right. If we go back to, I gotta take a sip of water. Hmm.
[00:40:36] If we go back to that number, I'm just gonna use mine as an example. Mine numbers, but like, it'll just call like a hundred thirty, a hundred thirty five grams of protein. I do try to break that up across three meals, so that comes out to like, let's say 45 grams of protein at a meal. I will get most of that from an efficient source of protein that is the foundation.
[00:40:59] Every meal has an efficient source of protein. Like I said, breakfast is either, um, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, or smoothie that has whey protein and the whey protein plus the extra scoop of collagen is that efficient source. Lunch and dinner both have an animal protein always. Then I will have some, like, I'll have some additional stuff which will get me a little extra in the mornings.
[00:41:18] I'll have nuts or chia seeds, which have protein in them, but also have carbs and fats, right? So I'm also pulling in my carbs and fats from some of these foods as I get some extra protein. Right. At lunch I mentioned. I'll have edamame and or lentils or the parm crisps, or there's other things too. Those are just off the top of my head in my salad at dinner.
[00:41:39] Um, you know, sometimes we'll have, we'll have potatoes, um, and potatoes have a little bit of protein in them. Broccoli has protein in it, right? Like, but they're not efficient sources. You'd have to eat. Like, I couldn't even tell you. Ungodly amounts of broccoli to get enough at a meal. So if you take your number, let's say your number, let's say you're working on 75 grams of protein a day.
[00:42:01] I think I already talked about this, split that up between three meals, that's 25 grams of protein a day. You need an efficient source of protein to get most of that 25 grams, and then you can supplement from some of the inefficient sources. So that's what I want you to think about. One efficient source of protein at every meal, and then add in some inefficient sources, which are gonna be your carbs and your fat that also happen to have some protein.
[00:42:27] Right. I'm gonna put some cheese on my salad, or I'm gonna throw some nuts in my yogurt, or I'm gonna put some beans in my salad, right? So I'm getting the carbs, I'm getting that texture and that satisfaction piece. And I'm also getting a little bit of extra protein. So 25 to 30 grams of protein at a meal that is about one palm size, serving at a minimum as your protein needs and your ability to get there go up.
[00:42:52] That's gonna definitely increase to probably one and a half. Palms, right? That's closer to where I am when I have like an animal protein. It's more like one and a half palms. Um, and that is coming from an efficient protein. So protein source at each meal you are working on increasing your pro, your daily protein by about 10 grams a day, but over weeks.
[00:43:14] So again, just I'm, I wanna repeat this as many times. So it's super clear and you're like, I know what I need to do. Walking out of listening to this. If you're at 65 grams of protein a day, your new goal is 75. You can do that by adding an efficient protein source at a meal where you don't currently have one, or you can eat a little bit more of that efficient protein source at a meal where there currently, already is one, right?
[00:43:39] If you're having, let's say, chicken at lunch and a salad, A few more bites of chicken's. Gonna get you 10 grams. It's not a lot. This is not a huge increment. It's let's say like three more bites. Um, it's like one extra ounce of protein. We'll get you like another 10 grams or so. Um,
[00:43:58] and I just lost my train of thought. Um, and I, oh, and then you're doing that for a couple of weeks. So go from 65 to 75 and do that for a couple of weeks, and then go from 75 to 85 for a couple weeks and so on until you get closer to that kind of goal number. Um, I think that's everything. We're at 45 minutes right now.
[00:44:20] This was a lot. I'm going to include resources in the show notes. I'm gonna include the list of efficient and inefficient inefficient protein sources. I'm gonna include those little calculations that you can use. Um, I'm gonna include my, uh, kind of macro cheat sheet. A lot of you have seen that It's like a Venn diagram that has proteins, carbs, and fats, and how they overlap with each other.
[00:44:39] It's a really helpful resource, um, and reach out with questions. I probably missed something. I probably forgot something. I'm sure I did, but I think this is enough to go off of. I hope it's helpful. I'm here for you. If you're like unsure about stuff again, totally reach out. Thank you for listening. Come join me on the spring weekend retreat.
[00:44:58] There'll be lots of efficient protein sources to enjoy and, um, more soon.