4 Lies You've Been Told About Protein

Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness , nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body . Hello , betsy here , welcome to another episode of your strongest body . Are we going to build our strongest body without talking about protein ? No , but today we're talking about four lies .

You've probably been told about protein or you've come to believe about protein .

Now , if you know me , I am not all that into the click baby style titles , captions , that kind of thing , but there is something to that sort of eye grabbing , want you to read or listen to style title that helps their people's stuff get seen , and I think , to a certain extent , what I am going to talk about today are kind of lies .

That's maybe an exaggeration , but there is , in the same way , that I could market this episode to you with sort of this kind of title . That goes a little bit against my own way of communicating .

The nutrition industry , the diet industry , the wellness industry has created that , used that same kind of marketing to communicate these sort of over exaggerated things about protein , and I think people are confused and what I want to do is help with the confusion . I want to give you more sensible , sensible , sensible information .

I want to help you better understand how this fits in a more complete picture of nutrition in which is going to support your strongest body , support your health and fitness goals , support all the things you want to do , as well as support your lifestyle and still be able to enjoy eating and still be able to enjoy family events and all of the kinds of things

that nutrition is weaved into that isn't as black and white , as good or bad , healthy or junk .

If you know me and or if you've heard any of these podcasts before , you know I'm into the nuance , I'm into the gray area , and so when I talk about these lies , you've been told maybe they're not outright lies , maybe they are marketing ploys that have been conflated with health , when maybe that's not always the case . So I want to help you understand .

I want to give you some real , more straightforward information . Talk a little bit about the nuance in all of these sort of concepts that have been maybe shoved down your throat and then show you how you can use that more accurate information to make the kinds of choices that support your goals . So that's what we're going to talk about .

I'm hungry right now , which is not always the best way to do a podcast about nutrition , but nonetheless we are going to talk about it .

So I'm going to start with yeah , we're going to go through these little quote unquote lies , one at a time , talk about them and then , with each one , I'm going to give you some actionable information to move forward with your own decisions . Again , I'm giving you information to empower autonomy , making your own decisions .

You can choose what to do with it in a way that works best for you . Also , realize that people to have different nutrition philosophies and if you work with a different nutrition coach , they may have a different idea .

I'm going to lay out accurate scientific information as well as my opinions or the way I use that information to inform how I coach , and then you make the decision that's best for you . Like If anybody is telling you what to do and not letting that be a choice for you , that's probably not the best plan .

It's certainly not going to be the most sustainable one , because if it doesn't fit your life , it's hard to keep it going All right . So , number one if you eat meat , you are getting enough protein . This is something that people believe is true . Is it true ? Maybe , but it's not always true .

So here's the deal Most meat that we eat in the United States maybe you're somewhere else , I'm not quite sure culturally , the kind of meat intake in different places but most of the meats that we consume are great sources of protein . They really do have more protein per serving than other kinds of foods .

If we break our foods down into main sources , there are probably going to be foods that are mostly protein . All these foods or a lot of foods have other macronutrients in them . When I'm talking about macronutrients , I'm saying protein , fats and carbohydrates .

Those are the three , so there are different kinds of meats that are also made up of carbohydrates as well as fats . Leaner meats have less fat , fatty meats have more fat , but they're also sources of protein . For the most part . Most of these meats are more protein than the other macronutrients , so they tend to be a good source of protein in a diet .

The challenge here , though , is that while eating , while being a meat consumer is going to give you a leg up , it doesn't inherently mean that you are meeting the needs of your body , particularly if you're meeting , if you are a training individual . So I probably should have mentioned this first . But let's just talk about what protein does .

Protein is essential for muscle repair and muscle growth . It is the macronutrient we need for that . So if we aren't getting enough , we aren't able to optimally create the processes which help us maintain muscle , maintain bone strength and help us to grow muscle , which in a lot of cases , is what we want to do if we're trying to create physique change .

So the protein requirements for an individual are going to be different based on where they are in their life , how old they are , things like that .

But for the majority of folks who are resistance training , the recommendation according to research , or the most recent research , is somewhere between 1.49 grams to 2 grams per kilogram of body weight , so not pounds kilograms . So if you were to want to find out your weight in kilograms , you would divide your weight by 2.2 .

But you could just go about half would give you a good sense . So for a 150 pound individual , that would be , let's say , around 75 kilograms and then for that person you would either multiply by 1.49 up to 2 . So let's say you're going to be on the high end of that . It's going to be about one gram per .

If it's two grams per kilograms can be about one gram per pound . If this is too much , you just say I don't need to think about this . But if it's helpful , great . So that 150 pound person might need to get 150 grams of protein .

For most people who aren't all that tuned in to how much protein they're consuming , I have seen from clients that they are not getting that upper end of the protein requirement or suggestion . Let's not call it a requirement , let's call it a suggestion . They're not getting that amount . They might not even be hitting that bottom number .

For a lot of people that I see who are checking in on their protein when , before they've made any sort of adaptation , they're getting under 100 grams of protein which for depending on your body weight , could be pretty low , pretty low .

In particular , if you're trying to resistance train at a challenging level , if you're trying to make big changes as far as your fitness level and in order to support all that hard work you're doing , if you're not getting enough , you're not supporting it and you might be leaving a lot of what you could be accomplishing , a lot of your progress on the table .

Again , this is personal preference , but if it's something that matters to , if you want to feel better after lifting , if you want to see results , this is a way to do it to increase your protein intake .

So , going back to that lie you've been told , if you've been told you're eating meat , you're definitely getting enough protein and you're not , then that's a bummer for you . That's a total bummer . Now , how would you rectify that ? One of the ways is just to begin to track it Again .

When I talk about tracking as far as working with clients , we talk a lot about our sort of psychological state and our emotional state before we even tackle that . You may not be in a place right now where tracking your calories and or macronutrients is a good fit for you .

If it is , and it's something that can just help you bring awareness , I tend to tell people that this is not a long term thing , but more something that they can check in on to see how they're doing and then see if there's anything that they want to manipulate in order to get closer to the numbers that they're ideally looking for , then ultimately getting on

autopilot so they don't have to constantly track . That's an option . So that's one of the ways . And another way is , you know , in tracking you can also see sometimes you might be getting enough protein from the meat but you might not be getting enough total intake of food in general , and so if you were getting more food , you would be getting more protein .

If you're a meat consumer , you can also get plenty of protein as a non meat eater . It is a harder , it's more challenging and oftentimes requires a little bit more awareness .

Where tracking comes into play can be really helpful , but it's something that , if it matters to you and if it would be helpful for you to see where you are in terms of your protein intake , I want you to know that just eating meat doesn't inherently mean that you're hitting your goal . So that's number one on those quote unquote again lies .

So think about tracking . Think about becoming even if it's not tracking , just becoming a little bit more aware of , in each given serving of this food , how much protein is in it , and learning a little bit more about it so that you have a better understanding .

Again , I am not an advocate , for you know , while diet changes , restriction over obsession , things like obsession in general , not over obsession , obsession in general . So I use these tactics really sparingly with my clients and we do a lot of work before we get to the point where we're taking a look at these little things to manipulate .

But if you feel like this is a time where that is going to be helpful for you , that might be useful , all right .

Number two Number two this lie is every protein snack is a good choice , and what I mean by protein snack is because the importance of protein has become a little bit more mainstream . That means the wellness industry , the diet industry , is going to sell you stuff about it . They're going to make all these new products that say protein , this .

You can get a protein cookie . You can get a protein brownie . You can get a protein donut . You can get protein cookie dough . You can get protein Doritos . I mean not Doritos specifically , but like they make all of these foods , just because it's made that way does not mean it is the better choice , the right choice , the only choice .

So they literally make one of everything . These days , almost , I can't think of a food that they don't make like a protein version of . If you like that , if you like the taste of it , if you're looking for that kind of thing , if you like , go .

I love this protein bar or I love this protein ice cream or whatever , by all means eat that if that is something that you enjoy . Just because it has added protein doesn't make it a quote , unquote health food .

If you know me and sometime I'll have a whole episode about where I think the , you know where that term has gone awry but it doesn't mean that it doesn't mean that it's better than any food that you're eating and it doesn't mean that you have to eat it .

It also means that it could be packing some other things in it that you have to decide whether or not you want . So in these protein versions , oftentimes they have more protein than the , than the non-protein version of itself . So let me see if I can explain this .

If you go get a protein waffle , they have frozen protein waffles , the brand code and I'm not going to , you know , knock any brand or anything . I'm just going to give you some reference points . There's a brand called Kodiak cakes . They make like protein pancakes . They make protein frozen waffles . Lots of lots of like pretty convenient foods .

Okay , if you look at a protein waffle from Kodiak cakes , it has more protein in it than an egg waffle that's sitting next to it on the shelf . But if you go over to the aisle where the bagels are , the bagels that are just regular no-transcript bagels , no protein added , have more protein per serving and less calories per serving than the protein waffle .

So see where the psychological games are being played at you . You could think that you want and I think they have maybe the same amount of carbohydrates , maybe a little bit less , I'm not sure . But if you and you know the protein waffles have more fat than the bagels . Again , none of this is a judgment .

It's more to say you could be thinking you're having this high protein thing where you could be having a different food and be having the same , getting the same amount of protein . So typically the high protein version is only a high protein version of that kind of food .

If you're willing and interested in eating other kinds of food , you could be getting that amount of protein , if not more , from other foods . Like if you have an omelet , you are going to probably have more protein than that protein waffle and nobody had to label it a protein omelet . So it's a lot . A lot of that is in marketing .

Then you got to look also with a lot of these protein foods , the labels will tell you that they have a certain amount of protein and , just like any kind of nutrition label , you have to be a really conscious consumer .

Because on that protein label or on that label for that big cookie and I was taking the Lenny's like complete protein cookie that they sell and they you know the I actually pulled it up . Hold on , let me see if I can get it again . Okay , the . On the nutrition facts , all the packaging says 16 grams of protein per cookie .

You're not going to find too many cookies that have that amount of protein . Then when you look at the package , though the , that 16 grams is the whole package . The serving size on the calories is for half a package . So if you only have half of the cookie , you're only having eight grams , and if you're having the whole cookie , you're having those 16 grams .

But maybe the total calories is higher and it is . It's a lot higher than you would expect . Again , not a judgment about the amount of calories and or the amount of protein . What I'm saying is that it's not always as clear cut as it seems and a lot of this stuff is marketing .

So if you love the cookie and want it , great , let's say you're a person who has a sweet tooth and at night you always want a cookie . And you're looking at your nutrition and you're saying I'm like low on protein , I'm not willing to give up my cookie , but I actually think I might be interested in trying this protein version .

And it's still hitting that spot and you don't feel like you're giving something up . You're like , okay , I'll swap that out . That seems like a great alternative or like a snack option that you , you're having a snack . It's not high in protein .

You think that you can like switch it for one of these convenience high protein foods and it's going to make a difference , great , that's awesome . If , when you eat that protein cookie at night , it's still not a really good chocolate chip cookie and you're kind of just like choking it down and you hate it . It's not worth it , it's not worth it .

And then realize with also with any of these convenience protein foods or the protein version of something , there's a lot of other stuff they put in it that can be tummy upsetting . Again , I am not and you will hear this from me a thousand times .

I am not a only whole foods , never process foods person , because there's a lot of reasons why we process foods , and that's an elitist and oftentimes , you know , really , really can't think of the word at the moment , but it is . It's the kind of language and wording that makes wellness something for only for wealthy people , people who don't need convenience foods .

Convenience foods are totally . There's a room for them in someone's diet . So I'm not saying that process foods are bad . That is the last thing you will hear me say . I will say that for some people who are eating all these only protein added foods , they're having gastric issues because of the things that are in there .

So if you can have a serving of this and it doesn't bother your tummy , awesome , do it . It's just probably more beneficial to have a variety of foods . So at every meal , you're hopefully not having an artificial protein food . Does that make sense ? I hope that makes sense . Okay , so that was number two .

Number two was everything that's labeled a protein version of something doesn't mean it's the best choice . If it's the right choice for you , great . But be a conscious consumer and make decisions that work both for your nutrition goals , your macro nutrient goals , but also the tastes and foods that you enjoy .

That's a very important part of your overall health and your overall diet . Okay , this is . Number three is a weird one . I really do not know where it came from . Peanut butter and avocado are not a source , are not a major source , of protein .

Okay , so in the last few years , all these places have come out with bowls or foods that you add vegetables and rice , and you know I'm thinking of Chipotle , but , like there are a lot of places where , where you are asked to order an ad protein , you're asked to pick your source of protein and in a lot of cases , I have no idea why , in the vegetarian

community , they have put avocado as the um , like protein . Oh my goodness , avocado is a source of fat . Avocado is a source of fat . In an entire avocado , which is three individual servings , technically , there's three grams of protein . That's not a significant source of protein . Yes , there's literal protein in it , but it's not a significant source .

So if you're thinking about that as the protein source in your meal , the idea and I listen , I'm a avocado toast tater , I will be very honest with you . I think it's good , but I do never think it's worth $20 and there's not an . There is not enough Himalayan sea salt in the world to make me think that that is worth using my delicious breakfast on .

It's fine , it's fine . You can come at me in the you know , in my email if you disagree , but I just don't . It's not a thing . It's also just not a source of protein . Same thing with peanut butter . The numbers on peanut butter are like per two tablespoons , which is kind of a big .

You know it's a lot of peanut butter , but if it's delicious , there is our eight grams of protein . The fat in peanut butter is much higher than that , much higher than that . Again , that doesn't mean it's a bad thing , it just means that it's not a big source of protein .

So if you're putting your meal together and you're like , oh , I'm gonna have this is my carbohydrate and this is my fat , and then I'm gonna add peanut butter for protein , it's just not a significant amount . It is not going to give you the thing that you are necessarily looking for and that's tricky . Okay , oh , it's 16 grams .

It's 16 grams of fat and eight grams of protein . Again , no shade , you need fat in your diet . I'm gonna get to that part soon and I think peanut butter is delicious and I think if you like peanut butter , you should eat it . I just think you should think about it probably as a source of fat and not a source of protein .

It has twice as much fat as it does protein . All of these things . If we start to take the judgment out of nutrition and we just look at numbers , we can get a better idea of what we're eating and then we can make choices based on how we want to feel , how we want foods to taste , how we want to live our lives . No morality here , just information .

So if you're building your meal , you just want to be thinking about what are actual sources of protein . The same thing Sometimes there are those protein convenience foods where they say it's a protein thing and yes , it has a little bit more protein , but it's not enough of a percentage that it's gonna move the scales toward your total that you're aiming for .

So for non meat eaters , tofu tends to be a high source of protein . Rice and beans together is a complete source of protein and can be high in protein . There are lots of different things . That way , if you're a meat eater , meat is typically the source of protein . You're adding to say , like a chipotle bowl or whatever that is .

So just getting clear on some of these sources of protein and understanding that whether this thing is marketed as a source of protein doesn't inherently mean that it is , and the more you learn that information , the more again you can make choices that fit your nutritional needs and your nutritional desires . I love peanut butter . I put it in a lot of foods .

I'm just not thinking of it as my main source of protein or something that is significantly moving the dial for me in that way . Lastly , number four the lie , quote-unquote , is that protein is the only thing you have to focus on nutritionally .

Somewhere in the marketing , protein became the biggest hero , and I think it's because gym culture is kind of like a thing . Now . I mean , all of this stuff is kind of sold to you in a in wellness world , to one . You know they make you feel bad about yourself so that you can buy their stuff . That's another episode for another

day . But protein is not the only thing that matters in your nutrition . So , as we talk about this and as I encourage you to think about it as a resistance training individual , someone who's going to lift weights , someone who's going to exercise , can be really , really helpful , and I don't want you to not use it .

I just want you to remember that there are other things to think about . Carbohydrates literally give you fast-acting energy . Fats are our source of for long endurance movement exercises . We're using fat . Fat is also a way that we absorb vitamins in our body Vitamins , micronutrients . So macronutrients are that protein , carbohydrates and fats .

Micronutrients are all the little things that help us stay healthy , that help us not get sick , that help us recover , that help our nails grow and our hair grow and our skin stay , you know , taught or moist or whatever . I started to say moist and then I realized people hate that word , so then I paused , but I said it anyway .

But we need all of those things . So if you are getting so stressed out about protein intake because it's the thing to get stressed out about again right now I want you to say I want to say let it go . Track if that's helpful , or bring awareness to the nutrient , macronutrient if it's helpful . Aim to get some more protein . Maybe you're finding opportunities .

One of the things I meant to say earlier was so for most people , breakfast is a place where they are not getting a lot of protein , and so in the very first meal of the day where you've consumed a bit of calories , you've kind of left opportunity for protein on the table , because many of the foods that we associate with breakfast are high in carbohydrates and

low in protein .

If you are a resistance training individual who wants to take more advantage of protein for muscle growth and or muscle repair , breakfast might be a place to find opportunities to insert protein , whether that be with a protein version of something , whether that be with a meat or an egg or something like that , whether that be a food that's entirely doesn't feel like

it's supposed to be a breakfast food , but if you like to eat it in the morning , it can be a breakfast food . There are no rules , so that's something to think about .

Those are ways we can start to make tiny adaptations that pay off big dividends in the end , without rock in the world and without saying that we have to do this like totally different diet and and stress ourselves out .

So that's something you can do without even adding tracking on your plate , but just realize that if you're focused on protein so much , don't forget the other things that we need , and don't let anyone convince you that there's one magical way to eat that is going to deliver results .

All of this is a puzzle that we put together day in , day out , day in , day out , and it changes and it evolves , and you have the right and the power to make the choices that are good for you . Alright , I've been talking for a while , but this is I hope this is super helpful .

Let me remind you of the four and and remind you of what you're gonna take away from it , and then we'll , and then I'll wrap up . Let you go . Yeah , if you're listening and you like this and you think it's gonna be helpful for somebody , please share it . That is the best way to get the podcast around .

Alright , the four the lie number one if you eat meat , you're definitely getting enough protein . We know that's not necessarily the case . Meat is a great source of protein , but there are other great sources of protein and you may or may not be getting enough of it in your day .

To make that total , so you can bring your awareness to it , you can learn a little bit about portion sizes and the amount of protein in any given portion , or you can track if that's something that is going to help you reach your fitness goals . Lie number two every protein snack is a great choice . There's a lot of marketing around adding protein to foods .

If you like that food and you want to add protein , amazing . If you don't , and you want to just eat a real pancake or a real cookie , you can . You can use these foods in ways that help support your goals that don't take away from your life . You don't have to think it tastes good .

If it doesn't taste good and realizing that if we eat all those kinds of food all the time as our only choice , we might be dealing with missed nutrients and or gastric discomfort . A lie . Number three peanut butter and avocado are great sources of protein .

There might be other ones on the list , but these are just things where , somewhere along the way , somebody got the wrong information . These foods have protein in them , but they're not the significant portion that you need in order to make it the central protein item in a meal . If that matters to you Again , if it matters to you those foods are great .

Those things have a place in your diet . Do what you will with that information . And number four protein is the lie is protein is the only thing to focus on nutritionally . We know very well that there are so many other important aspects to nutrition and while , as a resistance training individual , this can be really important to focus on .

You've got to take into account all the other aspects of eating , all the other aspects of macronutrients , micronutrients , and do what is best for you . Amazing , alright , let me know if this helps . You can DM me on Instagram at foster , underscore strength . You can send me an email , betsy , at be foster strongcom .

That's a letterB , foster , excuse me , strongcom . The podcast is new . We're only on . This is gonna be episode six , episode six . So I'm looking for ratings and reviews . If you're liking it , that just is . I've been told . It helps get the podcast out and it helps people who are kind of scrolling through , who don't know me or looking for a podcast .

It gives them real listener insight . If you can leave a review , people like to hear that other people are listening . People like to know what they're getting into or what they're gonna get out of it , and I can tell them all day , but it's better from the listener .

So if you have the opportunity , they're already a bunch of ratings and that's like very , very sweet to me , so I very much appreciate that . If if you want to rate it great , if you could leave a review , that would be amazing . Alright , until next time , go build your strongest body and I'll talk to you soon . Bye , tag LebwaySkycom .