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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, welcome back. So first thing to cover quickly is I had a message of my sister Sophie yesterday. She sends me this message about every six to eight months saying should I do this plan by X trainer or should I do this or should I do that? My answer has always been the same: track your calories, get your deficit and your protein, get your steps in and do some work that you like. She has been doing that and she's lost eight pounds but she's still looking for more.
Speaker 1:It's very common between people. You're still looking for more, you want things quicker, you think someone's plan will have something secret in it, You think your local PT will have some secret sauce that nobody's ever thought about that might be the thing that triggers phenomenal change, as opposed to patience and time. Remember I mentioned in the podcast last week that quote: You plus patience plus time. Nothing beats those things. So we all want to get places quicker.
Speaker 1:We all want to climb the corporate ladder or make more money or get leaner or get stronger or rush into even relationships. Everyone wants to do it faster now, quick, let's go. But very rarely does that work out for us in the long term. I mentioned a study in this that the lower calorie diet group versus the moderate calorie deficit group, you'd think they'd lose more fat. They claimed they were eating less calories, but they didn't lose more fat over the study.
Speaker 1:They actually lost less fat than the moderate group. The reason for this isn't some magical thing, it's just that they didn't actually stick to the calories they were given because it was too low. So not only did they eat more than their targets, they actually exceeded the other group's calorie intake by quite a margin. Watch out for your mind playing these games. You want quicker weight loss, you want it to happen quicker for a certain event.
Speaker 1:Know, it's got to be realistic, right? If you've got to drop a few pounds in a month or two, it's fine. But if you're saying I want to lose 20 pounds in six weeks, you're like, that's pushing it'. So message the Sophie for the thousandth time in her life. Stick to the basics, there is no secret, time and patience.
Speaker 1:They're very simple concepts. You must follow these concepts really if you want to be pulled away from this hellhole of desire always back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, waking up in the night thinking about this, doing that, contemplating this, contemplating that, wasting so much time when all you've to do is focus on the basics every day and over time it happens. Come on, what are we doing? One more thing to cover before I get into the topic today. There's people in the group as well saying I've tracked but on and off I know I can be better and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:The thing to remember about tracking is that you don't have to be perfect with tracking, far from it actually, to get results. Consistency doesn't mean every single day, it doesn't mean that for me. Consistency is just like resilience. You have one or two or even three days in the bounce, like a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you've got parties, blah blah blah. Hey, you've consumed too much energy.
Speaker 1:When this happens, you don't see this as a negative. You see this as a positive that your body has been given the energy it needs to really perform in the next few days. On Friday, Saturday, Sunday for me I went to my friend Gio's house for his birthday, me and my friend Gio and Jack. Wanted have Indian takeaway Friday, we did. I'm not going to say no to it, he ordered it in.
Speaker 1:We went for food, we went for brunch, he had things made by his family, whatever. I'm not saying no to these things. And when I look at my calorie intake, 4,000 calorie days easily. Some of them just four thousand four thousand five. And I woke up yesterday like four kgs heavier than I was a week ago.
Speaker 1:Now that's not all fat, obviously not. But instead of seeing this as a negative, I realised quickly how full I felt. My muscles were full. I felt really like wow, I feel quite strong. I've given my body a lot of energy and nutrients that it needs.
Speaker 1:So when I trained yesterday, did the workout in the morning in jiu jitsu, felt great. I felt strong, I felt like it was a good workout, I felt like I had the energy. And that's how you need to see these things, guys. If you end up consuming more energy than you need, you better put that to work. Body's now, your muscle glycogen is likely topped up which means you can put more work through the muscle.
Speaker 1:You can go and utilise it as opposed to sitting on it and being like oh why did I do that?' Well okay, you've done it. You're going to feel good doing the workout. You might even do your best workout because your strength and stuff will be in a good place. So that's how to see it. Anyway, I want to cover this podcast on protein actually because a lot of people ask about protein, they've never eaten more protein, calories protein.
Speaker 1:They're like why one, why should I care about what is it about protein, all this stuff. I'm going to take things from book Alan Aragon has done on the research on all this stuff and I'm just going to read that out to you because it's important and it's very succinct as well. This is going to be the everything you need to know about protein. Some of them might bore you, but it's important to know. Protein was first discovered by a Dutch chemist in 1838.
Speaker 1:He based it on the Greek word proteus, which means first rank or first importance. Protein's a necessity for sustaining life as well as the multitude of crucial roles protein plays in the body. That's why you name them. So all cellular processes involve protein in some way. Protein functions as structural components, enzymes, hormones, immune factors, transporters, acid base regulators, and neurotransmitters.
Speaker 1:The single largest tissue store of bodily protein is our skeletal muscle. The importance of maintaining the health and functionality of muscle tissue cannot be overstated. Like I've mentioned many times as well. Protein is known to most of the readers of this book as one of the macronutrients, with the other two being carbohydrate and fat. Macronutrients have also been called energy nutrients since they provide calories: four calories a gram for carbs and protein, nine calories a gram for fat, to fuel the myriad of bodily processes.
Speaker 1:There's controversy over whether alcohol can rightly be classified as a macronutrient, but it technically does provide energy at seven calories per gram. Protein is considered an essential nutrient because the body cannot biosynthesize enough of it to maintain health and survival. Protein therefore must be obtained from the diet. Proteins are large molecules consisting of amino acids. Of the 20 amino acids that compromise protein, nine are considered essential amino acids and thus must be obtained from food.
Speaker 1:A perpetual narrative in dietetics curriculum is that the general population overconsumes protein to a degree that's detrimental to health. This claim is unfounded and the concern is overblown. The latest National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data shows the protein intake of US adults averages eighty eight grams per day, which amounts to 14 to 16% of total calories. This is within the Institute of Medicine's acceptable macronutrient distribution range of 10 to 35% of total daily calories. Furthermore, the intake of one point one gram per kilogram is not excessive by any scientifically sound standard.
Speaker 1:In fact, it's suboptimal for older and dieting populations who are physically active. Okay. Regarding concerns for kidney health, a recent '28 study meta analysis compared high protein intakes, 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight, or 20% energy intake or 100 grams of protein per day with normal to low protein intakes of 5% less energy intake from protein per day. Okay? It was concluded that higher protein intakes have a trivial to nonexistent effect on kidney function.
Speaker 1:Furthermore, a series of studies by Antonio and colleagues with protein intakes ranging from 2.5 to 3.4 kgs and trial durations ranging from two to six months found no adverse effects on kidney function or any other health parameter. In addition, a high protein intake averaging 2.8 grams per kilogram over the six month period in trained women had no harmful effects on bone mineral content or density. In other words, the average American's protein intake is far from problematically high. If anything, it may be too low. So here's the hierarchy of protein.
Speaker 1:Okay? So you've got a consumed protein. You've your protein target. What's more important? Is it the total amount?
Speaker 1:Is it the distribution throughout the day? Is it the timing? Okay. So here's it in ranking of importance. So you wanna focus on the first ones.
Speaker 1:I say first, and obviously going down you can start tweaking. The first thing is total daily protein amount. This is the most influential factor for all goals as far as protein is concerned. Although it's theoretically possible to get total daily intake right but lack quality to a critical degree, it's somewhat far fetched. Harvin, Lorraine and colleagues saw no significant differences in muscular size and strength gains between vegans and omnivores, and this presumably was due to the sufficient total protein daily intake of 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.
Speaker 1:I'd still reiterate that the use of untrained subjects leaves open questions. Nevertheless, in the big picture, total daily intake is the weightiest factor. Once you've got that covered, you might want to move on to step two: Distribution of protein through the day. Refers to the spread or pattern of intakes or dosing, spacing and positioning of protein over the course of the day. For example, there's ongoing research comparing the impact of evenly spread versus skewed feeding patterns, higher versus lower feeding frequencies, and broad versus time restricted feeding windows.
Speaker 1:While all of these are potentially important lines of inquiry, they take a distant backseat to total daily protein intake. Third factor, timing of protein relative to the training bout. This factor has to be has to have the least impact, especially in programs with typical multiple protein feedings per day amounting to an adequate total. A case can be made for the utility of specific timing of protein in cases of exceptionally low meal frequency (one or two meals a day). In that case, the positioning timing of protein can potentially influence training performance or muscle growth, but even then it's rare that individuals consuming one or two meals a day have pressing concerns of optimizing either of these goals.
Speaker 1:In contrast to protein and fat, strategic timing of carbohydrates can be a critical factor for endurance performance. When it comes to protein and fats, when you're looking at these and if you're tracking fats as well, it doesn't matter throughout the day. But carbs, you've got to be timing them before your workouts, during the workout, especially if you're doing endurance. But again, most of us are not doing endurance based sports, like ninety minutes plus per session. Some of you are, so you need to look into it, but a lot of you don't have to worry too much about it.
Speaker 1:The general population without specific athletic or body composition orientated goals, aside from general health, you can see in protein at a minimal range of 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram per day. This is 50 to 100% greater than the RDA. If you're using our apps, you'd definitely be in this range. It's important to realize that the RDA was derived from studies on sedentary individuals using nitrogen balance, which is a crude and archaic method of estimating changes in muscle protein status. Therefore the RDA, now over forty years out of date, does not apply to the physically active and or dieting, so that means if you're trying to lose weight populations or the elderly.
Speaker 1:Just ignore the RDA. A few more things then maybe it's important. Maximise muscular growth can be achieved with 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. It's not as much as you think when you look at some PTs and stuff who recommend protein intake, but it's still a bit higher than you would be eating without tracking. So 1.6 grams per kilogram, for me that's around 135 grams of protein a day.
Speaker 1:When I was 16 to 20 and I weighed less, I was 2,002 hundred-two 50 grams a day. Was making sure I'd try and do that but really I didn't need to push it that much because the diminishing returns. So I could have made it less stressful for myself. We don't need to go super high, but we need to get it right. Let's have a look at few more things that may be important.
Speaker 1:So high quality proteins are characterized by high digestibility and high proportions of EAAs. Protein quality ranking systems include the protein digestibility corrected amino acid score and its successor the digestible indispensable amino acid score loss. Animal derived proteins, so meat, fish, poultry, eggs and dairy tend to be higher quality than plant derived proteins. Animal proteins have shown greater anabolic responses in head to head comparisons, examining muscle protein synthesis. Animal proteins generally have higher EAA and branched chain amino acids.
Speaker 1:Among the BCAs, leucine acts as an anabolic signaling molecule and plays a key role in stimulating muscle protein synthesis and suppressing muscle protein breakdown. But overall it doesn't really matter, it's total the matter. Let me explain this bit now. Of the nine studies in the meta analysis, three favoured dairy protein and six showed no significant advantage of either protein type. None of the studies found Psy to be superior performer, either animal protein one or it was awash.
Speaker 1:Only two of the studies involved optimal total protein intakes or or above 1.6 grams per kilogram. Only one of the nine studies involved resistance trained subjects. A more recent larger meta analysis by Lim and colleagues included that younger adults 50 years or less had greater absolute and proportional lean mass gains with animal versus plant protein supplementation. Still, this meta analysis suffered many of the same limitations as a machine as a method analysis. So he goes on to say basically just focus on total protein.
Speaker 1:If you then want to look at protein quality you can, but overall, total quality first. Right? So let's have a look here. He does suggest if you do wanna optimize it, that you consume 15% more protein if it's plant based than animal based. So say, for example, now 1.6 gram per kilogram, someone weighing eighty kgs, that's a hundred and twenty eight grams of protein a day.
Speaker 1:But if you were completely plant based you would try and go for 147 grams a day. This is for optimization, again it's not really required for all of us listening. The main sex based difference relevant to certain protein intake targets is the higher proportion of body fat in women. Since women have a lower proportion of lean mass, total body weight based protein recommendations can potentially be skewed towards overestimating women's needs. However, this dilemma can be solved relatively simply by starting at the lower end of the optimal range of 1.6 gram per kilogram.
Speaker 1:Men and women can use 1.6 gram per kilogram as a baseline from which to adjust upward. It's reasonable to assume that women require less protein per unit of total body mass since they tend to carry a higher proportion of body fat than men. Don't have to worry about going too much or matching men. A lot of advice out there is based for men, so it's important to realize that. Fasting is not your friend if your main goal is muscle growth.
Speaker 1:I would say a lot of us should be focused on muscle growth and muscle retention. I had a question yesterday about fasting. Just don't see the benefit of it personally. Obviously some people do it for religious purposes, I'm not saying that's fine, but why would you fast if one) it's not optimal for muscle growth, it's not really optimal for your day to day. Let's be honest, if you're fasting you're going to be thinking about food a lot more than someone who isn't.
Speaker 1:Some people say 'yeah, but after day two you feel fine'. On the day you're fasting you're probably thinking oh, starving, this and the smell of food' everything's heightened because you were abstaining from everything. All you're thinking about is food. There's just no need to go into it. There's some reason potentially to say maybe it's better for gut, I don't know, there's not much evidence in this type of stuff.
Speaker 1:It's all speculation right now. If you're thinking of your body requirements, your energy requirements per day, your training, you want to make sure your muscles recover, want to be giving your body what it needs. You want to make sure you're getting your protein in, you're not leaving a daze without protein, you're not letting your body break into muscle tissue, that's not good. It's not good at all. And he mentions so these little quarts he's got.
Speaker 1:Thus, based on the acute research to date, we argue that the lost opportunity for amino acid induced muscle protein synthesis with more feed ins may not be compensated for which fewer feed ins at higher doses which is likely to occur with intermittent fasting. It is our position that intermittent fasting likely represents a suboptimal dietary approach to remodel skeletal muscle which could impact the ability to maintain or enhance muscle mass and quality, especially during periods of reduced energy availability. Basically, in plain English, if you're going to be doing intermittent fasting and trying to lose weight at the same time, you're making it harder to hold on to your muscle mass. When you lose that muscle mass, it's a lot harder to gain it back. For example, it takes 2,800 calories to build one pound of muscle and 700 calories to lose it.
Speaker 1:That just means it's way more expensive to build it and it's much easier to lose it. So if you need 700 calories of energy it'll break a pound of muscle down. If you were to build it takes 2,800 calories of energy. So it's way too expensive to want to throw away. Good God!
Speaker 1:If you look at a lot of studies on people getting older and metabolic health and stuff, muscle is one of the main things behind your quality of life as you age. You lose muscle you lose function, you lose function you lose lifestyle, you lose motivation, all this stuff you're always handing on. You keep your muscle mass, you make it strong and active over the years. You'll be feeling when you're 60 you'll still feel 40, when you're 70 you might still feel 50. That's the difference it makes.
Speaker 1:So please take this seriously. I hope this was a good overview of protein. It might be boring but I have questions about it and that's really just as succinct as you can get on the vast research on protein worse about. Apologies if it was a bit bland on the information, but please come back to this episode about protein. Listen to it a few times if I were you.
Speaker 1:Have a good day, sweet to you soon.