The Protein Mistake That’s Sabotaging Your Progress

Many Americans consume too much protein and also don’t get enough. And no, it’s not even about protein “quality”.

Here’s the real reason:

The numbers game

Protein protein is important, especially as we get older. It’s critical for muscle repair, connective tissue, hormones, and structural tissues, and without enough of it your body can’t rebuild when it needs to (spoiler: it needs to literally all the time).

From our 30s onwards, our bodies will tend towards sarcopenia (muscle loss), if we don’t take great care to maintain our muscle mass.

Now, maybe you are not planning on entering any bodybuilding competitions (this writer neither!), but higher muscle mass is associated with lower mortality risk, meaning adequate protein and strength training contribute not just to lifespan but to maintaining independence and quality of life. And that’s something that’s important for all of us!

As for how much: research suggests about 1.2–2.0g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day for people with normal* body fat levels, though many benefit from aiming closer to 1.6 g/kg or higher.

^{*Which for this purpose is “normal healthy”, which for most people is in the ballpark of 15% for men and 21% for women. If you have more body fat than that, you will still need to get your protein in to keep your lean muscle mass levels up, but you can (after the 15% or 21% cutoff) disregard the rest of your bodyweight that comes from additional fat after that, because your body doesn’t need protein to maintain fat!}

The mistake: a lot of people, if trying to get enough protein in, will get most of it in one sitting to “get it out of the way” for the day. However, the body simply cannot make use of that much protein at once, so it needs to be spread out more, with 30g/meal being generally considered ideal.

That does of course mean that if you weigh more than 45kg (99 lbs, Americans), then you’ll need more than 3 “meals”, but that’s fine, because a “meal” containing 30g of protein can easily be a high-protein snack, or a protein supplement, between meals (this writer eats so many nuts that you might be tempted to tell me I am what I eat!).

For more on all of this, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like:

• Protein: How Much Do We Need, Really?
• Why You Can’t Skimp On Amino Acids
• Do We Need Animal Products To Be Healthy? ← this covers which animal products are definitely very health-risky, and which are probably fine according to current best science

Take care!