Top Five Reasons to Prioritise Protein
If you’ve been following a long so far with my Sixteen Week Transformation, then you’ll know that I’m making protein a large percentage of my daily food intake. In fact, I’m probably getting 60% of my daily calorie intake from protein, 30% from fats and the rest from carbs (found in vegetables).
The word protein comes from the ancient Greek word proteos, which translates loosely to ‘of primary importance’. It is one of the most vital tools we have for creating dramatic fat loss. If you aren’t prioritising protein, you’ll struggle to get in amazing shape. Here are my top five reasons to focus on proper protein intake.
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Protein increases satiety. That means it makes you feel fuller for longer. Research shows that protein increases how full people rate themselves feeling after eating it. They also reported feeling less hungry in between meals. This helps naturally reduce calorie intake while also making you feel less hungry during a diet.
Protein helps support lean muscle mass. Protein is the building block for muscle. Inadequate protein levels could lead to loss of muscle. The more lean muscle tissue you have, the faster your metabolism will be. That means that even while your asleep or sitting at your desk, you’ll be burning more calories.
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Protein helps recovery. When you exercise hard, you damage muscle tissue. Your body then repairs itself stronger than it was before by using protein as building blocks. If you have good levels of protein it will help your body repair itself stronger and fitter. You should feel stronger each time you go into your workout – able to lift or do more. If not, it could be because you’re not getting enough protein.
Protein supports detoxification. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. It takes twenty different amino acids to make a protein. Those amino acids are essential for detoxification in the liver. If you can’t detoxify well because you lack nutrients, you’ll struggle to burn fat, sleep well or have good energy levels, let alone stay healthy.
Protein keeps blood sugars stable. Keeping protein a primary part of your meals will limit the amount of carbs you are eating. That will prevent spikes in blood sugar. Those spikes can be useful in certain situations, but generally you’re better off keeping blood sugars stable for the best fat loss.
Meat, fish and eggs contain the highest levels of protein, by far. If you’re a meat eater, focus on filling up at least forty percent of your plate with these foods at each meal. If you follow plant based nutrition then it’s a bit more difficult but do your best to prioritise beans and legumes, while considering some additional protein supplementation if necessary.
As a quick update for anyone following a long with the Sixteen Week Transformation, here’s where I am currently. I have just finished my seventh day of the first fourteen days of my nutrition plan. I’ve eaten three meals per day of meat and vegetables with one snack of beef jerky in the afternoons.
I have trained three times – I’ll cover the work outs next week hopefully if you guys want to give them a go! Body fat wise, it’s very early days. I’ll check progress at the end of the first two weeks to get the most accurate picture of the changes. For now, I’m just focusing on being consistent as hell and training hard.
Yours in health,
Coach Ben
#coachben
Protein is huge. There's always a lot of debate about fat and carbs. There have been diets that have cut both out, there are advocates that emphasize how important they are, but they seem to go through cycles of popularity. Not protein though! Protein is too important for anyone to even pretend to deny how necessary it is to maintaining health.
Very very true @reidlist. No one debates if you should eat protein or not, right? Great point.
LOL!
Nice post! I can't agreed less with you that the importance of protein to our bodies cannot be over-emphasized. I follow and upvote you.
Thank you for the follow and upvote @comrade! I'm glad you liked the post.
Excellent post! Bring on the protein!
Indeed! It's important to make it protein interesting when you're eating lots regularly because it could get boring. I try one new recipe for my protein per week to help this out.
I am always hungry for protein.
If you can find Ostrich, try it! It was amazing. That will make you even hungrier for protein! ;)
That's a lovely bird. How can I eat it!!
nice food i feel hungry
I am feeling quite full... from protein :p
Thanks for the post. I've been vegetarian most of my life and so protein takes some extra care- eggs, beans, dairy, nuts, and tempeh have served me very well. Tempeh is especially diverse when things feel bland or I want a substantial bite like meat, and it's very cheap and easy to make!
Hey @jspots. It can be tough to get enough protein in as a vegetarian but it sounds like you're taking the right approach. Most vegetarian sources of protein don't have the full range of amino acids required to build complete blocks of protein - that's why you need to eat protein from a variety of sources which you're nailing! :D
@jspot read this article https://www.muscleforlife.com/vegan-bodybuilding/
I'll have to disagree with @healthsquared but also agree with him at the same time. It's a myth that vegetarian sources of protein are incomplete. What is true is they aren't as well absorbed.
Related Studies to support
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8172124
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_Digestibility_Corrected_Amino_Acid_Score
You're right @rusty.saw, 'don't have a full range' was an absolute, and there are absolutely no absolutes. What I should have said was that not all plant based foods have adequate levels of all of the essential amino acids. For example some will be low in Leucine, some low in Lysine, some Valine, etc.
That doesn't mean that they don't have those essential amino acids, but that it would be good to include a wide variety of different plant based protein sources to ensure that we get adequate levels of these aminos.
120g of steak, around 320 calories, contains nearly your entire RDA (recommended Daily Allowances) of essential amino acids. Eating 320 calories of broccoli doesn't get you close to quite a few of your amino acid RDAs but would require you to eat over a kilo of broccoli.
If a food's nutrients aren't absorbed, its nutrition doesn't count, regardless of what nutrition can be measured in it by a machine.
Some great points @rusty.saw, love the discussion!
For sure any vegan will have to do a lot more planning and will most likely need to use supplements. No arguments there.
Vegetarians luckily have eggs and dairy which are both pretty decent if tolerated
Yes I hate the propaganda which will show how kale has protein.. LMAO eat 500KCAL of kale I dare you ;)
There are many sources to get protein from which makes it easy to add to any diet.
Great point - it's not just meat and fish. Variety in a diet is very important, for nutrition but also so it doesn't get boring!
This is great post.upvoted.I actually just joined recently, lets follow each-other and support each-other through this new venture! @Junaidhassan
Thanks @junaidhassan, definitely!
While it's true protein is important, it is not the godlike macro most bodybuilders claim it to be. Supplement companies would have you believe 1+G per pound of bodyweight is optimal, however the science doesn't support this.
In fact over consumption of protein can cause many issues, such as gastro intestinal distress and of course the dreaded room clearing farts.
.8 grams is more than sufficient for the natural bodybuilder looking to build muscle, which is far less than is prescribed by most bodybuilding programs.
.8 was recommended after studying trained athletes and it was observed that .6 was the highest level utilized for protein synthesis.
Read more about this here:
https://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/
Excellent, we can not leave behind in our food proteins because they are an important source of energy in our diet, the secret is to choose those that provide more amino acids of high biological value and that generate less toxic waste and acids, but undoubtedly we must have an adequate protein contribution in the diet for a better health and to avoid diseases.
I won't disagree. I just wanted to chip in that if people are looking for a place to start they run across a lot of bad information when it comes to bodybuilding. A lot of people eating upwards of 2G per pound of body-weight following the likes of Jim Stoppani and other unethical supplement peddlers. They can be setting up their bodies for long term health issues including increased risk of cancer.
It all starts with tracking.. cheers.
@rusty.saw, I think it's too easy to get bogged down in the minutia. Worrying if it should be 1g of protein per pound or 0.8g per pound, really isn't helpful for most people. It's overwhelming and doesn't reflect the actual food we eat, unless we sit and weigh every piece of food we eat.
Though the science of it can be interesting, it's also debatable. You'll find as many studies finding one thing as that find another. You'll also find many coaches and athletes who don't have studies to support what they do, but what they do just works!
Most of us just need to worry about consistently implementing some good nutrition, and part of that starts with including good, varied protein sources with each meal. That could be from meat, beans, fish, eggs, dairy, vegetables or many other things.
Thanks for the great discussion!
P.S. Linking protein intake with cancer risk is an absolute statement that I just can't allow you to post here. Even breathing is associated with risk of cancer so let's not get sensationalist on a post designed to help people eat a little better.
That's not really what I'm saying. Sorry if that wasn't clear. I'm just saying a lot of people are hyper focued on protein eating 1.5 to 2g and this will wreck their health, at the very least it will make their experiences on the toilet not too pleasant.
I also don't think the studies are that debatable. I've not seen anything credible to support over 1g
I don't disagree with your post in it's general sense, that if people focused on the basics they will succeed. That is my entire message. The fact is bodybuidling world is over consuming protein and it's my opinion that it's negatively impacting long term health.
I'm happy to allow you to disagree with that statement.
Regarding cancer, there is evidence to support it, but of course you can make your own decision.
I would just say what is optimal for muscle growth is not necessarily optimized for long term health so people must decide which they want to prioritize.
The post isn't about bodybuilding, nor specific quantities. Studies can only take us so far, by informing real world action.
If I'm trying to keep carbs low and need to eat quite a lot of calories per day, I'll need to eat more than some specific 1g per pound of protein. And I'm not going to worry about it - because I'm eating well, consistently, with good balance.
Eating 2g of protein per pound of body weight will not 'wreck your health'. There's no evidence to suggest that a healthy individual cannot eat more protein if they want to. The problem with all of this is that it creates confusion for people who just want to eat a bit better.
If people are struggling to digest more protein, they might want to eat a bit less or take a look at supporting their digestion. I've actually tried eating 3g of protein per pound of body weight and had non of these digestive issues you've spoken about - everything is very individual.
Studies can only take us so far, they are very limited in their application. Real people, trying things, and seeing what works best for them, is what matters.
If you aren't carefully tracking your input you are most likely consuming less than 2G. Most people under-consume protein when not tracking. Obviously if you are on a lower carb approach it will be less of a problem.
You say "no evidence" and I say there is plenty of evidence for those who care to look, but I guess we beat this horse to death.
Thanks @marialara. Choosing varied, high quality sources of protein, while prioritising veggies, hydration and sleep will all help us avoid toxicity and acidity. Keep making great choices :)
Protein is essential, but also genetics play a huge role. Look at elephants and the muscle mass they have just by eating grass. Look at bulls...huge mass with basically no protein. There is more to this, someone might figure it out one day... Great post, keep it up @muscleroast.com
Genetics definitely play a huge role - elephants and bulls are genetically very large creatures who are designed to eat grass. I'm sure there is protein in grass, the same as there is in many of the plant based foods we eat! I'm not going to try and look up the nutrient break down of grass, however ;)
Elephants are ruminants which create protein from the grass through fermentation. So really they are consuming a lot of protein actually.
Thats true but for a 700 lbs animal, there is no explanation other than genetics. They get to 150 lbs just by drinking milk. If a person is way bigger than another person it does not mean they eat more protein. An ecto morph is just genetically smaller. Protein helps grom muscle after its torn down, and bulls laying down 10 hours a day digesting grass doesnt look like a workout to me. Protein is important we all know, but genetics are genetics and more powerful than anything.
Yes obviously the comparison of elephants to humans is flawed from the start. I just wanted to point out that we don't have a second stomach
Nicely explained. Apart from it, it also helps in weight management by filing us fast and prevent overeating, improves mood by balancing the harmones naturally and promotes healthy brain functioning and learning!