Are you eating enough protein?

Your grandma and I worry you aren't eating enough.

If you’ve read the previous post on Additive Nutrition you know my stance: it’s more helpful, positive, and sustainable for most people to focus on getting more of the good stuff than to stomp around mandating that everyone give up sugar. Sure, we could do with less sugar… but according to the CDC 90% of American’s don’t eat enough vegetables and we’re all already overwhelmed.

Embracing that mindset also means knowing what “positive” looks like, and one consistent area of opportunity I find with most clients is an understanding of why protein is important, where to get it into their diet, and how much is “good enough”.

What even is protein?

Protein is considered to be one of 3 “macro nutrients” (the others being carbohydrates and fat).

According to Wikipedia:

• protein is derived from the Greek word (proteios), meaning "primary", "in the lead", or "standing in front"

• First described by modern science - the Dutch chemist Gerardus Johannes Mulder and named by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1838.

• Pliny the Elder (ancient Roman) described egg whites and milk and other substances that were essentially protein and related them to muscles, skin, and blood.

Neat!

Proteins are biomolecules made up of amino acids. Some amino acids our bodies can synthesize; but some we can’t. The ones we can’t make ourselves are called “essential amino acids” because we have to eat them.

Those amino acids are then used to make all kinds of things we care about: hair, skin, nails, the foundations of our immune and digestive systems, neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) and hormones - and a big one for health, fitness, and wellness: muscles and metabolism!

You can’t be metabolically healthy without eating enough protein!

How much is enough?

The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) by the FDA is .8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. But there are a few reasons that guideline is confusing for most people:

• The RDA is actually the minimum recommendation to not be deficient

• Most American’s don’t use the metric system (do you know your weight in kgs?)

• Are you really going to do that conversion math? (we both know you’re not)

Real talk: This would be a long, boring post about math to break all the details down from the RDA to what I actually do with my clients.

So we’re going to skip the long, boring part and if you want me to do that for you, just go ahead and book some time on my calendar. I happily will explain it and delight in an hour shared with you. Mmmkay?

So instead I’ll just give you some easier guidelines you can follow.

There’s a lot of debate about “how much is enough”. Generally dietitians and nutritionists recognize there is a threshold of diminishing returns where the body can no longer absorb what’s being eaten. Some physicians will tell you that too much intake damages the kidneys but there’s not been a documented case of someone with healthy kidneys having this problem.

What will happen if you have too much protein? Some very unpleasant digestive problems (yes, I have hit this threshold. No, I do not recommend it.)

How I handle protein with new clients:

9 out of 10 new clients I’ve had in the last 5 years have not been eating enough protein upon intake (it’s probably actually higher). With most clients I’m shooting for 20% of their calories to come from protein; or at least .7 grams of protein per lb of body weight (note the above RDA is in kgs, but I’ve done the conversion math to lbs).

But jumping someone up to those numbers is often shocking to the digestion and challenging psychologically. Changing lifestyle too quickly often means the changes are unsustainable and the client doesn’t internalize what we’re doing.

Here’s the exact sequence I use with new clients who aren’t tracking their food to create an additive, positive change:

1. Eat 3 meals a day at consistent times

2. Each meal should contain protein

3. Each meal has a minimum of 20g of protein

4. Each time you eat anything have a minimum of 20g of protein

Along the way we check in: how are you feeling? By this point in the game, they’re probably feeling pretty good. More energy, building muscle and metabolism. Depending on their size and activity levels the protein intake at this point might still be too low, so we’ll start upping the protein intake for the main meals.

Remember on this journey: YOU are the expert on YOU. You’re going to know what works for your body and your lifestyle. More is not always better, but getting enough of what you need is going to help a lot.