Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Micro wisdom delivered to your ears every morning in voice notes ranging from 3 to 15 minutes long. Wisdom on how to live a healthier and more fulfilling life. Every podcast will ground you in the present moment to ensure you know what's important, the here and now.
Hello. Good morning, everyone. So I was on a debate with someone about the fact that they were saying, listen, you only need to get a calorie deficit to lose weight. You don't need to worry about protein. Okay?
Speaker 1:And there's a truth to it and the fact that calories is important. Your energy intake is important. If you're not in an energy deficit, you're not gonna lose weight, right, or lose fat more specifically and lose lose tissue either, muscle tissue. So why is it that we actually focus on protein as well? So what's the point of focusing on protein if perhaps it doesn't help for fat loss or weight loss?
Speaker 1:So there was an actual research done on this, and I think it's a very important research to be reminded of, and I remind myself of this often is and the tight it was titled higher compared with lower protein during an energy deficit combined with exercise promotes greater lean mass gain muscle and fat mass loss. And this was a randomized control trial, which means it's one of the top quality studies you can get. So we've always theorized like high protein helps us feel fuller from our food, right, which is great, which means maybe it's gonna make us eat less, which which also is shown in the research. So there's research studies out there that let people eat whatever they want or however much food they want. And one group has got, like, no protein kind of target than one group has.
Speaker 1:And the group that kind of hits a protein target then is told you can eat whatever you want, eats considerable less protein per day even if they don't track it themselves. So protein does bring our satiety up, which means we feel fuller, which means we may eat less over the day over the day. And protein also, when it comes to one part of our metabolic rate so our met metabolism, as a reminder, is made up of four components. So what we mean by metabolism is, total energy you need a day to basically function in everything you do. 50 to 60% of that energy is needed for your kind of survival stuff, like your organs, everything working, just you functioning, surviving.
Speaker 1:50 to 60% of that is your, BMR, base metabolic rate. Then you've got the other 40%, and this can vary, with the one of them is your thermic effect of food, which is the calories needed to digest the food you eat. So, obviously, the more food you eat, the the higher this will be numbers wise, and the less food you the less it'll be. Then you got physical exercise, which is the smallest component. That's why there's a lot of things out there that says, you know, working out isn't great for fat loss, which is true because, well, all weight loss is true because it doesn't burn that many calories, but it can help with muscle, and I'll talk about it in a minute.
Speaker 1:And then the last one is your NEAT, your non exercise activity. And I you know, some of you might be thinking, you've gone over this before, Scott. I know. I know. But it's important to know about this right now so when I get into this, into this research.
Speaker 1:And your NEET is one of the things you can change the most. Some people, it could be 5% of their total energy burned a day. Some other people, it could be 30% of their total energy burned per day. It's one of those factors that you can really change. It's one of the variables that you can actually make a big difference in, and one of the main ways to increase this is your step count.
Speaker 1:So if your step count goes up, you're moving, you're standing up, you're, you know, you're you're always on the move. And I'll always remember the stats on if you're laying on your back, okay, versus sitting upright, you burn, I think, 4% more calories sitting up than laying on your back. So if you're watching TV laying on your back for sitting up. If you stand up, you're burning 19% more calories than if you are laying on your back, sit, standing up. If you're standing up and walking really slow, it's something like 58% more calories are burned, moving.
Speaker 1:So just understanding the differences in energy requirements body needs by if you're laying on a couch all day, but if you just sit up maybe or just if you're taking a phone call standing up and walking around at a really slow pace, this is all gonna add up over time. It becomes like a lifestyle. You become more of an active person, and your metabolic rate will be generally higher than it was before. So this kind of this study looked at, if you go into an energy deficit, what happens if someone's on a higher protein versus lower protein? Is there is there a difference?
Speaker 1:Or is is the protein benefit simply because the thermic effect of food of protein is higher? So out of the metabolic rate, thermic effect of food is maybe 15%. But the reason protein is considered to be, to be better for weight loss is that for every 100 calories of protein energy, it requires 20 to 30 calories or 30% to actually digest it. Right? So you you net gain less energy than carbs and fats.
Speaker 1:They're near a 100%. I think fats are like 98 to 99% and carbs are like 95%. So for every 100 calories of carbs, 95 calories five calories are used to digest it, essentially. For every 100 calories of protein, 20 to 30 calories are required. So over over a day, over a week, you might find that a higher protein diet means and or more percentage of your calories coming from protein means that you use more energy to digest, so then it makes it easier to get into a deficit.
Speaker 1:Does that make sense? Don't worry if it's not making sense right now. It's just one thing people are saying. So as I was debating with someone and saying, protein only really works because it fills you up, so you eat less, and actually, you it requires more calories to digest it. That's why it's better.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's there's some fat loss benefits of protein. But let's have a look at the, the what the research showed. So they used a four week period, and they went into a 40% reduction in their energy intake, so 40% under maintenance. One group was to consume 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram. So if we could use my weight, I'm eighty two kilograms.
Speaker 1:So that's me eating ninety eight ninety eight grams of protein a day. And then the other group was told to eat 2.4 grams of protein per kilogram. So that would be me eating 2.4, which mean a 196. So, basically, nine so, basically, 98 grams of protein a day versus a 196 grams of protein a day for me. So basically double.
Speaker 1:Right? You may think, well, what's the difference? And they were doing workouts, by way. So they were doing workouts six days a week, which is important here. So results showed this.
Speaker 1:The protein group high protein group had a greater loss of fat mass than the control group which is the lower protein. Okay? All measures of exo performance improved in both groups. Alright? And the protein group actually gained muscle, and the other group didn't gain.
Speaker 1:They slightly lost. Okay. So the results show that during an energy deficit, consumption of a diet containing 2.4 grams of protein per kilogram was more effective than consuming 1.2 in promoting increases in muscle and losses of fat mass when combined with a higher volume resistance training program. Okay. So you got 4.8 versus 3.5 of fat mass.
Speaker 1:So that's, you know, 1.3 kilograms more fat mass was lost. And also 1.2 kilograms of of lean mass was gained in the high protein and naught point one kilograms was gained in the other group. So this is a big difference. And it doesn't just come down to the fact that protein is makes you feel fuller and you need more protein for digesting. Protein is used in every cell in the body.
Speaker 1:Protein helps maintain muscle mass. When your body is in a deficit, it will take energy from your fat stores, but it'll also take energy from your muscle. If it needs a breakdown muscle fringe, you'll do it. So whatever you can do to preserve that muscle, it's very it's more likely that the body will keep going to the fat stores for energy as opposed to using muscle as well. It's just kind of protective mechanism of it.
Speaker 1:So as I mentioned in yesterday's podcast when I covered the Minnesota starvation experiment where it showed that people's hunger levels didn't return to normal after semi starvation. So after twenty four weeks of semi starvation and losing loads and loads of weight, they didn't feel normal hunger levels again until their muscle mass was replaced. But their muscle mass weren't replaced until their body weight, their fat mass was a 180% beyond what it was before, which means their fat mass was easily regained. Right? So they went from lost a lot of fat and muscle.
Speaker 1:They gained a lot of fat back once they were able to eat again, but it took them a significantly longer time to build the muscle back. And only when the muscle went back to baseline before starvation did they the hunger levels come down again. So losing muscle makes it a lot harder to have control of your energy intake and your kind of hunger leg levels and signaling because the signaling will always be strong to keep eating, to regain the muscle mass because it's so important for us. So when I was debating this person, it's like, so all all we gotta do, right, when you and you you might look back at yourself and when you're twenty, thirty years in time and go, well, so Scott was saying all I had to do was be in an energy deficit, which I can track and is fine, eat a higher protein diet, which, yeah, to start with for some of you might be difficult because you're not used to it, you might be eating 80 grams a day or 70 grams a day, then you might have to think about increasing the portion sizes you already have of protein foods.
Speaker 1:So you might have to double the portion size of the meat you eat today. You might wanna add some protein yogurts in, extra like baby bear lights, some protein bars, protein shakes, stuff like that. But once you've nailed that and actually the minor inconvenience of just planning food a bit to get your protein up and look at the benefits of it over the next twenty years of your life, you will kick yourself for not doing those two things, which is calorie intake and protein intake. Making sure your calorie intake comes down to make sure your body fat comes down to being in line with what you wanna be as a healthy human being. And then also your protein intake to be high enough over the long enough period of time that you maintain your muscle mass, so you're metabolically healthier as you get older.
Speaker 1:Right? And when you look back at all you had to do was kind of a bit more mindful about your eating, a bit more mindful about planning protein foods, you're gonna really kick yourself for not doing this because it's so hard once you've lost muscle down the line to put it back on. Very, very hard. And one member mentioned to me after the podcast yesterday, I wonder how much damage I did to myself doing all the yo yo diet, and I wonder how much harder I made it for me to kinda just lose fat and keep her off. Because remember, they were done a yo yo diet, lost 20 pounds of fat, and probably lost three or four pounds of muscle.
Speaker 1:Put the 25 pounds of fat back on and not gain the muscle back. So feel even worse, feel hungrier back to baseline before they started the diet. They're even hungrier again. And I've seen this in our own research we did on, I think it was four was it 4000 or 1,000? I think 4,000 Slimming World so so 4,000 people from Slimming World and Weight Watchers asked them a bunch of questions, did the data analysis, and, yeah, it showed the more diet someone did, the more likelihood the likelihood is they were trying to lose weight for the rest of their life.
Speaker 1:Because they were trying to lose it fast and regaining it, feeling super hungry again, losing it, losing more again, and regaining it. And then they get to the tenth cycle of your dieting, they're 30 pounds heavier than they were before the the the 10 cycles ago, and their their muscle mass is down by 10 pounds. So their body fat percentage is way higher. Does that make sense? And it's not to scare you.
Speaker 1:It's to show you that the small actions every day are actually all you need to do. The small actions are gonna really help you. Your calorie intake, your protein intake, and if you're gonna do the steps, it's important to do steps, okay, 7,000 plus steps is good place to start a day. Training for 7,000 if you're below it. If it'd if you're beyond 7,000 steps, happy days, but make sure, know, your seven is your foundation.
Speaker 1:And then resistance training. This study obviously had six workouts a week, but we know from other recent studies now and especially with the new guidelines from the American Heart Association that two strength or resistance training workouts a week is enough. Two. Okay? So it's not much.
Speaker 1:It's not complicated. It's not that you have to follow some crazy plan. You can even use your body weight. You can just do the basic exercises twice a week and over time increase the weight or increase the intensity, and that's all it takes to kind of maintain or even gain muscle mass during these phases, and that's gonna help you a lot with your journey. So this is just a reminder really of the importance of a higher protein diet.
Speaker 1:If you're on the apps, your protein targets already been worked out for you. Depending on your experience and stuff, you might start on the lower end of the scale, and then you'll gradually increase to be in a higher higher protein to be more towards the, like, optimal part of the range. But it's a gradual process. It's never, like, trying to make you completely overhaul everything. You'll be closer than you think when it comes to this.
Speaker 1:So, look, it's exciting news. It means you don't have to do super crazy, you know, six hours of exercise or cardio a day with, like, extreme carnival, keto diets, and all its nonsense. You just gotta track your calories and your protein and your steps and maybe do two workouts a week. And you'll see me in ten years and you'll be glowing. And you look back and go, wow.
Speaker 1:I'm so chuffed I kept those habits because they're so simple but effective. And that's really what this is all about. It's the simple stuff done over time that's super effective that gets you results, nothing complicated. And remind yourself as well on, the Pareto's principle, you know, the 20% of what you do delivers 80% of the results. 20% of what you do for weight loss delivers 80% of the weight loss results.
Speaker 1:So those 20 percents are calories and protein and steps. Everything else is the details. 20% of the tasks you do at work will deliver 80% of the results. 20% of the workforce actually do 80% of the productivity. It's everywhere.
Speaker 1:So focus on the 20 and don't get pulled into the 80 that delivers the 20, if that makes sense. Because that's what social media is all about. Focusing on the 20 that doesn't matter. The 80 that doesn't matter delivers the 20. So it's a lot more effort for little re little gain back.
Speaker 1:But other than that, have a good weekend. You see, Easter weekend. There's a crazy article in The UK, like, doctor was like, I urge everybody not to eat a full Easter egg in one go. Mate, grow up. Why not?
Speaker 1:There's no thin chocolate as an Easter eggs. If you probably condensed it, it's probably two chocolate bar, two normal chocolate bars. Get over it. If you wanna have a full Easter egg, guys, have it. The only thing I would say is, there is a point where you overeat, that you actually become bloated, and you actually feel horrible, and you don't wanna socialize, and you feel sluggish and heavy and you don't feel great and you won't become the person you wanna be over the weekend or to enjoy the social side of it maybe.
Speaker 1:So just take a step back, not in terms of, like, weight gain or weight loss, just take a step back and go, am I actually gonna feel terrible after this, like, third egg? Or should I just calm down a bit now because I don't wanna be on the couch in pain because I've got so many so much food in my stomach. That's really what I would say is the main benefit of not overindulging over the weekend is to not get into that state. So just have a step back sometimes, think, am I being in Madrid now or am I being a bit silly? And you might stop yourself eating that thirteenth, dairy milk Easter egg.
Speaker 1:But I think I'm gonna go for, but they're all the same, honey. Come on. Let's be honest. They're all the same. I want a Reese's Easter egg with the the the the thing in the middle, giant Reese's one with a peanut butter in the middle, but I don't think they'll make up probably against the law or something because there's so much sugar in it, which isn't bad.
Speaker 1:It's just like, if so, you know, we will eat it in one go, and, we'll have the biggest glucose spike of all time, and then I'll be jailed by the glucose goddess in Instagram. Anyway, I'm rambling. Have a good weekend, and I'll see you back on Monday.