Let’s talk about PROTEIN!

Since we’ve got the new protein in stock at the studio we’ve had some questions about it.

How much to eat, what foods are the best sources, and what a day of meals can look like, to state a few. So I wanted to give you the nuts and bolts of why protein is so important, and how to get more in your diet.

First, protein has several benefits:

• Eating more protein gives your body the building blocks it needs to build more lean muscle mass – which is key to help prevent muscle loss as you age and build muscle from your sessions!
• Reduces cravings and helps you feel full and satisfied with your meals to reduce cravings and snacking
• Helps with fat loss and maintenance of healthy weight
• Helps injury recovery
• Stabilizes blood sugar levels and improves energy
• And it’s also used to help produce important molecules in our body – hormones, antibodies, and more!

If protein was a prescription drug, it would be prescribed to almost everyone. It’s incredibly beneficial.

How much protein should you eat?

When it comes to how much you should eat, there is a LOT of conflicting information. And from everything I’ve learned over the last decade and a half, the general best practice is:

• If you are sedentary, 0.5-0.7 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight
• If you are active, 0.7-0.9 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight, with amounts as high as 1.1 grams per pound showing positive benefits for building lean muscle, losing fat, and staying healthy.

(if you want to learn more, including all the nuances, check out this article at examine.com – they are the only unbiased source of information in the fitness industry I know of and have outright rejected funding, aka a “not-so-ethical bribe” to skew their data, from big corporations.)

You can do the math on this very easily – it’s [your bodyweight in lbs] x [0.8 as a healthy average].

If you’re 150lbs, you want about 120g of protein. If you are 200lbs you want about 160g of protein.

Let’s be real. This probably feels like a lot. You may think “wow, that’s a high protein diet”.

On the contrary. 

The average person has simply normalized a low protein diet. It’s not high, it’s high for your current habits.

High protein is in the 1.0 – 1.5+ grams per pound range, meaning 250g+ for the average person. 

That’s incredibly hard to do for most people, and the juice isn’t worth the squeeze for those of us who want to stay fit and healthy and don’t aspire to stand on a bodybuilding stage or go to the Olympics.

Across the board, as you increase your protein intake to the 0.8g/lb range, you’ll feel all the benefits above, so even if you aren’t hitting the “ideal” amount right off the bat, the benefits will increase as you progress.

Let’s talk about the best sources of protein.

Instead of listing out all the sources, check out this amazing infographic and plant-based protein guide from our friends at Precision Nutrition. I’d recommend bookmarking these links).

In short, lean meats, cottage cheese, eggs, tempeh, lentils, and more.

And from a lifestyle and ease of fitting it into your day standpoint, protein supplements make a huge difference.

They are affordable (especially compared to quality meats), easy to consume (i.e. in a smoothie or mixed with yogurt), and thanks to all the regulations are now extremely high-quality.

Almost all protein powders are on par with butcher-shop quality meats and quality dairy, so you can rest easy knowing you’re eating quality ingredients.

And last but not least, how the heck do you eat that much protein in a day?

The honest answer is with practice. 

We’re so accustomed to our regular eating habits that when it comes to making a change it feels hard.

After all, it’s conscious incompetence (you are aware you aren’t a master of it) at play, and it can be frustrating!

But fear not! As with all skills you can hone your abilities with consistency and practice in much less time than you probably think.

Here’s an example of what I eat pretty much every day so that you can model, adjust, and tweak it for your needs.

Keep in mind although I own a gym, I’m not a die-hard, live for the gym, only eat out of tupperwares and all my shirts are sleeveless, kinda guy. 

I’m into fitness because it makes the rest of my life better, and am not willing to make massive lifestyle sacrifices to hit my goals, even if that means it’s slightly slower progress.

Meal 1: Smoothie ~60g of protein

• frozen berries (right now some frozen mango as well because that’s what’s in the freezer)
• a small amount of peanut butter
• 2 servings of LSFW protein powder
• Water

This takes less than 5 minutes to make, is delicious, and travels easily so I can make it in the morning and take it anywhere.

Meal 2: Lunch ~50g protein

• 1/2 lb meat of choice 
• As much veggies as I am willing to eat (salad, stir-fried, etc.)
• Add some starches if it was a workout day, if not a piece of fruit, preferably a honeycrisp apple!

We typically batch cook/meal prep or at minimum whatever we had for dinner the night before we make extra so we can eat it for lunch the next day. The protein source varies depending on the day, but it’s usually chicken, beef, pork, or fish.

Meal 3: Dinner ~60g protein

This varies, but it’s essentially a slightly larger version of lunch

• 1/2 lb+ of meat of choice
• Lots of veggies
• Starches if it was a workout day
• Once a week or so we have dessert but it’s usually for a special occasion.

Snacks – to be honest I don’t snack a lot anymore, but if I do it’s usually junk food so I limit it. I recently stopped watching TV at night and have been reading instead, and the amount of junk food I eat has dropped tremendously as it’s hard to hold my e-reader if my fingers are covered in chip dust!

I also start my day with coffee and cream because it’s the nectar of the gods. I probably get a couple grams of protein from the cream, but it’s negligible :).

As you can see, this gives me about 150-170g of protein, though it varies depending on the day and food choices, and doesn’t require an exorbitant amount of effort.

You don’t need to copy what I eat exactly, but I wanted to give you a real-world example to show you what’s doable without spending hours in the kitchen (or thousands of dollars at the grocery store). My wife and I keep it as simple as possible.

Next steps

If you’re looking to maintain or build some muscle, improve your energy levels, reduce cravings and snacking, or simply want to live better, adding protein will help immensely.

And if this feels overwhelming, here are your next steps to work on it.

• STEP 1: Take your body weight in pounds and multiply it by 0.8 to get the number of grams of protein per day.
• STEP 2: divide that number by the number of meals you eat. That’s the goal for grams of protein per meal on average.
• STEP 3: start practicing, knowing you won’t nail it right off the bat, and work on slowly increasing your protein intake. You may need to grocery shop a bit differently, check out some new recipes, and adjust your lunch habits, but it will come.

PRO TIP – I’ve already alluded to it, most people should use a protein powder. I wouldn’t hit my goals if I didn’t use it, and for a couple bucks a serving it’s hard to argue with the quality, convenience, and price.

There are lots of great options, and LSFW members get 25% off their first bag with us. It’s high quality (my kid eats it), and for the price of a cup of coffee a day you get a ton of benefits.

Once you get into a routine and have made some changes, then you can start to level up your game with varying sources for different amino-acid profiles, timing of when to eat for optimal results (spoiler, it turns out timing doesn’t matter as much as we previously thought), and start making changes to see what works best for your body and goals.

Again, start simple, and the first step is simply getting more protein – that covers 90% of the benefits.

Ready to make protein a game-changer in your life? Click HERE to schedule your session and let’s turn your protein-powered aspiration into reality!