I'm going to tell you once and for all how much protein you should be eating if you're trying to lose weight, trying to gain muscle, or simply trying to improve your health. Watch all the way to the end and we'll also cover the best types of protein, timing of protein, and my 16 top tips to help you meet your protein needs. So grab your pen, paper, and your protein, shaker. I'm Maria and I'm a registered dietitian. Let's get into the video. So protein intake has become quite controversial. And a lot of this stems back to the ordeal being set at a very conservative 0.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day. But this really is just the bare minimum that you need to eat to avoid a protein deficiency. A many studies have shown that even sedentary people would benefit from eating a lot more protein than this. However, more protein does not mean more gains. Now the first thing that I need you to know about protein is that unlike fats and carbohydrates, we can't store protein in the body, which means that we must consume a sufficient amount of protein every single day from our food. Carbohydrates and fat can be stored and wait until they are needed, but your body is constantly breaking down and rebuilding new protein and muscle. And it's an energy-using process and this is why people with more muscle tend to have higher metabolism. Now if you don't know your weight in kg, take your weight in pounds and divide it by 2.2. So as I mentioned, the ordeal is pretty long. So if you're doing the math for an 80 kg person, they need 64 grams of protein daily as per the ordeal. But as I mentioned, the ordeal really is the bare minimum. So for most of my clients, I will typically advocate that we aim for 1 to 1.2 grams of protein per kg every day. So if you are 80 kg, you ideally want to be having at least 80 grams of protein daily. Now for active people looking to build muscle or even just maintain your muscle mass. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends that we should eat 1.4 to 2 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day. So if you're keeping score, that would be 112 to 160 grams of protein for an 80 kg person. Now if you're trying to lose weight, you're likely eating in a calorie deficit. And in this scenario, you want to minimize losing muscle, which can be hired when you're not eating as much. And you want to prioritize losing fat mass. So to avoid this, you may need even higher protein intake again. And there is some research that suggests that higher protein intakes above 2 grams per kg of body weight per day may be beneficial in terms of weight loss. However, consuming more protein than you need doesn't offer an advantage in terms of health or physical performance. And if you're trying to lose weight, overeating on any macronutrient will not be helpful. But generally, the higher your energy deficit, the more protein is recommended in weight loss. And high protein intake is also really helpful if you're trying to lose weight, because protein decreases our appetite. It does this by reducing our hunger hormone and increasing our satiety hormones. Now if you're enjoying this video so far, I would really appreciate it if you hit the red subscribe button below. It really helps support my channel so I can continue making more videos. And while you're at it, I'd love it if you gave the video a thumbs up too. Now I want to go back and highlight again that more protein does not always equal more gains. There was one study that took strength athletes. And they were assigned to either a low protein diet, where they ate 0.86 grams of protein per kg per day. A moderate protein diet was 1.4 grams of protein, and a high protein diet providing 2.3 grams of protein per kg of body weight per day. Now the low protein diet group had muscle last after the intervention. However, both the moderate and the high protein diet resulted in an increase in muscle mass. However, the increase was the same amongst both groups, indicating that no further benefits were actually gained from increasing protein intake from 1.4 to 2.3. And a huge mistake that people make when they're focusing on protein is they neglect other aspects of nutrition like your overall energy intake and your carbohydrate intake. Protein has a sparing effect, which means that when insufficient amounts of energy are consumed, protein can be used to provide energy instead. However, this means that it's usual functions, such as the maintenance of skin hair and nails, and muscle repair and growth are restricted. So while protein is important, overall energy and carbohydrate intake is just as important, to ensure that the protein can be used for what it is designed to do. And of course, the other really important consideration, which I feel like I kind of have to say, if your goal is muscle building, you actually need to be going to the gym and doing resistance training like lifting weights. Simply drinking protein shakes on the own will not do the trick. If only it was that easy. Now all that said, nutrition is never a one size fits all approach. Protein intake is individual and it depends on several factors, including your age, weight, activity, level and goals. Your protein requirements will also change throughout your life. For example, women may need to adjust their protein intake during pregnancy and lactation to keep up with their body's needs. And people over the age of 65 may also need to increase their protein intake. Since the body uses protein less efficiently as we age, so it starts to get harder to keep rebuilding up that muscle. Now let's look at protein timing. You may have heard that your body can only absorb a certain amount of protein in one sitting. While this is not directly true, there is evidence that spreading out your intake through out the day rather than having large amounts of protein in one or two settings is better for muscle growth. Again, the International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends that regular doses of 20 to 40 grams of protein, every three to four iris is most beneficial for protein synthesis. Or if you want this more specific to you, you want to be eating 0.25 grams to 0.4 grams of protein per meal or every three to four hours. But again, meeting your total daily protein intake is the first priority. Then if you can, trying to spread this out throughout the day, every three to four hours has been shown to improve body composition and performance in individuals who exercise. What I tend to see in clinic with clients is that most people tend to eat the bulk of their daily protein intake at dinner, neglecting the other meals, which might not be a great strategy if your goal is building muscle. When we talk about the quality of a protein, what does dietitians are usually talking about is the amount of essential amino acids. They provide and how well our body can digest and use the protein. There are nine amino acids that are considered essential. Essential means that we cannot make them within our body, so it is essential that we get them from our diet. And generally speaking, the protein that we get from animal sources like your meat, dairy, chicken and fish are considered complete sources of protein, meaning that they contain all nine of the essential amino acids that our body needs, whereas plant-based protein sources, such as beans and lentils, typically lack an essential amino acid, or have lower levels of amino acid. However, there are some exceptions. Soy-based protein sources, like soy protein isolate, soy milk and soy yogurts, tofu and tempeh, contain all nine essential amino acids. But what you can also do is combine different sources of plant-based proteins to compensate for the missing amino acids, and these are called complementary proteins. For example, beans are high in lysine and low in methionine, whereas bread is low in lysine but higher in methionine, which makes combining beans with toast and meal that can provide all essential amino acids. Now, one amino acid of particular importance is the loosing, which plays a key role in stimulating muscle protein synthesis. It's like a trigger for the muscle-dosing process, and research shows that 2.5 to 3 grams of loosing are needed to stimulate muscle growth, and this is known as the loosing threshold, and it's much harder to reach this threshold with plant-over-animal proteins. To crunch the numbers, one typical serving of a chicken breast contains 2.3 grams of loosing, but you would need to eat two and a half servings of lentils to reach the same threshold. The same goes for protein powders. In way protein, loosing is about 12%, so 23 grams of way protein isolate will trigger the loosing threshold, whereas in soy protein isolate, it's 7.8%. So now you need up to 34 grams to trigger this threshold. If you want me to do a whole other video looking at protein powders, let me know in the comments below. A final thing to consider when a constiprotein type is the bioavailability of the protein. Bioavailability refers to the amount of a nutrient that we can actually absorb after it is eaten, and quite often plant-based proteins are harder to digest because they contain fiber, but also because they might contain fightates, which can decrease the absorbability of the amino acids. The American College of Sports Medicine advises that vegetarian athletes need to eat around 10% more protein than if they were not vegetarian, to accommodate for the lower levels of essential amino acids in plant foods, but also due to the bioavailability of amino acids in these foods. Now don't let that turn you off plant proteins. All of the other nutrients that they are providing you with, like the fiber, vitamins and minerals, still make them an excellent option. Now before I move on to my top tips for helping you get in more protein, I'm going to address a common question, which is, it's too much protein harmful. Because for a very long time, it was thought that too much protein could cause liver or kidney damage, as the places excess strain on those organs in order to process it. But this has actually never been demonstrated in healthy individuals. What I would say is sometimes people focus too much on protein, crowding out other essential nutrients, or if you're eating a lot of processed or red meat, it could increase your saturated fat intake, and therefore increase your risk of other diseases. Now individuals with chronic kidney disease are prescribed a protein restricted diet, depending on the stage of disease and individual kidney function. However, there is no evidence that a high protein intake impairs kidney function and or causes chronic kidney disease in healthy individuals. So finally, how to eat more protein. I believe it's easier than you think to eat 100 grams of protein daily. So here are some of my top tips and spots for working more protein in your diet. First, you need to be eating protein every three to four hours and include a protein rich food with every mealings night. I have a full list of protein sources available in this free protein guide, which I'll leave linked below. Always start your day with a good protein source. This is especially important after an overnight fast. So protein intake at breakfast should not be overlooked. So I have white rice for quinoa for almost double the protein. Use Greek yogurt instead of traditional yogurt for double the protein. Consider cooking protein in bulk to have it readily available throughout the week. Like always have some boiled eggs in the fridge or cooked two to three chicken breasts at a time. For quick meals or snacks, stock up on pre-prepped or pre-cooked protein. I can't tune a Greek yogurt, rotisserie chicken or protein powder. Try swapping traditional pasta for a bean or lentil-based pasta, such as chickpea pasta to get in that extra protein boost. Stock up on carbohydrates that double as a good protein source, like beans and lentils. Try adding hemp seeds or chai seeds to oatmeal or yogurt. Three tablespoons of hemp seeds provides nearly 10 grams of protein. Use bone broth as a base for soup or to cook rice. Use plain Greek yogurt in place of sour cream and recipes. Brinkle nuts and seeds on other foods or take a handful as a snack. Add beans or lentils to soups or pasta dishes. Add peas to meals. One cup provides eight grams of protein. Try adding protein powder to oats, baked goods or pancakes. Try nutritional yeast for a plant-based cheesy flavor. Two tablespoons provide five grams of protein. If cost is a barrier, try things like micro protein, which is a much cheaper protein alternative made from fungus. I use this all the time in Bermuda where chicken breast prices are ridiculous. Tofu is also much cheaper than many meats and can be delicious if it's cooked correctly. I'd recommend following me on Instagram for many high protein recipe ideas. So hopefully this has been helpful. You can grab your free protein guide linked below. Please comment below any questions or any other nutrition related topic that you would like me to cover in future videos. As always, thank you very much for watching and I'll see you again next week.