It Starts With Attraction
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It Starts With Attraction
Are You PROTEIN Deficient Without Even Knowing It?
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Discover how much protein you truly need for optimal health and why animal protein is often heralded as the go-to source for essential amino acids. We'll tackle the everyday obstacles of meeting protein requirements, particularly when dining out, and share a compelling study that pits high-protein snacks against their high-fat counterparts in the battle of satiety.
Ready to transform your body composition and boost your weight loss efforts? You'll find the answers in our exploration of protein's powerful impact on fat loss and muscle development. We dissect fascinating research that highlights the benefits of a protein-rich diet, showcasing how it not only helps shed fat but also supports lean body mass retention in older adults. Practical tips on daily protein intake will guide you in achieving a higher resting metabolic rate and a more effective path to reaching your fitness goals.
Gain insights into the strategic timing and tracking of protein intake. Our discussion covers the pros and cons of varying sources like soy and meat, with a focus on the practicality of spreading protein consumption throughout the day to enhance muscle protein synthesis. We emphasize the significance of regular strength training and the mindful monitoring of dietary habits, offering a tried-and-true approach to improving your nutrition. Whether you're a fitness enthusiast or just getting started, this episode provides the tools you need to optimize your diet and fuel your health journey.
Your Host: Kimberly Beam Holmes, Expert in Self-Improvement and Relationships
Kimberly Beam Holmes has applied her master's degree in psychology for over ten years, acting as the CEO of Marriage Helper & CEO and Creator of PIES University, being a wife and mother herself, and researching how attraction affects relationships. Her videos, podcasts, and following reach over 500,000 people a month who are making changes and becoming the best they can be.
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Protein is one of the three macronutrients, for if you consider alcohol a macronutrient but it is a vital macronutrient, and so today we're going to talk about how much protein you need. Look at some of the research on protein so that you can have a better idea of how much, when and what kind of protein you should be eating. We're joined today by Jason. How much protein do you?
Speaker 2:eat. I don't know if I can give you an answer, because I don't measure it, because you don't measure it Probably, I will say probably not enough.
Speaker 1:I would guarantee you, if you're not measuring it for anyone, you're not eating enough.
Speaker 2:Because you are supposed to eat like a lot You're supposed to.
Speaker 1:We'll talk about that. That's very true. But protein I mean in and of itself, generally like it's not the cheapest form of food to get. It's not. If you're eating out a lot, then you know you're getting a lot more fat or carbs in what you're eating than protein most of the time, and so it is the macronutrient that, if you are not intentional about it, is the absolute hardest to get enough of. It is way easier to get enough of fat and to get enough of carbs. However, protein is absolutely vital in what it does in our bodies. So protein is a molecule that is made up of amino acids, and ideally you want to eat animal protein. I know many of you want to come at me with pitchforks right now, but ideally you want to eat animal protein in order to get the largest spectrum and the most essential I mean or all of the essential amino acids in the protein that you consume.
Speaker 1:Protein is needed for the body to function correctly. They are the basis of the body structure. It's what builds our skin and our hair and other substances inside of our body. It even helps us to create antibodies. It does so many amazing things inside of our bodies, and we need enough protein, and if you're working out, you need even more protein. But we'll get to that in just a bit. Protein helps repair and build tissue, drive metabolic responses, maintain pH and fluid balance. It keeps our immune system strong. It transports and stores nutrients so that it can act as an energy source, and it even helps with our hormones. So it's an incredibly important macronutrient. It's found in the muscle and the bone and the skin and the hair and most of the tissues in our body. It makes up enzymes that power chemical reactions that happen in our body, and it also carries oxygen in the blood and helps to produce hemoglobin in our body.
Speaker 1:So all of these very important, but what does protein do for us? We know what it does in our body, but what are some of the other benefits that protein protein do for us? We know what it does in our body, but what are some of the other benefits that protein can do for us? Well, it can help curb hunger or it can increase satiety is another way to say that. There was a study done in 2014 about the effects of high protein versus high fat snacks. So maybe, like some of the keto, a lot of people do keto as a way to like feel hungry longer. I am a study of one, but my experience with trying keto is I was so freaking hungry.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All the time.
Speaker 2:My mom is like a keto expert.
Speaker 1:Oh, what does she say about keto?
Speaker 2:She's like I mean like keto expert is in, like she's done it and like has done it for years.
Speaker 1:So she's just like, yeah, primed. Her body is fueled to run off of fat.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:At this point. And it's easy for her to adhere to it.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:That's so fascinating.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I end up eating like 4,000 calories a day calories a day.
Speaker 2:She's like very strict with it, yeah.
Speaker 1:So fascinating have you ever done keto?
Speaker 2:I've tried and I never could successfully do it.
Speaker 1:I couldn't either.
Speaker 2:No, I was so hungry.
Speaker 1:So hungry, so freaking hungry. Well, in this study they looked at 20 women and, uh, in this one they gave them kind of three different groups that they were in. There was a group that ate a high protein yogurt. There was a group that ate high fat crackers, which still has carbs I don't know how you eat a high fat cracker but and then a high fat chocolate. So, anyway, participants were given these three snacks they were also given. There was kind of a lot that went into the study where they standardized the meals that they were given, but also the snacks were different over a period of a couple of days.
Speaker 1:But ultimately what the results showed was that the consumption of the yogurt snack, which was the high protein yogurt, and in this one it was specifically 14 grams of protein, as opposed to the zero grams of protein in the crackers or the two grams of protein in the chocolate. So the consumption of the yogurt snack led to greater reductions in afternoon hunger as compared to the chocolate snack and that the yogurt snack led to lower hunger 90 minutes after eating it compared to the chocolate or the cracker snacks. So, even though actually what I didn't say was the yogurt had 19 grams of protein and 25 grams of carbs, but no fat, right, yeah, zero grams of fat, whereas the others had either zero or two grams of protein. They both had 19 grams of carbs and they both had 19 or nine grams of fat. Excuse me, so they were actually nine times nine is 81, right, yes? And then 20 times four is 80. So 80 plus 160.
Speaker 1:So the both the crackers and the chocolate were 160 calories. 14 times four is what let's just say 15, 15 times four, 60. And then 25 times four is a hundred. So that, okay, 15 times four is 60. And then 25 times four is 100. Okay, so it was 160 calorie. Protein yogurt as compared to 180 calorie. More keto-like snacks, although they did have more carbs than probably a person on keto would eat. So it was less calories overall, but it led to more satiety, higher levels of satiety and less hunger after eating them. And they got the great protein. Um, fullness was. And there was just different ways that they looked at it. I think the crackers were kind of like the next step of what was considered more satiating, but definitely of the three, the yogurt was considered the most satiating. So if you're wanting an afternoon snack yogurt, jason, high protein yogurt.
Speaker 2:I will not get within 10 feet of yogurt. He hates yogurt, Can't do it. Anytime somebody has it at lunch, I have to like and it's typically me.
Speaker 1:I actually have some high protein yogurt in the fridge right now. It's cherry flavored Well you can keep it. And I'm going to eat it after this episode. I actually have some high protein yogurt in the fridge right now. It's cherry flavored. Well, you can keep it, and.
Speaker 2:I'm going to eat it after this episode. Actually, I was supposed to be eating protein while doing this episode, but I failed.
Speaker 1:I failed on that one. I'm going to get the yogurt. No, please don't, please don't. Well, you'll have to find something else, but I think the. I think the point here is it's a great option to get a snack in the afternoons that is more, or that is higher, protein than just doing a high carb or a high fat snack. But that means you have to be intentional about what your snacks are. So quest bars, higher protein, yogurt, even like shakes, the. You know, getting some powder, some protein powder, putting it with milk, putting it with a non-dairy substitute milk or just water, can really help you to stay full for longer. But that's not the only thing that protein does.
Speaker 1:There was another study done in 2012 showing that protein aided in weight loss and loss of fat. So this was 130 men and women between the ages of 40 and 56. They engaged in this study for a year. That's a really long time. Here's how they did it the people, the participants, were either in a protein rich diet or a carb rich diet, and they were given training so they like once a month, or an hour a month, or no, an hour a week.
Speaker 1:For the 12 month study, they went through a diet education program that leaned towards whichever one they were in. So the people in the protein group learned about protein and all the benefits of protein. People in the carb group did the opposite. The protein group was encouraged to eat 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, so it ended up being about 30% of their energy intake. And the carb group did 0.8 grams, so they did half the amount per 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, which was about 15% of their energy intake. So for someone like me I don't know how many kilograms I am, but 30% of my overall energy intake would be 30% of 2000 calories 60 grams. I would eat more than that, but overall 600 calories of protein divided by four, which would be this is a lot of math.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're doing a lot of math.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Maybe I don't know, maybe that would be about right, but overall, here's what the results found of the study that more fat relative to lean mass was lost in the protein participants of both sexes, so that was true for both men and for women. Ultimately, men lost more total weight than women. Because that's just what happens. It's so frustrating how quickly men can lose weight, but when expressed to their relative baseline body weight, even though men may have lost more pounds because they weighed more to begin with, both subjects or both groups of genders actually ended up losing similar amounts of weight as compared to what their baseline was, but men more total weight loss was derived from fat relative to lean mass in men, but in the protein group more fat relative to lean was lost for both sexes, so there was a higher amount. And for women in the carb group they lost less fat mass, so they kept more fat than um than the women who were in the protein group. So this is an indication that eating more protein also helps you shed fat.
Speaker 2:Why is that though?
Speaker 1:I think it has to do with the satiety levels. So you're eating less overall because you feel more full and protein helps you develop muscle. So if you're and it didn't say if these people were also working out, but you're more likely the more protein you eat if're also working out, that's going to tone you up quicker, and and when you have more muscle, as we learned from a previous episode, you already burn more calories at your just baseline. Your baseline metabolic rate is higher and so, um, you could eat the same amount of food per day, but you're burning more because you're eating more protein and you have more muscle. Therefore you're losing more fat.
Speaker 2:So it's burning like the excess fat. Is that what's happening?
Speaker 1:I wouldn't say I don't know that. I know enough to say that eating protein, specifically, is what is burning your excess fat. Eating protein helps you get more muscle. More muscle, then leads to a higher metabolism or a higher resting body rate which burns more fat. So it's the mechanism in which protein goes through that?
Speaker 1:can help that happen, and another study done in 2019 said something similar High protein can have an effect on lean body mass. So this was a randomized double blind study. There was 116 physically active adults who were older. They were between the ages of 67 and 73. And they were put into either a group where they were given 31 grams of milk protein or a placebo, where they were given a drink, but it was an isocaloric placebo supplementation, so it didn't have protein in it, and these people were measured with their strength. They measured their quadriceps strength, their leg extension and grip strength, which we've heard from similar or from previous episodes Like we're seeing a lot of the same things looked at in the research.
Speaker 1:Their body composition was done via a DEXA scan, which was great, and they had some performance things that they went through cardiorespiratory fitness, things like that. What the results found was that protein had a larger increase in relative lean body mass than the placebo group and that absolute and relative fat mass decreased more in the protein group. So eating protein was important for overall body composition and having more lean body mass.
Speaker 2:Just eat your protein.
Speaker 1:people Just eat your protein, but how much it's a great question, great question.
Speaker 1:So how much protein do you need? Where can you get it and where should you or when should you eat it? So recommendations for daily protein intake If you read what's just kind of out there on the web, if you Google it, a lot of what you're going to see is 10 to 35% of your calories should come from protein. 10 is too low, it's just too low. That's so ridiculous. I aim for one gram of protein per pound of body weight. You could also do one gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. So for me, I try and get anywhere from 120 to 140 grams of protein a day, which is like if one chicken breast, if a four ounce chicken breast, is 30 grams of protein, then I have to eat at least four of those throughout my day to get to my baseline of how much protein I want to have per day. So it's a very intentional focus on protein and it can get sickening, like you can eat. You can get to the point where it's like I don't want to eat another piece of chicken breast.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So you, you know we'll talk about some other sources that you can get it from, but it's so important and even though the research says if you're sedentary, maybe you can get it from, but it's so important and even though the research says if you're sedentary, maybe you can cut that down, Maybe you can have more of like half that amount, I would still encourage to, especially as you're aging, eat as much as you can, because it helps you to maintain muscle mass and that was another thing that was said to prevent sarcopenia. Between the ages of 40 and 50, the recommended amount of protein increases the older you get to about 75 to 90 grams per day for a 165 pound adult as an example. But again, we're getting closer to that. One gram of protein per pound of body weight. That's what I follow.
Speaker 1:People who exercise regularly are going to need even more than that. They put this in kilograms, but 1.1 to 1.5 grams per kilogram. People who lift weights or who are training for running or a cycling event need even more than that 1.2 to 1.7 grams per kilogram of body weight. So the protein especially if you're working out is needed because when you're working out you're breaking down your muscles. Protein helps to rebuild your muscles and repair your tissues, and so it's even more important to eat protein when you are working out. But the key here is also that consumption should be spread evenly throughout the day, because you're not really going to get any more benefit of eating a meal that has 50 or 60 grams of protein. It seems that it's around the 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal that your body can even handle all of that protein and adequately utilize it in the best way possible. So you really want to aim for 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal, spread evenly throughout the day, to 40 grams of protein per meal, spread evenly throughout the day.
Speaker 1:I definitely don't get that much at all.
Speaker 2:So what can you do to get?
Speaker 1:that much Focus on getting that much.
Speaker 2:I mean that's that's really. I know. I say that's all it takes, but I know it's harder than just saying you know to focus on it, because you have to intentionally pick protein like rich foods, which would mean changing my diet quite a bit.
Speaker 1:What are some of your favorite protein rich foods?
Speaker 2:Uh, any meat like I'll eat a ton of chicken. The only thing is I'll eat a ton of chicken and a ton of pasta.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I'm going to get better at yeah, I mean even it, just even if it's just eating, making sure it's enough chicken, so like four to six ounces, eating it first, then eating the pasta Cause I'll be full. Well, when you prioritize getting the protein in first, and yes, it will. And, yes, it will likely help you to get fuller, but I think it also helps doing it that way, as opposed to someone going straight into like a Whole30 as an example, because you're still allowing yourself to eat the things that you love.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you can more easily start doing something than stop doing something. Yeah, so why not just build on top of that? You know, what I love to eat is ground Turkey. I love, I love ground Turkey because I just make this huge thing of it, because I think meal prepping is a huge key to getting enough protein too, and so I can just get like three pounds of turkey and cook it on like a Sunday afternoon and then I can add it on top of salad or vegetables or I can put like seasoning or sauce on it each meal, so it can make it different instead of just eating like straight.
Speaker 2:I think ground turkey I think my mom eats ground turkey now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's better than ground beef. I'm not. I'm not against beef or red meat, but I know that I have a family history of heart disease anyway, so I'm already like doing things to make sure that my my heart stays healthy for long, and so you know, turkey is a great alternative to ground beef.
Speaker 2:And it's good Like.
Speaker 1:I've had ground turkey and it's good. Yeah, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Tuna, oh yeah, I love tuna Tuna. Yeah, tuna is really good, and that's such an easy one to like grab cans of tuna. Just open them Salmon. I love salmon. Yeah, canned salmon, though.
Speaker 2:I've never had canned salmon.
Speaker 1:I can't do canned salmon. I mean, I was thinking canned tuna.
Speaker 2:Well, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:But not like an ahi steak every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, canned tuna, but like legit salmon.
Speaker 1:Yes, legit salmon, but there's a lot of places that you can get um, that you can get protein lean meats chicken, turkey beef pork some of those are more lean than others fish, even dairy products. Those aren't going to be your highest nutrition sources of protein, having like the largest amount of protein per serving, but it's their eggs you can, even if you want to do soy, if you're into that. Tofu has a large amount of protein, although it doesn't have all of the essential amino acids in it, and same with other things like beans or peas or lentils. Edamame has a pretty high amount of protein for what it is. I actually love edamame, but that's not going to be my primary source of protein either.
Speaker 2:But it's so good.
Speaker 1:It is good, isn't?
Speaker 2:it. It's so good, do you like?
Speaker 1:eating it in the shell.
Speaker 2:Yeah, salted Yep. So amazing, it's the best way to do it.
Speaker 1:So what about vegetarian and vegan diets? The only study that we have here and I'm sure that there's more, but in this study it only looked at 20 overweight or obese men and it gave them a vegetarian, high protein diet, and which was mostly based on soy, and it also gave them a meat based high protein diet. And it doesn't tell us what that was based on, at least not in the, not in what I have right here. And we see that they had similar amounts of protein, similar amounts of fat, all of those things. They looked at bone density, blood pressure, body composition, several other things and ultimately what they found was that body weight loss was the same whether they were on the soy or the meat group. The subjectively rated hunger, fullness and desire to eat were the same between the two groups. And ultimately we see that the results were the same for both people, except for one area, and that was when they looked at their total cholesterol. So total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol were much lower after the soy diet in comparison with the meat diet.
Speaker 1:Now I have a lot of questions about this and in no way would I generalize from this study that that means that you should just eat soy as your main source of protein. For a couple of reasons. Number one, we don't know the kind of meat that these people had. Number two, these this is a very small group of people. There's only 20, there's only 20 men in the study. And number three, we don't know the other confounding factors in these people's lives. So when we look at what it means to power a study, a lot of people like having. That means having enough subjects in the study for it to have a larger magnitude of effect, for the findings of it to be have a larger magnitude of effect and and a better understanding of what those are. And so this study they said because the appetite control and weight loss were similar in both the soy and the meat high protein diet. Perhaps it actually says a vegetarian high protein diet could be a healthier alternative to a meat-based, without any negative health effects such as the cholesterol issues or things like that. There still needs to be more work done on that. I think there are still so many benefits from other research that we don't necessarily have in that we're covering in this in this episode right now, but there are so many other articles that show that animal protein has so many other positive effects on us and on our health, and especially the kind of animal protein you eat, could be much better. All of that being said, you should do what you feel comfortable doing and what you're going to adhere to, and knowing that protein is important for us. If you, for whatever reason whether it be culturally, religiously, ethically, whatever it might be if you want to eat meat or not eat meat, then it's still important that you eat protein and find a way to prioritize eating that protein in whichever diet you want to follow.
Speaker 1:Another key question that can come up is should you time protein intake around workouts? There was a study that was done in 2017 for 21 men who were university students. The study lasted for 10 weeks and participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups. They were either assigned to a group that consumed 25 grams of protein immediately before an exercise or before exercising or immediately after exercising, and basically what this study found. And then they had them do a lot of workouts, a lot of different strength training and things like that, and basically what the study found was that timing of protein consumption had no significant effect on any of the measures that were studied over 10 weeks. The findings support the idea that the interval for protein intake may be as wide as several hours or more after a training bout, depending on when the pre-workout meal was consumed.
Speaker 1:I've also heard from other studies or seen in other studies that the more trained you are, the more you have worked out that the less important protein timing is around your workout at all. I mean up to like a 36-hour window, so it's really like eat whenever. But I've also heard that the less trained you are, the more important that it is for you to eat protein 25 to 30 grams of protein after, like within an hour or two after your workout. And I think here's the reason why. I think it's because the less trained you are, that means your muscles are just starting the process of breaking and rebuilding breaking and rebuilding so it's more important to give them the support that they need as you're starting this process. And then the more you work out, the more your muscles become acclimatized to that. Then you can stretch that protein intake around. I mean pretty much just whenever your normal eating window is. Do you eat protein when you work out?
Speaker 2:Usually I do it in like a protein shake.
Speaker 1:Before or after?
Speaker 2:Before, usually before, sometimes after, normally before.
Speaker 1:When do you work out? When you work out? When do you work out? What time of day?
Speaker 2:Usually the morning. What time? Like 6.30 or 7.
Speaker 1:Early.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you drink a protein shake that early. Yeah, do you eat breakfast normally?
Speaker 2:Yeah, at like 6?, usually around 7.30.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you're kind of used to eating at that time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You don't work out. Fasted, fasted, no, hold on. What does that mean?
Speaker 2:Without eating. Without eating, yeah, like on an empty stomach. No, I like I have to.
Speaker 1:You have to have something, yeah.
Speaker 2:At least something like either like a protein shake or like some peanut butter crackers, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, that supports the previous episode that we did on timing, like eating before working out.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Having a little something. I think the key here I think people really overthink this one of like oh I can't work out unless I've had my protein shake, or I have to, you know, have my protein shake exactly afterward. I think there's a lot more flexibility in this than people, than people may think for themselves, and the so the goal, like the goal, the K, the key takeaway, for that part, I believe, is that workout, eat protein, like are the big pillars, and don't worry as much about when or where or I did say where, there, when or where, how, how much. Just try and get your 100, I mean your one gram per pound of body weight in and you should probably do some strength training or some working out as well and you're hitting the majority of two big pillars. It can really be that simple.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:So should protein intake be scattered throughout the day? Well, the answer to that is yes, and there was a study that looked at men and women and looked at when they ate dinner how much they were eating. But really what you want to do is consume a moderate amount of high quality protein three times a day, which stimulates muscle protein synthesis to a greater extent than eating the majority of your protein mostly in an evening meal. So muscle protein synthesis overall is that what's is what's happening in your body as you are rebuilding muscle, repairing muscle, growing muscle, maybe even growing muscle size for men who might be interested in hypertrophy and things like that but it's best done when you're eating 30 to 40 grams three to four times a day spread out throughout your day, as opposed to trying to eat like a 28 pound or 28 pound 28-ounce steak. My husband I have watched him twice eat two Longhorn Cowboy Sirloin steaks. They're 28 ounces each.
Speaker 2:At one time.
Speaker 1:At one time.
Speaker 2:Holy crap Rob.
Speaker 1:With my own eyes. I have seen this happen.
Speaker 2:Holy cow.
Speaker 1:That's back when he was eating one meal a day. Which I would not recommend, and he was eating one meal a day. Okay, well, which?
Speaker 2:I would not recommend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he was eating two 20 ounce steaks, 28 ounce steaks holy cow.
Speaker 2:Would he eat like anything else with it?
Speaker 1:broccoli mashed potatoes that's crazy I can't say he doesn't do it anymore yeah, that's insane so what are your key takeaways? J Jason on protein.
Speaker 2:I have a question before we get to that. So would you recommend because we're talking about protein would you recommend something like the carnivore diet?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:Why? Because that's a. It's a pretty popular diet plan. I knew what you were going to say, but how?
Speaker 1:did you know? Why? Did you know what I was going to say?
Speaker 2:Oh, we talked about this in the office before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we need fiber, we need micronutrients. We need and I know I don't know, I assume what people who do the carnivore diet say is, well, the animals ate those like the animals ate the grass or the hay or the whatever, and so they have those micronutrients in them that we need. But we need fiber. It is very clear that 30 grams of fiber a day helps prevent future cancers, especially like GI tract colorectal cancers, things like that tract colorectal cancers, things like that. And just for like GI tract health, prebiotic, probiotic in like growing in our like in a healthy way inside of our body, we need, we need the fiber for that. So, no, I am a huge fan of broccoli and sweet potatoes and strawberries and watermelon and all the yummy things.
Speaker 2:And so like long-term, like if you did the carnivore diet, like long-term it could probably have some negative effects, Don't you think?
Speaker 1:I think it can.
Speaker 1:I think that there are people on YouTube who show their blood work after like a year on the carnivore diet and it's like amazing, but you also don't know what else they were doing and you don't know, and like you don't know what else they were doing and you don't know, and like you don't know what their state was before that, and so I don't.
Speaker 1:N equals one is a is kind of a like a research way of saying that, n being the number in the participant population equals one. So I think a lot of people are out there in the N equals one, like they are their own experiment and maybe some of those things work for them. But if you were actually to rigorously test and look at on a greater scale things that work for a larger good over a long period of time, and have the and have that kind of research mindset, then you're you're going to see I would venture to say you're going to see way more problems with the carnivore diet. Long-term, you may see a lot of short-term gains because you're eating so much protein and you're, you know, feeling better and you're because you're less inflamed.
Speaker 2:That's what's going to happen?
Speaker 1:Yes. So you know, when you're not eating sugar and bread for every meal it's going to make a difference, but long-term there, I mean, their APOB is going to go through the roof. So the APOB is, it's a marker, it's a blood marker that's like a pre, a predecessor of being able to see cardiovascular health and future atherosclerosis possibilities. And so me, at 34 years old, I already have an elevated APOB Because cardiovascular disease runs in my family, all of those things, and I can see it in my blood work and it's like my normal doctor's, like oh, it's not that bad, I'm not worried about it, but I'm like it's higher than what I want it to be.
Speaker 1:I want it to come down and eating things like red meat you know, even eating just meat isn't good long-term for kidney health, you know things like that. So, um, there's other blood markers that maybe aren't on your normal complete metabolic panel that you might get, that are a little that go deeper into what might actually be happening, and those things would need to be taken into consideration as well. I mean, I think if someone, I think if someone I know I'm talking way more about this than I thought I would be I think if someone is very unhealthy, metabolically unhealthy, like borderline type two or maybe type two diabetes. A carnivore diet for six to 12 months may have so many positive benefits for them that the negative the negative consequences are going to just like the. The positive is going to outweigh the negative. The negative consequences are going to just like the. The positive is going to outweigh the negative. But for a long-term, sustainable, really good for your health, for the overall population, no.
Speaker 2:Got it.
Speaker 1:So what are your key takeaways? To not do the carnivore diet.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, yeah, I wasn't planning on doing the carnivore diet because I knew what you were going to say, um, but I just wanted to hear your opinion on it. My key takeaways would probably be to eat more protein.
Speaker 1:That's a good one. How, though?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I was going to say. You have to be very intentional about doing it because, like we talked about, you have to eat a lot more protein than you think you do.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like that's recommended. Um, so probably going to start planning out my meals, uh, planning out my protein sources and trying to make sure that I get all of those protein rich things incorporated into my diet.
Speaker 1:So so a couple. Or it was last week you brought in Taco Bell for lunch.
Speaker 2:I did, and it was so good it was so good?
Speaker 1:Was it protein rich, like what do you get from Taco Bell when you eat there?
Speaker 2:Usually chicken quesadilla.
Speaker 1:Okay, they have the Power Bowls, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've never had one, but I bet they're pretty good.
Speaker 1:You can get it with extra protein. Interesting, see. So you can keep going to a place you normally go. Maybe you get something different, but you get the extra protein.
Speaker 2:I've actually started slowly doing this at certain places that I go quite often, so like Chewy's, for example. So if you don't know, Chewy's is like a Tex-Mex place that's all over Nashville and everywhere. But when I go to Chewy's which is pretty often, I would get like a burrito or whatever and they're like massive. I've changed to getting a burrito bowl and it's just as good, if not better, and way healthier, and has a ton of protein in it, so it's possible.
Speaker 1:It's those things. It's those like small changes where you still try and keep a routine you might normally have, but you start adding in these aspects of it, like taking the tortilla away, getting more protein on something that you already eat. It's going to lead to higher adherence over time, which is the key.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't really track my food. At times in my life I've done the MyFitnessPal and counted calories and I don't always recommend that people do that. I and I don't always recommend that people do that. But if you're going to start intentionally thinking more about protein, you can use the MyFitnessPal app or whatever or something like it to just track your protein. You don't even have to worry about all of the other things, and so just start looking at like get a good idea and feel of how much protein it is you're currently eating.
Speaker 1:So maybe for a week you weigh the amount of protein you're about to eat. You know, weigh the chicken breast, weigh whatever put it in MyFitnessPal and get an idea of just how many even just protein, just how many grams of protein have you been eating each day. That gives you a baseline and then just try and add 10 or 15% per week from there until you get to that amount. Kind of that magic number in my mind is that one gram per pound of body mass or body weight or lean body weight, depending on how much protein you want to eat. Because there comes a point where, like, you're just eating more protein that maybe your body can't handle that day, versus being able to eat more vegetables or more carbs for that same amount of calorie allocation for the day. So eat more protein. Find out how. Those are your key takeaways.
Speaker 2:See you next week.
Speaker 1:Until next week, stay strong.
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