Captain Obvious: Protein

I'm going to start calling these types of newsletters by the name Captain Obvious because EVERYONE "knows" about these things. Last week was sleep, this week is protein.

That said, it's the most obvious of things that always get neglected when it comes to training and progress.

Your biggest progress will come from the area that you're neglecting.

Training 3-4 times per week already, and nailing your food and cardio but sleep is s**t and sessions aren't progressing? Focus on sleep.

Sleeping 7-8 hours per night, training 3-4 per week, but not tracking your lifts and not making progress? Track your lifts.

But we're focusing on protein.

Why is protein important?

1. bone density

2. muscle growth and repair

3. satiety

4. creates and maintains the healthy function of chemical messengers that govern how you feel on a day-to-day basis

5. make up enzymes that speed up vital chemical reactions in the body (FYI, all we are is basically chemical reactions taking place constantly)

6. energy production

How much is enough?

It depends on what your goal and current physical condition are like.

Healthy bodyweight & Training: 1.4-2.0g/kg

Building muscle and already lean: 1.6-2.4g/kg

Overweight and want to lose body fat: 1.2-1.5g/kg

Sedentary: 1.2-1.8g/kg

Advanced trainee bulking and trying to minimize fat gain (probably no one reading or writing this article): 3.3g/kg

Pregnant: 1.7-1.8g/kg

Vegan: aim for the upper limit of each of these recommendations

Protein quality is important. Meat, dairy, eggs, and fish are complete proteins, meaning they provide all the amino acids that the body needs.

Vegetable proteins are incomplete, so you need to mix sources together to get all essential amino acids. Protein supplements are an ideal choice here, and a serving of this daily is enough to cover the bases. Given that hitting your protein requirement as a vegetarian or vegan often requires eating greater portions of food that also contain carbs, keeping an eye on overall calorie intake becomes more important when managing weight.

How much protein can you absorb in a meal? All of it. Not everything is used for muscle protein synthesis (AKA making you jacked), and the proteins that aren't needed for those purposes get used for the other purposes in the list above.

Eat your proteins.