is 'more protein' just the latest new fad?

[BarrelOfOtters]

Like no carbs or intermittent fasting....

I don't mind eating more protein but I don't want to go the protein shake route.

It's really annoying. I'm a body builder with a high protein goal, and can never manage to get the Aldi protein pots because they're being bulk bought by slimmers!

I use a protein shake on my break at work as I don't get much time. Handy for that

I have done this and now have an awful relationship with food. I do blame this because it allowed me to lose weight which was great but did not give me the tools to maintain it with actually food. It actual makes me angry the effect it has had on me.

@UntetheredTrampoline so what? anyone is allowed to buy them! Why are they just BB specific? Personally I see young lads bulk buying the yoghurt pouches. I’ve lost plenty of weight eating protein and working out/building muscle so if there is a specific product out there that helps add on some of your daily intake I don’t see what the issue is. Clearly some body builders here are just looking down on slimmers as if they are all the same, dont know what they are doing and have no idea about macros and buying up all their yoghurts in a fad. I’m not body building but I do know what strength training is and have my own goals to work to with reducing body fat and increasing strength

Yup this, I don’t use protein shakes, I tend to IF so my first meal is lunch with over 40g of protein (usually a goo whack of chicken). It really does help reduce hunger. Unfortunately this is patchy due to being out a lot, so I try to always take protein options when eating out.

People who had gastric surgery are told to use these products FYI

The protein leverage hypothesis? I once went to a restaurant for lunch and chose a 500 cal chicken dish that had something like 70g of protein in it. I couldn’t finish it and then couldn’t eat for the rest of the day. I’m overweight as well so perfectly capable of packing it in but I just couldn’t face any food. I really believe this is a thing. Protein shakes never worked for me, has to be real food.

I think as with most dietary trends it starts with some sensible points - satiety as mentioned by PP above, plus as you get older you need more protein to stave off muscle loss which is is vital for healthy aging. But then there's a whole layer of marketing hype, driven by companies pushing highly processed foods that actually aren't that healthy for us. I aim for a low UPF diet with lots of vegetarian and plant-based protein to support a fairly busy training schedule including weights and cardio. I avoid most of the packaged high protein snacks as they're full of crap and generally aren't that high in protein anyway. I do occasionally add whey powder to a smoothie for an extra post-workout boost but I use a pure whey powder without additives.

@NorthCliffs well done that's great. Did you track how much protein and carbs you were eating? I hear different formulas for how much protein we should aim to eat and be interested in what you used. Also if you were low carb did you increase fats?

I guess part of the weight loss that is reported from high protein diets is partly down to being more careful about what you eat because you are ‘on a diet’.

People seem to think that you can increase muscle or prevent muscle loss just by having more protein. You actually need to work the muscles and protein supports the repair process. You also need to be working HARD to require more protein than you can find in a normal balanced diet. Excess calories from protein are just stored as fat or excreted.

It’s a good money making fad for food companies though until the next thing comes along.

There was a doctor talking about this on the radio a while ago, the take on it being that if you aren't bodybuilding you don't ned all this protein and a concern that the incidence of people presenting with kidney stones was and would continue to increase as a result of the increase in/excessive protein being eaten .

Thank you. I did 0.8g protein per kg of bodyweight. The usual recommended amount is 1-2g I think, but I only have one kidney. I didn't track carbs, just avoided them, and I made sure to eat healthy fats. I also watched salt intake (due to aforementioned kidney!) I feel better now than at any time in my life. Aged 48 and with 4 young children, I now weigh the same as when I was 16. (Wish I looked the same!)

It was number research studies I read about.

Yeah this is usually because people combine it with low carb which is really hard to do. I think I had gone too hard on the protein a couple weeks back and I didn’t feel great so I stepped it back and took back on more carbs. Listen to your body, you can get protein poisoning, the recommended amount is 0.8-1.5G per KG of body weight, from 10-35% of your daily total calorie intake. I tend to land around 25% most days now - around 100g which isn’t too excessive or impossible. I did reduce carbs more when I was losing weight initially but I am about 7kg off my goal (having lost 24kg) so I am more relaxed about my diet as I am no longer binging. I’m experimenting with what is going to work for me long term to maintain

@BingoMarieHeeler what protein shakes are you drinking, how often and what else do you eat in a typical day? If you don't mind me asking!

Against my better judgement, I tried using shakes to up my protein a couple of times (2 years apart) and it doesn’t work for me. They don’t fill me up the way others describe

I have always avoided highly processed food so trying them was going against everything I believed but PT convinced me it was the only way so I tried it. I did stay away from the added protein in all other food items and relied more on eggs/tofu/pulses for veggie protein. Most of the added protein foods in the supermarkets are junk and contain a huge number of calories for not much protein - better off having some cheese!

As a ( nearly ) 60 year old pretty active woman I aim for 50 gr a day, and not all from meat, I do eat lentils, beans and fish etc

For someone who would usually grab the bread, its been eye opening at how Im not feeling hungry and am managing a weight loss without trying too hard

I dont use shakes , I prefer to eat my calories

I do better snacking on a couple of baby bels when I too busy to sit and eat

Whey protein shakes aren't satiating, casein protein shakes are if that's what you want. I aim to eat my weight in lbs in grammes of protein per day and I can if I add in a whey protein shake. I run and do weight training so I like to keep protein intake on the high side. Since eating this way I've never had a problem keeping weight off. Protein - mainly from whole foods - is very satiating indeed.

On the nutracheck FB group Im on somebody asked if they are the only one where protein doesn't actually make them feel full and carbs actually make them feel much fuller and lots agreed, including me. It isn't that cut and dried evidently.

@samthebordercollie do you mean a gram per kg of body weight? A gram per llb would be an awful lot.

No, 1g of protein per lb, I'm 5'8 and 125lbs so it's very doable. As I said it's on the upper side of what most experts recommend, because I do resistance training. The RDA recommends 0,36g per lb which is very low. 0.8g is good to aim for if you aren't resistance training. For people who are overweight they should aim to hit their goal weight in lbs rather than their current weight.

I really don’t find this. Protein doesn’t seem to fill me like carbs do. I’ve tried so often as well.

There is nothing special about any of the macros. If you're macros are out of balance, then eating more of the macronutrient you're not getting enough of and less of the macronutrient you're getting too much of is going to make you feel better. Ultimately there is no magic macronutrient or micronutrient, they are all important for a healthy body and mind. The further you move away from a balanced nutrient dense diet the worse your health will be, and the closer you follow a balanced nutrient dense diet the better it will be. There's no magic. But balance and common sense don't sell books, everyone wants the next dietary snake oil and at the moment it is protein shakes. Which have their uses, of course, or they wouldn't exist. But for most people supplementary protein, and actual just supplements generally, aren't necessary if they eat a healthy balanced nutrient dense diet. Nothing fancy. And 80:20 as well, so still room for birthday cake, crisps, chocolate, wine, or whatever your preference is.

Casein turns into cement! Making a casein shake is an art 😂

If you needed 130g protein a day, could you achieve that from diet alone? 50g a day is easy from just food.