Protein: How Much You Need and Why It Is Important - Episode 48

Protein. Perhaps one of the most debated macronutrients in terms of how much humans really need, whether we are athletes or just weekend warriors, and why it is important for our metabolism. Protein is the predominate way to satisfy hunger but it is so much more, which is why this short master class will help you better understand how to use it your personal diet.

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Jade:    [01:17] What’s going on, everybody? Welcome to today’s show. Today’s show is going to be very quick, about 10 minutes of me covering protein. I literally grabbed this clip from another education I did. The reason I’m throwing this up for you is because I wanted something quick on protein. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about it, people asking me, and I thought this is a really quick protein clip that I can throw up on the podcast and give you guys. There really is no need to kind of go into huge depth in this topic, and I thought this might be useful for you. And of course, I always try to be as responsive as possible. I know some of you have asked me to do certain podcasts. I’m getting to them. One of the ones that I’m going to be doing soon is one that someone asked about a while back on estrogen and progesterone, and oral contraceptives and athletic women. So, that’s coming next, and that will be a little bit more in-depth, but I also thought maybe we’ll try doing some of these really short ones as well. So, give me your feedback. Please do me a favor and rate the podcast, tell me how much you’re enjoying it. I’d really, really appreciate that. I’m trying to do this more on a regular basis because so many of you were saying that you wanted me to. I definitely want you to let me know what you need. Go ahead and DM me on Instagram, please leave me a review, tell me what you want to see me covering. I’m having a lot more guests on. And definitely give me feedback on this very short protein podcast. Without further ado, here we go with the protein talk.

            [02:58] Ok, what’s up, everybody? Dr. Jade Teta here. Today, we’re going to talk about protein. This is one of those things that people can get confused about. They want to know how much, why is it so important, etc. Now, here’s the first thing to understand – sometimes people say, c’mon, do we really need all of this protein – and the truth of the matter is, if you go back, sometimes it’s useful to go back to ancestral humans and take a look at what they were doing. The truth of the matter is, is that they were probably not walking around with big hunks of meat over their shoulder constantly. It was tough to get protein. It was tough to get food in general. So, the idea is do we need protein, do we really need all of this protein. Probably not. One thing we know about human metabolism is that it tends to do very well in multiple conditions. So, if we’re ancestral humans, we certainly can go long periods of time without fat, without carbohydrate, without protein even. However, that being said, we are now in the modern day, and so, food is around us all of the time. And we tend to, some of us tend to be very active as well; so, this requires us to sort of look after being able to deal with some of these hunger triggers, and also recover from some of the activity and the stress. Which, certainly, ancestral humans had a ton of stress, but it was a different kind of stress. This is where protein comes in. Now, we have an awful lot of research now on protein over the last 10 years that tells us and gives us very good advice on what we can do with it. The first thing to know about protein is that the major reason why it’s so powerful is it the #1 macronutrient to control our hunger. How many of you have had hunger out of control or cravings out of control? Protein is the predominant way to get this done. I know some of you are vegetarians and vegans. That’s just fine, because protein is not the only thing that will do that – fiber will as well – but protein is the star. Fiber is not quite as good but can be used as well. We talk an awful lot about how to control hunger using protein, fiber, and water-based foods. The more protein you can get on board, the less hungry you will be, the less food you will consume, the more your SHMEC will be in check, the more likely you are to achieve a calorie deficit effortlessly, and that’s what we want. Now, everyone is going to be a little bit different in their protein needs, but think about that for a minute. There’s one macronutrient you can focus on, protein, that can deliver SHMEC being in check and effortless calorie reduction. In every study we have seen where they’ve taken protein and substituted calorie for calorie in place of fat or carbohydrate, people tend to lose weight and have more, or less hunger, rather. Their SHMEC is more in check. So, then you might say, well, Jade, how much protein do I need.

            [06:02] This is going to be individual, of course. So, one of the things we want to do is, there’s 2 types of people, right? Some of you have the personal preference of saying hey Jade, I would love to count, give me a number, and others of you are saying hey Jade, I never want to count, just give me some general guidelines. For those of you who want to be a little bit more intuitive, the idea is to include enough protein at every meal to keep your SHMEC in check. If, between breakfast and lunch, your SHMEC is not in check, then the following day at breakfast add more protein until it is back in check. And think about adding protein in place of carbs and fat. Don’t add protein on top of carbohydrates and fat. Take out some carbs and some fat and put protein in their place. That is going to serve you. Now, those of you who like to count, one of the things we now know through research conclusively is the old RDA, or RDI of .8g per kg is probably way too low. Now, most of you that I’m talking to are probably thinking in pounds, and just – those of you who are thinking in kgs, I’ll try to give you those numbers as well. But, what we also know now is with weight loss and those who are highly active, which are going to be the vast majority of all of you, you want to get close to about 1g per pound of bodyweight. That’s going to be 1g per 2.2kg of bodyweight. I think I have those conversions correct. But that’s what you want to be thinking about. The idea, then, is that protein becomes this center point of a fat loss diet for most of us. Very, very important, and we know conclusively now that that’s about the number that you want, somewhere between .6g per pound to 1g per pound of body weight. That’s going to vary, but I like that 1g per pound number because most of you – if you try this, by the way – most of you won’t be able to reach that. That’s a lot of protein. Most of you, if you start trying to eat 1g per pound of your body weight, are going to be so full you’re going to end up not being able to eat all that food, which is a fine thing to have happen. I don’t want you to force feed protein to yourself, but that can be one interesting thing if you’re one of these people who has cravings and hunger all the time to just add that protein in. Now, what are the best sources of protein? The best source of protein is going to be these protein sources that are mostly protein. For example, people say, well, Jade, what about beans? Well, beans are mostly starch. They do have some protein in them. Some people will say, well, Jade, what about nuts? Well, nuts are mostly fat, although they do have some protein in them. In other words, if you eat lots of beans, and you eat lots of nuts, you’ll get some protein, but you’ll get way more fat and starch. You know that that’s not what you want, because those things are the most hedonistic palatable foods, and can potentially cause us to overeat in some people.

            [09:05] It depends, right? Some people do very well on those things, but when you’re thinking about best sources of protein, rule #1 is it should have more protein than anything else. I also think the best sources of protein are lean protein sources. Not because fat is not good; as a matter of fact, fat can be fantastic. It is absolutely required, and it can be fantastic for controlling SHMEC. It’s just that I want you to know, I want you to become a metabolic detective, so it’s really nice to know how protein is impacting you vs. fat and how that’s impacting you. That’s why I like to go lean protein sources, so you can understand how these things work. So, what would those be? Things like turkey breast, and boneless skinless chicken breast, and egg whites. And, of course, the egg with the yolk is one of the healthiest things in the world, so I’m not saying eat egg whites over the yolk; I’m saying eat egg whites if you’re confused about which one – the yolk, the fat, or the protein – is sort of causing issues. Of course, most of us, to get the kind of protein that I’m talking about in our lives, we’re going to need a protein supplement. This is one of the reasons why we have Metabolic Super Protein here at Metabolic Living. It has whey protein, which I regard as one of the best, if not the best, supplemental protein on the market. It has all the essential amino acids, it is tasty, it is one of these things that can easily shut down hunger, and it’s one of the best ways to recover from exercise. Of course, in Metabolic Super Protein, there’s also collagen, which over the last few years, we’ve seen a huge amount on research showing how good that is for joint and skin health. Now, if you are a vegan or vegetarian and you don’t like dairy sources, there are plenty of other things out there – pea protein, hemp protein, rice protein blends. But most of us are probably going to need the convenience of some of these protein sources, so this is critical. Those of you are kind of saying, alright Jade, well, how can I do that, more intuitive types – one of the best things to do is simply eat your normal way of eating, and then add in, either after a meal or between meals, some Metabolic Super Protein, or your protein supplement of choice. What you’ll often see is that the overeating that used to happen at lunch, or the overeating that used to happen at dinner, does not occur anymore, and this is a very beautiful, easy response. Just by adding supplemental protein, you can essentially shut down, for many of us, the hunger and cravings at other meals. The idea here is always do what works for you, find the protein source that you like and that you love and you will use, so that it can help you manage hunger and cravings, and help with your weight loss efforts. So, hopefully that’s helpful for you in regards to protein, and I’ll talk to you next time.