Prefer to listen? Check out the audio recording of this lesson.
¿Prefieres español? Escucha esta lección en español aquí.
By now, you’ve probably already heard a lot about protein. In Level 1 and the Metabolic Jumpstart, we covered how protein, fiber, and healthy fats are the critical building blocks for resetting your metabolism. Now it’s time to dig deeper into protein as a tool you can use to help continue to get the best results.
Protein helps sustain energy and support your immune system. It’s the glue that holds every cell in your body together, from your hair and fingernails to your bones, organs, and muscles. You can think of that as its day job. When it comes to supporting weight loss, protein works overtime.
Protein and metabolic health
For starters, protein has a stellar reputation for reducing cravings. This is in part tied to the effect it has on reducing the levels of ghrelin, a hormone that lets the brain know when your stomach is empty and you need to eat.
Furthermore, protein works a lot like fiber (though they’re not interchangeable). Like fiber, protein is slower to digest and break down into glucose, so it both helps you feel fuller for longer and helps prevent blood sugar spikes. As you may remember, blood sugar spikes cause the body to store energy as fat. Protein helps you avoid that fate and burn more energy instead.
Protein and muscle mass
On top of helping with cravings and blood sugar, protein plays another fascinating role in weight loss: building and supporting muscles. Why is this important now? First, muscle is the body’s furnace. It burns a lot more energy than fat does. But there’s a second, crucial reason protein matters here: When you’re losing weight, your body isn’t just losing fat, it’s losing muscle, too.
Research shows that when you lose weight by eating less without making other lifestyle changes, about 20% of your weight loss comes from critical lean body mass—which includes muscle mass and bone and organ density, the stuff you actually want to keep. Thanks to its amino acid composition, protein can work against this kind of muscle loss. It’s so effective at this, in fact, that there are different protein requirements for when you’re actively losing weight.
Getting the right amount
In this class, we’re going to focus on getting sufficient protein in a delicious and satisfying way. How much protein is that though, you ask?
The US Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for protein is .36 g of protein per pound of body weight for adults (you’ll often see this as .8 g/kg). But this is just the baseline—the minimum amount of protein adults should consume for basic nutritional needs.
But here’s where it gets tricky: People who are losing weight, who are over 60 years old, or who are looking to build lean muscle mass are advised to get even more, because this population is more prone to losing lean body mass.
The below guidelines will serve as benchmarks for what most Americans can benefit from:
Just like your water goal from Level 1 Method (which maxes out at 120 ounces of water no matter your body weight), it is possible to overestimate your protein needs. If your numbers are even higher than the examples above, keep in mind that you can always calculate your protein needs based on the ideal body weight for your height.
And if all these numbers feel overwhelming to start, remember—you can always meet yourself where you are. Start by aiming for the minimum RDA (.36 grams of protein per pound of ideal body weight) and work your way up from there.
A quick refresher from science class
It’s not just about how much protein you’re getting. Quality plays a huge role, too. Protein is made up of 20 amino acids—think of them as the building blocks for your body. Only 11 are produced by your body itself, which means that the remaining nine —called the “essential amino acids”—have to come from the food you consume on a daily basis.
Complete protein sources contain all nine essential amino acids that your body needs. Think lean meats (such as chicken or turkey), fish and seafood, eggs, quinoa, soy products (like tofu, tempeh, and edamame), red meat, and dairy (such as Greek yogurt and cottage cheese).
Incomplete proteins are protein sources that include some (but not all) of the essential amino acids—so it’s important to eat a variety to ensure you’re piecing together the daily puzzle of all the essential amino acids your body needs. Think legumes (such as lentils, beans, peas, and chickpeas), nuts, seeds, vegetables (such as leafy greens and cruciferous veggies), and intact whole grains (in moderation). Certain combos of incomplete proteins (like grains, legumes, and nuts/seeds), when paired together, can actually give your body all nine essential amino acids.
For vegans and vegetarians, protein is often a big concern, but with a varied diet and regular meals, you can absolutely get enough protein to keep your body and muscles humming along just fine. The challenge is that you generally have to eat more volume, from sources with more calories and carbs, to get the same amount of protein and balance of amino acids that you’d get from animal protein. So it takes some work to get the protein you need while keeping your portions in check. For more tailored tips on vegan and vegetarian protein intake, click here.
Once you start focusing on getting the protein you need, and become more familiar with the many sources available to you, you’ll see opportunities to add it to every meal and snack.
MAKE IT YOUR GOAL
Your goal for this class is to bring awareness to your protein intake to ensure it’s at a level you feel is satisfying and sustainable.
Here’s how this might look:
Because we know this can be a big leap for some people and leaps take practice, you just need to work on moving closer to this goal to mark it as done.
Note: If you have been diagnosed with kidney disease or underlying renal conditions, please discuss your diet with your primary care physician before altering your protein intake.