Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2450: The Smartest Way to Use Protein to Burn Fat & Build Muscle

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

Smartest Way to Use Protein to Burn Fat & Build Muscle The protein effect. (1:25) One of the MOST effective ways to control appetite. (5:06) Leads to a faster metabolism. (11:18) Does the quality of protein matter? (14:13) Why you should start your day with a high-protein breakfast. (16:57) Aim for protein first. (22:11) When can I use protein shakes? (23:44) The value of supplementing with Essential Amino Acids (EEAs) for vegans. (25:14) Listener Questions: #1 - What are some great high-protein snacks? (28:00) #2 - Is there any benefit to eating more than 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight? (29:08) #3 - How often can I use a protein shake? (30:31) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Xero Shoes for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners. ** Biggest sale of 2024, ends 10/22, up to 70% off all shoes! ** October Promotion: MAPS Muscle Mommy 50% off! ** Code OCTOBER50 at checkout ** Building Muscle with Adam Schafer – Mind Pump TV Study shows high-protein diets are better for fat loss A high-protein diet for reducing body fat: mechanisms and possible caveats The Myth of Optimal Protein Intake - Mind Pump Media Mind Pump #1220: The 4 Best Sources of Protein Mind Pump #2060: Maximize Fat Loss With Continuous Glucose Monitors: Kara Collier Mind Pump #2432: The Truth About Essential Amino Acids with Angelo Keely Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Kara Collier (@karacollierrd) Instagram 

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pumped. Today's episode, we talk about protein, the smartest ways to use them if you want to burn body fat and build muscle, and there are better ways to to use protein a lot of people do it the wrong way Now this episode is brought to you by one of our sponsors zero Shoes these shoes were made for lifting. I love them. They've got a nice wide toe box great for dead lifting

You can get some for squatting. They're great for muscle function of the foot the ankle They also look really good. Go check them out. In fact, right now they're having a massive sale up to 70% off all shoes. Go check them out. Go to zeroshoes.com. That's X-E-R-O, shoes.com forward slash mind pump. Also, we have a sale on a workout program this month.

MAPS Muscle Mommy, 50% off. If you're interested, go to mapsAPSFitnessProducts.com and then use the code October50 for the discount. All right, here comes the show. One of the keys to fat loss is protein. It's true, if you're not eating at a high protein diet, you're not gonna burn as much body fat as you can. So in today's episode, we're gonna talk about

the smartest ways to use protein for fat burn and to build muscle. You gotta watch this. I wish I understood this earlier in my career. I think it was probably almost 10 years in when I started to just focus on this with clients. I knew it was important, but I know how important. Yeah I also did I knew it was important and I but I also didn't understand just coaching to that the simplicity of it and how much that would, like everything else would kind of fall into place if that makes sense. Yeah, you literally have your situation.

So there's very few things like what I'm about to say when it comes to fat loss and muscle gain. There's very, very few things that you can do one thing, take one step and it have the effect of, let's say, the next 10 steps by itself. And that's the effect that protein can have. Now just to kind of set the context and the stage here, and they've done many studies on this, okay? A high protein diet, even in the context of controlled calories, meaning you got two groups of people eating the same calories, okay? But one group is high protein, the other one is low or moderate protein, even though they're the same calories, the high protein group always

leads to more muscle and less body fat. In other words, eating more protein even with the same calories will result in more fat loss and more muscle gain or at least muscle preservation. So it's extremely important because the the belief has been for a long time or maybe even the misunderstanding that relates about the calories and so long as you hit your minimums doesn't make a difference if it's high protein, low protein, high carb, low carb, whatever. I remember a while ago when this was the discussion around carbs. Yeah, and it was well low carb will burn more body fat than high carb will even if the calories are controlled and the studies came out and actually showed

that's that's not true. It's the same body fat. It's not the, even if the calories are controlled. And the studies came out and actually showed that's, that's not true. It's the same body fat. It's not the same with protein though, with protein, a high protein diet, uh, with the same calories is just more effective. It's just far more effective. There's also to, uh, keep me in mind, uh, behaviorally what most people do when they, when they go to get in shape. I mean, I just had this conversation with my brother-in-law, he's been following, um, the whole series that I'm doing on YouTube, right?

And this is what we're talking about today, is a big part of my early message. Like just goal one, go hit protein intake. Just focus on that, right? Minimal dose inside the gym, hit protein intake. Hit protein intake, that's all I'm focusing on right now and watch how far I go. So he's calling me on like the third day of him watching this.

And he's like, bro, he's like, so hard to get that protein like that. Do I have to do that? And I'm like, well, yeah, no, and not only do you need to do it, you need to consistently do it because it doesn't, like it doesn't, your body doesn't store protein

the way it does carbs and fat. So it's like, if you have one good day of protein, say you even eat over a little bit, and then the next day you have really low. It doesn't really carry over. It doesn't really carry over like that. So it's like, then you're're missing, you're going back and say you need anything you think you're going backwards. Then you add it too. Then I'm like, what are you doing workout wise? Oh, I've got this thing. I'm like, and then on top of that, the over training. So not only, so you have to understand the way people like when they were motivated to get in shape, they come with this over-application of intensity and volume and training. Guns blazing.

And then they also lack hitting the protein. And the combination of the two of that is super detrimental. That's a recipe for disaster. So protein, high protein diet also, again, with calories being controlled, also leads to more muscle. And part of that, which I said earlier, part of

that is it leads to faster recovery. So it also makes you more muscle and part of that, which I said earlier, part of that is it leads to faster recovery. So it also makes you more resilient to stress and remember exercise is a stress. This is why strength training builds muscle, it's a stress on the body. The body adapts the stress by getting stronger so that it's no longer stress. Of course you add weight to the bar, do more reps, whatever, but the fact remains that a higher protein diet simply makes you more resilient. And then you said something, Adam, when you were taught, I think it was you said your cousin, who

said, oh, it's so hard to hit this protein. One of the reasons why it's so challenging is because a high protein diet crushes your appetite. Satiating. So when you look at, yeah, when you compare protein, fats and carbohydrates in terms of its satiety effect, it's like how full it makes you feel, especially in the first six months of your diet, a high protein

diet, even at the same calories will be perceived by your body as many, many more calories. Now there's a lot of theories around this. Part of it, one of the theories is that protein in nature typically comes with a lot of nutrients. So when you hit your protein amounts, your body is like, we're getting plenty of nutrients. We don't need to, we can dampen this hunger signal so you can focus on other things.

That's one of the theories, but the fact remains, especially in those early days, a high protein diet's one of the most effective ways to control your appetite, which is extremely important for fat loss. If you can simply control your appetite, fat loss becomes 90% easier. I think we've all seen this now with the rise of these appetite controlling peptides like GLP-1s. One of the main reasons why they're effective is people don't want to eat.

It just kills your appetite. Well, a high protein diet will do that as well. And it's far more effective, not a little bit, it's far more effective at hammering your appetite than carbs and fats. Well, the reason why you're going to keep hearing us talk about this pretty much indefinitely is because of that fact alone, like once people actually like go through the process of having to focus on

acquiring as much protein as necessary for them for their daily intake, it's always surprising. It never will not be surprising that it's really an intentional pursuit. This is something that you have to like train your way towards. Yeah. It's not like an accidental thing. You don't just like stumble into, you know, hitting those numbers. And it is, it's challenging because it's satiating.

It's challenging because it's just, to source it's kind of challenging. You have to really look where to go get the right type of protein. But even to your other point about healing versus adapting, it has that recovery element to it. If you're getting adequate amount of protein, you're actually now gonna to be adapting as opposed

to just recovering from, you know, you're probably going to be overdoing it because you're so hyped about like your workouts. I want to, I want to talk a little bit more about the theory that you mentioned, because I don't know if we've ever discussed that on here. Yeah. And that's super interesting to me that, um, is

that the prevailing theory that the reason why, uh, it is so satiety producing is that it's so nutrient dense and then it's sending a signal to the body like, oh, we're pretty good versus when I'm eating empty calories and you still want to have more processed foods. Is that what they- Yeah. So there's this theory that your signals, your body has to prioritize the drivers

that drive you for certain behaviors, right? So you have the driver for sex, for a thirst, hunger, for shelter and safety and those types of things. And so when you've met the demands of one of those drivers, then what it does is it takes away the resources from driving you to do this so that you could put it towards other things. demands of one of those drivers, then what it does is it takes away the resources from driving you to do this so that you could put it towards other things. For example, Sweet means safety. Oh yeah, well so that's a little different. Something that's sweet in nature typically isn't poisonous. So that's something different. But along those lines, for example,

your drive to procreate is very powerful. Well, if you're having a lot of sex, that drive will come down so that you can focus now on getting food. Another thing, same thing with hunger. So protein in nature, if you were to eat a lot of protein in a day, it meant you consumed, you definitely got your daily amount of fat, and fat is essential.

Carbohydrates are not essential, so really doesn't care if you get enough carbohydrates or not necessarily, unless your energy is too low maybe, but you're also gonna get a lot of nutrients. Meat, contrary to popular belief, this is totally false, the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet are meat. Now I'm not suggesting you do this, I don't think this is a good idea, I don't think it's a good diet at all, but if you had to eat just one food and get away with that for the rest of your life with the lowest risk of nutrient deficiency and you can only pick one food it would be meat in particular red meat you're probably not

gonna get a nutrient deficiency if you just ate red meat again it's not ideal but there are there's really no other food you could do that with and it's because it's so nutrient dense so that's the theory the theory is if you're getting a lot of protein the hunger signal comes way down. Alright cool we got all the nutrients. So I've always wondered like how much truth is to it because there's been times where like you know where I've seen clients who actually like have cravings for foods when their body is deficient in it like you know sometimes you'll see people that crave chocolate or

deficient in iron or you have certain foods that they crave, and it's, oh, because they don't have any healthy fats. That's why your body was trying to tell you. And so I wonder how much truth is to that. Pika-eating minerals. Yeah, that's when people would eat paint. Yeah, paint or like clay. When, say what?

With Pika-eating. There's this like disorder that, was it pregnant women were eating? They would eat clay or paint, and couldn't figure out why, and there's a nutrient in there that they were lacking. Yeah? They would eat clay or paint, you couldn't figure out why. There's a nutrient deficiency. Yeah, their bodies just naturally create it and they gravitate towards a certain thing

or food or whatever. Yeah, so I mean this, by the way, the appetite crushing effects of protein, there's new data suggesting that this is really a phenomena that happens in those early days of a diet. And it starts to kind of wane off a little bit later. In my experience with clients it always has an effect but I also agree with that study because initially it's hard.

To be honest, the time that you would want your appetite to be most controlled when you're trying to change your eating is in that first six month period when you're developing new behaviors. That's when you need the most help. It's not when you've already been eating healthy for a year or two. It's on those early stages. So if you're especially challenged in that first 90 days of really trying to eat right or whatever, like high protein is going to handle the appetite part better than anything else

and I think that's a massive win. That also leads to a faster metabolism and there's two reasons for this. One is protein has a thermic effect that's higher than carbohydrates or fats. What does that mean? Well to utilize the protein or to take the protein, break it down in amino acids, send it to the target tissues, that costs energy and it costs more energy per calorie or per gram of, I should say per calorie of protein, than it does per calorie of fats or carbohydrates. So it also burns more calories to consume more protein. And then the second

part of that is because it leads to muscle. Well, we know what that does to the metabolism. So okay faster metabolism, less, you know, more body fat loss and you control your appetite more. Like we're now starting to talk about and I hate to say this but like a magic macronutrient. So it's a very important thing to focus on. Yeah, I think the most important piece is what I was alluding to with people when they first get started that don't focus on protein and they reintroduce either cardio or strength training

and just the role that it plays in building muscle and building your metabolism, it is so crucial that you can't just simply go exercise or lift weights and expect it to do all the work. If you don't give it the building blocks that it needs to support that, then you end up spinning your wheels and you're doing all this extra work

that you're not getting the return on it. Or you think you're doing good because you cut calories, you're moving like crazy, and the scale goes down, or you think you're doing good because you cut calories, you're moving like crazy, and the scale goes down four or five pounds, but in reality, you lost as much muscle as you did fat. In my experience, now the data shows something like 50% to twice as much muscle gain with high protein versus, let's say, your typical protein diet.

By the way, high protein, when we keep saying high protein, we're referring to about a gram of protein per pound of body weight or per pound of target body weight. So whatever you want to weigh, that's what you eat in grams of protein. So when we say high protein, if you Google high protein, you're going to get a low protein version from the FDA that says anything over 60 grams or whatever. That's not what we're talking about. The studies that that we're referring to and there's a lot of them It's not one there's a lot of studies is pretty pretty established is a is close to about a gram of protein per pound of body weight, so that's what you want to aim for and it builds more muscle to the tune of

About 50% more, some twice as much. In my experience, especially with the clients that had such low protein diets when I got them, like there were some female clients out that would work with me and they were eating like 50 grams a day, like you know, like super low protein. I'd get them to go from 50 to 120 grams of protein a day,

130 grams of protein a day, they would build like three times as much muscle. It wasn't even the same ballpark, so it's just to back you up. The strength training was the same, but it was almost like three times as much progress as what we would expect. What about the quality of protein, the types of protein?

How much of a role does that play? If I was somebody who all I had was plant proteins versus meat, or what if I was somebody who all I had was plant proteins versus meat or what if I did grain-fed beef instead of grass-fed beef? How important is the type of protein that I'm eating? So when we're talking specifically about protein, animal sources are the best. The highest quality, now the quality of protein is, there's a few different ways to rate quality of protein, but I'd say that they all kind of center around how much the protein is assimilated

and used and how it leads to muscle protein synthesis or positive protein synthesis. Okay, so in other words, if you eat a gram of this kind of protein versus that kind of protein, how much are they gonna contribute to the repair process and build process in the body? And the ones that rank the highest are egg, beef, chicken, fish, milk, whey protein is way up there, egg protein is way up there.

Animal sources are just the best. In the head-to-head competition with all vegan sources, they're just superior. Now you could get such a high protein diet that doesn't matter. So if you're above a gram of protein per pound of body weight, it doesn't make a big difference where it's coming from. But I will say this, in my experience, a really high vegan protein diet does tend to lead more often to gastrointestinal distress and gut issues because the protein doesn't seem to be as easy to break down.

But it's the animal sources are superior. And then you mentioned grass-fed versus grain-fed. The protein in there is the same. It's the same amino acid breakdown. But grass-fed meat is higher in omega-3s and a type of fat called CLA, conjugated linoleic acid. In the context of the same calorie, same fat content, but one diet is higher in CLA and omega-3s in the other,

higher CLA and higher omega-3 content builds more muscle and burns more body fat as well. In fact, they used to sell CLA as a fat loss supplement. I remember. Do you remember that? You would buy them in capsules because the data showed that if these two diets are identical, this one's high in CLA, this one isn't, I remember you remember that you would buy them in capsules because the data showed that you know If these two diets are identical this one's high in CLA this one isn't

The high CLA diet is gonna burn more fat now of course the supplements were stupid because people just adding it to the diet So just adding calories of extra CLA is then we're replacing any So yeah grass-fed meat is gonna and you know grass-fed meat is also higher in protein per ounce So if you're trying to control your appetite eat a lower calorie diet like you know eight ounce grass-fed ribeye is less calories and more protein than an eight ounce grain fed you know ribeye. What um what was the what's our forget the name of the girl and she works for the glucose monitor company we've had her on the show at least. Oh yeah Nutris. What's her name? Emily? Was her name Emily? Is it so? I don't want to...

Was it Kara? Is it Kara? It is Kara. She brought up something that I thought was interesting. I remember when she came on the show was one of the, I think it was the first time she came on about how important like starting your day with protein was. Just what it did to like balancing your blood sugar and insulin and stuff like that. Yeah so she represents Nutrisense and this is a company that uses a continual glucose monitors along with nutrition coaches. So continual glucose monitor you wear on your arm. There's a tiny tiny little needle in there. It's like a literally like a like a hair. You don't even feel it kind of goes in your arm a little bit and what it does is it reads your blood sugar in real time and it uses an app on your phone so you can see oh

I ate that meal my blood sugar to this, you know, I lost sleep. I'm stressed whatever How all those things affect your blood sugar and so we had her on the show and I asked her what is one of the most? impactful things on Maintaining nice consistent blood sugar, avoiding the super high spikes and the super low drops, or if you get a high spike that you balance out real nicely. Like what are the things that impact blood sugar in the most positive ways? And by the way, that's important because maintaining good, stable blood sugar,

aside from being a contributor to good health and helping prevent things like diabetes and stuff like that in the future, it also positively affects your behaviors because the big spikes and drops can make you feel anxious and hungry. It gives you cravings. So when your blood sugar is controlled, this is why people made a big deal out of the

glycemic index back in the day. Is that when you're eating, when you're maintaining good blood sugar, you're less likely to overeat. You're more likely to have a more controlled appetite. You're gonna have better energy. You just feel better overall and you make better choices. So I asked her the question, and the first thing she said

was strength train. Strength training for sure has a profound impact on blood sugar, we all know this. And then diet-wise she said, eat a high protein breakfast. If you eat a high protein breakfast, no matter what else you eat throughout the day, your blood sugar will be better simply because of the high protein breakfast.

It tampers it down, yeah, it's pretty crazy how that plays out, but keeping it balanced from the highs and the lows, like that. Just starting with that one hack, it's pretty cool. And I hate when our science nerdy friends try and make the argument of how, uh, how that doesn't matter. If calories are equal, then it doesn't matter.

And why I don't like that is yeah, in the context of a study where everyone's controlled and they have to eat exactly what you tell them to eat, you're right. It doesn't make a difference, but we don't live in a, in a box like that. And then what we deal with is real people with real habits, bad habits and behaviors and influence. Yeah. And if you can do things to help your client make better choices.

Makes it easier. It makes it easier for them. Another example of that that we've seen before is if someone gets a real bad night of sleep, like they need to be mentally prepared that that next day, they're going to be craving bad foods just to be on top of that and be able to become aware of it. Yes, you're right. If they still eat the same amount of their calorie deficit as a day when they didn't get to sleep, then

theoretically they should burn as much body fat, but it doesn't always work that way and it's they're battling that and so it's really unfortunate that some of the information that's came out around the the glucose monitors and insulin blood sugar, people have made like, oh, well, it doesn't matter in the context of- No, it matters. Yeah, it does. It's stupid because if you have two people locked in a room and they only could eat what you fed them, it doesn't matter how you feel.

I don't care how you feel if you're hungry. You're only going to eat what I give you. What matters more the most with people is how they feel. That matters more than anything because your feelings, your appetite, that dictates your behaviors, and you're a free human walking around. I mean, how much easier is it gonna be to eat healthy when you want to versus when you don't want to, right?

And so maintaining good blood sugar helps do that. There's other things that help with that as well, but that's one of them. And so simply eating a high protein breakfast could have that kind of an impact. By the way, it's also important to do that because we've already made the case that eating a high protein diet, regardless of your goal and calories, is going to help you with fat loss and muscle gain. You know how hard it is to eat the one gram of protein per pound of body weight if you don't eat a high protein breakfast?

Yeah. hard it is to eat the one gram of protein per pound of body weight. If you don't eat a high protein breakfast, like you're behind, like if you're, let's say you're a woman and your, your target body weight is let's say 140 pounds. That's probably a good average healthy body weight. You know, some women are taller shorter, but let's say 140 pounds. That's 140 grams of protein a day. Let's say your breakfast had 10 grams of protein. Good luck trying to hit 140 now with lunch and dinner. You need 70 grams of protein for Good luck. Trying to hit 140 now with lunch and dinner. You're gonna eat 70 grams of protein

for lunch and dinner? No, not happening. No, but what is that, 12 ounces of meat more? So that person, 140 grams, would need to start with at least 40 grams of protein for breakfast so that it's realistic to eat more protein throughout the day. So that's the other part of it, is start the day off

with a high protein meal to control blood sugar and because you just won't be able to hit your number. And not just starting the day, but even starting every single time you eat. I mean, I talked about this in the series that I went to, I really didn't over complicate or even overthink the other foods that I was eating. It was just like, when I'm hungry, I'm going to eat.

And when I eat, I'm going to make it protein centric and eat the protein first. Yes. And honestly, the, my, the way I felt took care of the rest. Like it really, if I just kept going after the protein first, uh, in all my meals and eating it first, then if I was even hungry, I'd eat a little

bit of the carbs or fat afterwards. And then I, and then I'd be fine. It was like, and I remember when I figured this out for clients where we wouldn't tell them anymore that, oh, you can't have this or you can only eat this way. I was like, no, here's what I want you to do. You're just going to focus on protein, start your day off right, every meal, make sure it's got a minimum of 35 to 50 grams of protein in it, eat it first, and then enjoy this stuff later. And they'd always look back, well wait a second,

well how much carbs and how much fat? It's like, we'll get there, you don't need to worry about that right now. If you just watch what happens, if you just do that, it's amazing. Yeah, when you're looking at your plate, there is a priority of order of things you should eat in terms of what's gonna give you the most nutrients,

give you the most benefits, whatever. If you eat the protein first, you're gonna hit that. Because protein typically comes with some fats, now you have your benefits whatever if you eat the protein first you're gonna hit you're gonna hit that because Protein typically comes with some fats now You have your essential fats with you the protein is important for fat loss muscle gain appetite control And then afterwards if you want to have the the some of the carbohydrates and fibers, that's totally fine But you start with it first and it tends to lead to Better eating behaviors. It tends to lead to more appropriate Caloric intake which takes us to another part of this which is protein shakes a lot of people like

okay cool you're telling me to high protein I'm gonna use shakes all the time you can do that but a lot of the benefits that we're talking about from a behavioral standpoint where your appetite is more controlled you feel more full you feel better, all that stuff, even insulin control, it's better with whole food sources of protein. Now, protein shakes can be valuable at the end of the day, in my opinion.

If you're at the end of the day and you missed your target by 30 grams, 40 grams, 50 grams, 20 grams, now you have your shake, boom, you hit your target. In my opinion, I think that's the best way to shoot. I mean, I always taught clients and I hold myself to the same accountability. by the way during this whole process that I was going through this, I absolutely had to use shakes almost every single day but I don't score that as

a perfect day. Like I would tell clients like that would ask me, so can I use a shake or can I use a bar? Absolutely. If that is convenient for you or you're behind on it at the end of the day then absolutely you like if you're eight o'clock you're about to go to bed you or you're behind on it at the end of the day, then absolutely, if you're eight o'clock, you're about to go to bed, you realize you're under your protein intake and you're like, you know what, I could go pound that 30 gram shake of protein. Should I do it or not? Go do it. That's what I would tell a client.

But at the same time, we're always working towards this goal of can I get it all through Whole Foods? That's the way I would communicate it always, is it's an incredible resource and tool to have shakes and bars by your side as an option or an alternative to a lesser choice. But the goal is always to be trying to target and get all this from Whole Foods. 100%. And then essential amino acid supplements

are different than protein, but they can be very valuable. So essential amino acids are the amino acids in protein that your body can't synthesize. And there is some value to supplementing with them if your protein sources are vegan or vegan, right? So if you, like we said earlier, the animal sources are superior, well, one way you can kind of make up the difference is if you're getting your protein from vegan sources, you're like, look, I heard animal sources are better. You can drink essential amino acids or take those throughout the day. And that will raise the score of your vegan

sources of protein. Vegans tend to value, tend to benefit more from essential amino acid supplement than, than omnivores. And so what I used to do with my clients is I would have them take some essential amino acids with every meal or later when they started making them into drinks,

you know, powders that you could just drink, I told them to just drink them throughout the day, and they always noticed benefits. My omnivores, sometimes, my vegans was like, it was obvious, they would supplement with essential amino acids, and they would always notice. Yeah, it's so difficult to get that number up and to add that extra bit of bump

without a lot of the calories attached to it as well is super helpful for vegans. Well, it's tough because I'm using an anecdotal situation with me going through this and utilizing EAAs, but it is interesting to me that this is the first time in my life that I was consistent with using EAAs before. And in this process, at least 50%, if not more than half the time, I missed my target of protein. But yet I was, if I did. But you're even chasing it too. Yeah, exactly.

That was me going after it, still missing it. And then because of that, I was supplementing daily with EAAs. Now the end result was I lost five pounds of fat and I built 18 pounds of muscle. It's hard to say what would have happened had I just like only did it and I didn't utilize also the EAAs. Be really interesting to see what that was.

I think the more important thing to focus on, forget how much more it helped, it definitely helped because 50% of the time you couldn't hit those targets. That's what I'm saying. So for sure helped, we don't know how much, but it would be different if you were hitting your targets every day

and then you added them, then it would be questionable. No, totally, and that's kinda how I treated it. It was like, again, the goal was to not have to take it, with the goal was to get plenty of it through Whole Foods, but the reality was I was still missing even going after it, which is why, like, having a topic like this and stressing this, it's like, it's so crazy how often I have to continue to remind people

and tell people it's that big of a game changer to be consistent with this, and everybody who thinks they eat enough protein because they like meat or they start every day with some sort of, and so they think they eat a lot, very rarely do I assess someone's diet and then come back and be like, hey, you're eating plenty of protein. That almost never happens.

That'd be rare. Got some questions here. First one, what are some great high quality protein snacks? Beef jerky. Yeah, beef jerky is the king. Yeah, that's great. It's got high shelf life. You can buy it at the gas station.

It's a good source of protein. The other thing I would say is if you could tolerate dairy. Yeah, Greek yogurt. I mean Greek yogurt, cottage cheese. Cottage cheese used to be like bodybuilder staple food. You go to the grocery store and you can go lower calorie, higher calorie. cottage cheese, like so, I mean, cottage cheese used to be like bodybuilder staple food.

You go to the grocery store, you get yourself, and you can go lower calorie, higher calorie, like a little tub of that's like 30 grams of high quality protein. Yeah, they actually make now a lot of these brands, Chobani, Okios, they make them like, I don't know if they infuse it with whey also or not, but they're like high protein.

So I have these little small little servings of Greek yogurt that have 15 grams a shot and I do two of those and it's still like- Like 30 grams. Easy too, easy to slam down and that's probably, if it's not beef jerky, I'd say Greek yogurt's like my go-to like quick, easy snack. Yeah, the other thing would be like tuna fish.

I know that's a little bit less convenient, but you know, you can get that out of the can and eat that too, if you don't mind the fish. Next question. Is there any benefit to eating more than one gram of protein per pound of body weight? You know what is interesting about that? Not always, but probably with a lower calorie diet.

So if you're somebody who's in a calorie deficit and you're pushing lower calories, there's probably benefit to going higher on protein. And I say probably because it's mixed. Now, in my experience, when I've had clients go higher protein, it's more impactful for the people. It's more important, I should say, for people. When I had people in deficits, it was like, you better, you have to hit your protein.

People who are in a calorie surplus, it wasn't as important, and the data does show that in a higher calorie context, carbohydrates, even fats can be what's called protein sparing, but if your calories are below what you're burning, so you're losing body fat, you probably would benefit from going a little higher protein. I mean, I almost always will push clients there or above.

It's, I mean, because it's also, it's so long as digestion is okay, it's definitely not gonna hurt you. would benefit from going a little higher protein? I almost always will push clients there or above. So long as digestion is okay, it's definitely not going to hurt you. If I have a choice to bump somebody in calories, I would rather bump in protein anyways with somebody just because of that. I'm always pro them doing that. Different story, if you're complaining and you have issues digesting that much protein, then I would talk about how that may not be beneficial to you, but most people would benefit for at least one

gram or more. Next question, how often can I use a protein shake? Oh, I mean, as often as you want, but I used to really, when I would advise clients on this, my goal with them was to not have to use protein shakes, but if they had to, one a day. If you're using more than one shake a day, one serving a day, you're missing out on all the value of whole foods. I don't think you're developing the relationship with food that has, it's long-term in my experience.

In my experience, if I'm trying to help you develop a nice long-term consistent behavior around food, then it should be mostly centered around real food and not shakes. If two of your meals or two of your servings of protein are coming from two shakes, unless you're like one of those really big, you know, bodybuilders, you know, consuming 240 grams of protein, 250 grams of protein, in which case I get, you know, two servings, but most, it's like at the most one. To me it was just so simple to, okay, if we scored ourself every day on how well did you sleep

is a score, how well did you eat today is a score, how well did you train today is a score. If I was scoring the way I ate, and I ate absolutely perfect, hit my macros, ate everything perfect, but I needed a shake in order to get there It was a nine. It wasn't a ten if I did it through all Whole Foods. It was a ten. It was that simple It's like still really good if you eat hit your macros and you use a shake to get there That's still a really good day of eating

But it's not perfect and I'm always trying to be better just like if I were to score my sleep at a night and go Well, I did really good last night, I had pretty good sleep, but I was on my phone a little bit longer than I should have, or I was doing this, I got a nine, I still have room to be better. So this is kind of how I coach clients is that, listen, it is definitely better than you not,

and you would have scored an eight or a seven had you missed that. So yeah, better to have the shake, but it's not a perfect day. Perfect day, we get it all through Whole Foods. Now, anecdotally, I've done both, right? Have a shake every day or I'm just eating Whole Food. And anecdotally, when everything seems to be the same,

I just do better with Whole Food. I just seem to look different, I seem to get better results. I did a whole show where... You had even more down to the... I did, so I had two different shows that I compared this with, it was interesting. And unfortunately, I can't explain I had a whole, I had two different shows that I compared this with. It was interesting. And I, what, unfortunately I can't tell you,

I can't explain the science of why, but I definitely, uh, got leaner, looked better, felt better, uh, didn't battle as much cravings. I noticed more cravings when I was doing shakes and bars. You're still processed, you know, hyper palatable process. And I had way less of that. Um, when I was doing it all through whole foods, uh, and exactly all macros, everything controlled controlled one one show that I got ready for I allowed as much shakes and bars as I wanted and another one I did nothing but Whole Foods and there was a difference there was I've just I felt like I came in sharper

With the food. I felt like I didn't have as many of the cravings Why how I can't explain to you it but I again it just goes back to why the goal is to try and do it all Through Whole Foods. That's a perfect day, but doesn't mean it's bad if you have a shake or a bar. Right. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. Justin is at MindPump Justin. I'm at MindPump DeStefano and Adam is at MindPump Adam. Thank you for listening to MindPump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle

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