Well with Arielle Lorre - 326: Protein Hacks to Help You Gain Muscle, Lose Fat & Get Better Skin with Angelo Keely

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Angelo Keely is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kion, offering premium, clean, research-backed supplements and foods that support a long and active life, including amino acids and protein, which we talk a lot about today. This conversation revolves around protein hacks, like how to increase your protein consumption, lose fat and gain muscle, and where supplements can be most beneficial. We also dive into the science of essential amino acids and the legitimacy of the protein fad. Angelo explains why we need certain proteins, especially as we age, and how not all proteins are created equally. This episode is full of bite-size knowledge that can be used in anyone’s life - enjoy!To explore and save 20% on Kion products, go to getkion.com/BLONDE. Subscribe to Patreon for exclusive weekly content: patreon.com/ArielleLorreThis episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.Visit purelyelizabeth.com and use BLONDE for 20% off your first purchase. Visit nutrafol.com and use code BLONDE to get $10 off your first month’s subscription & free shipping.Head to btrnation.com and enter BLONDE for 20% off sitewide and free shipping.Go to mudwtr.com/blonde for $20 off and a free frother.Go to omnibioticlife.com and use code BLONDE20 for 30% off of subscriptions and 20% off regular orders. Visit boncharge.com/BLONDE and use coupon code BLONDE to save 15%. Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The following podcast is a dear media production. Welcome to the Blond Files podcast. I'm your host, Ariel Lorry, and I'm here to talk all things wellness. From how to achieve optimal health and well-being to the best beauty tips and everything in between, no topic is off limits. I know there's so much information out there, so I'm bringing on expert guests and sharing my own experiences to help you sift through all the wellness stuff without the BS. Enjoy the show.

Hi, everybody. welcome to the show. As the inventor of protein, I know the importance of getting enough protein in our diets and getting the essential amino acids from those proteins. So I wanted to bring back my friend Angelo Keeley. Angelo is the co-founder and CEO of Kian, a supplement company focused on helping people look good, feel young, and be strong. So he was, was on, we were trying to remember, maybe around a year to a year and a half ago, but I wanted to bring him back on because I feel like protein is really having a moment. You guys know that focusing on protein at every meal made a huge difference in my overall health and how I feel.

But as we discuss in this episode, it can be really hard to hit those protein targets, especially as we get older. Angelo talks about how after the age of 30, our bodies aren't able to absorb and metabolized protein as efficiently as they do when we're younger, so we need to eat more. But you guys probably know that when you're eating a lot of protein, you're really satiated and you're not necessarily hungry for more protein. And it can be kind of this difficult cycle. So we talk a lot about how to get enough of those essential amino acids into our diets, whether it's just through our diet, whether it's with supplementation. We kind of talk through the pros and cons of every strategy. And we talk about how essential amino acids differ from things like

BCAAs, which I know are really big in the fitness community, branched chain amino acids. We talk about things like weigh protein and so much more. It's such a fascinating episode. It's something that everybody should listen to because we all need to be thinking about our longevity and not just the quantity of our life, but the quality of our life. And, And protein really plays a huge role in that. So essential amino acids, which we get into in the episode, are scientifically validated for fat loss without muscle loss, maintaining muscle and functional fitness with aging, improving results from exercise, supporting overall hormone production,

regulating mood and energy levels throughout the day, healthy skin, hair, and nails, and so much more. And using Kianaminos for me personally has been a way to make sure that. I'm getting all of those essential amino acids on top of focusing, like I said, on protein at every meal. And I have been using them since Angela was on last time. So if you guys want to try, you can save 20% off when you go to get kion.com slash blonde. And I hope you enjoy this episode. Like I said, there's a lot of tangible, actionable tips that you can implement into your life without even supplementing.

just focusing on your diet and knowing how much protein you should be eating and why it's more important as we age, why it's more important to increase your protein intake if you want to lose weight or lose fat without losing your lean muscle. There's so many hot takes here. So please enjoy Angelo Keeley. Welcome. Thanks, Ariel. That's good to be back. Good to have you back. When did we last record? I didn't look. Was it last year? It's at least a year ago. I don't know, a year or two years ago. It's kind of crazy because I feel like protein, for whatever reason, has become so much more of a hot topic in the past year.

Even this year alone, like I feel like there's so much of an emphasis on protein, at least what I'm being fed on my social media. Why do you think that is? I mean, I think there's definitely just the nature of like there's fads in health and, there becomes these different trends than people, you know, all the different people that are marketing their products all get on that train. The one thing I'd say, though, is that it's good because protein is actually something that I think legitimately a lot of people don't know enough about. They don't eat enough of. So it's like one of those things where it's, it's great. It's great that it's become a fad because it actually really is an essential nutrient. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like a

valid fad, right? It's like a valid fad, which is an interesting thing to think too. Like more than one thing can be true at the same time. There could be some marketing fad and underneath it, there's actually kind of like not that meaning, not that meaningful of like content or a product, but there also could be something really good underneath it. And I think protein is one of those examples. But you know, maybe it is too just like in terms of like the themes of health and what becomes popular and not popular. I think the importance of like muscle and why it's so important for like healthy aging has become more popular. And I think that's tied to protein because they are tied together. And maybe it has something to do with like just how much the population as a whole is aging.

Like maybe that's driving the conversation. Yeah. Well, you just turned 40, right? How is that? How is that for a man? That's a good question. You know, and I think it's different. You know, think about my relationship with my wife and like her experience of being. She's actually older than me. She's 47. She just turned 47. And so I've watched her go through that experience. Yeah. Yeah. And it's probably honestly unique too, just like being younger than her. Like I'd honestly never dated someone older than me and I just happened to fall in love with this woman who was seven years older.

But we were in our 20s. So the gap seemed, you know, pretty cool. I mean, it's still cool. Yeah. Yeah, I think as a man, it is different. I think that with aging, the things that oftentimes society more traditionally like judges us on is different. And so the pressures and the things we need to like have figured out or get together or the ways in which we can be validated by others is like different. I mean, it's, it's not totally different.

I think both men and women get judged on appearance and both men and women get judged on like their success. But I probably feel like I think I get, I feel like I get judged more on like my success than my appearance. At the same time, like I'm in health and wellness and I'm talking about health stuff. And so it's like, are you legit? Like Angela, like should you really be talking about this, you know? But I think over. overall, like more in terms of my health, I'm realizing more and more how simple it can be. Hmm. That's reassuring. Yeah, I think that like going back to this fad thing, right, like, in all of our desires or my, I'll just speak for myself, but I think it speaks from a lot of people.

Like, you're trying to be better. You're trying to like be healthier. You want to be able to live longer. I want to like feel better about myself. I want to be able to do more things. I want to feel like I'm attractive. And in that journey, there's a lot of opportunities for people to like sell us ideas. Right. Of like, oh, this will fix it. Like, this will make you okay. This will finally make you whatever that thing is. And I think that it honestly is pretty simple, though, those things that actually help us. Like, it's not a bunch of toys and gadgets. It's like pretty simple stuff. And but that stuff like takes dedication. You know, it actually takes like choosing to eat the fruits in the vegetables.

Mm-hmm. You know, like that's choosing to eat the high-quality proteins, not even these things that aren't good, like choosing to go on the walk, choosing to lift weights, choosing to drink water, choosing to not drink alcohol, choosing to, you know, it's a bunch of like really little simple choice, choosing to go to bed early, you know. Yeah. I mean, I think that as you age and, you know, I'm 38, you're held 40 now. 40, yeah.

40. So I'm sure there are people older listening to this going, that's not old, but still, like, each decade, I think your motivation changes. And I think especially I've noticed, like, sliding into my 40s, closer to my 40s, like my motivation has changed. I think to your point of what you were saying before, like the scale is so different for men and women. Women, it's so heavily appearance. Men, it's so heavily success. But I think that you become so much more aware of your mortality, right? And there's just this mindset, it's at least for myself, like in my 20s and even my early 30s that like I'm going to be young forever like you just don't really

think that far ahead in the future and then when it starts to happen you realize like oh this train is moving and like it's not slowing down and I think the pace at least for a woman at which you start to age in your late 30s is maybe a little bit more rapid and it's like a mind fuck but I think that mortality piece becomes the main motivation of like how can I not only live longer, but like have a really good quality of life, especially in this world where, you know, we see so many like neurodegenerative diseases at young ages, like cardiovascular diseases, all of these issues, younger and younger. You know, the quality of life piece, I think, is so important, not just quantity of life. And I think a lot of people are becoming more cognizant

of that, especially around like this age. I think it's both true on a cultural level that people are realizing why I don't want to just like live longer. I want to live well longer. I want to get to do things in my 70s, not like be in a wheelchair or a walker. And naturally, I think, yeah, as you get older. And I've had that experience too where it's maybe even just like from like a activity and like performance level like I want to be able to like ski or ride bikes. I really love playing basketball. Like when I come to L.A. I like try to go play pickup basketball. Like I love doing that. And I think how long can I do this? You know, like I want to be able to do this in my. 50s. Maybe even in my 60s, like, could I hang in my 60s? That would be so cool. And what do I need to do

to take care of my body to where I can actually like do those things. And I think similarly too, let's like, and I think about this when I'm aging because maybe my, my perspective is a little war being in Boulder similar, I think, to like being in L.A. Like you look around, there's like a lot of beautiful people and like healthy people. And picturing like hiking. In Boulder, it's like so, yeah, everyone's like endurance runners and like super fit. But yeah, just like thinking that is who I want to be as I age. You know, like I don't want to be just, maybe this from a man's perspective. Like I don't want to be just the guy that was able to like build this business and be successful, but I'm like 50 pounds overweight and like can't do things

and look kind of like ill. You know, like I want to be like the super fit businessman, dad guy, you know, who's like outdoing things. Yeah, vibrant. Vibrant, fully experiencing life. Yeah. The sun is shining, the waves are calling, and it's time for some fun in the sun. But is your hair ready for the heat? Sun, salt, and SPF can all impact your hair health. So now is the perfect time to start neutral fall to keep your strands feeling strong this summer. I don't know about you, but my hair health really gets affected by the elements of the summer. I was just in Europe for a few weeks. As you guys probably know, I was swimming. I was in the sun every single day. And my hair

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So where does protein come into all of this? I've had a lot of people on the show this past year who have talked about the importance of protein like Dr. Gabriel Lyon. I'm sure you know her. You know, that's her whole hypothesis, right? Is that like protein and muscle, like those are your fundamentals for quality, quantity of life. And what is your hypothesis essentially when it comes to protein. I think it's, I mean, it's aligned with Dr. Lyon. I would say I would offer an even broader perspective to it that protein is literally like what defines this as like a living organism. And why I would say that is if you compare it to the other two macronutrients, when we eat carbohydrates and fat, we use them as fuel. So if you think about like your body as a house,

you might like buy electricity from the grid or have solar panels. If you run out, you could have a generator, you know, but you basically have to get energy into your house to run your dishwasher, to run your lights. Different from that, though, you actually have what your house is like made of and what allows it to have all of its structure. Similar to that, our bodies are made up of this like physical structure. So, for example, if something starts to break down in your house, like your hardwood floor starts to wear out and you need to replace it, or you don't really like your bathroom anymore and you want to remodel it, you need to replace it. You need to replace it with new materials.

And you actually need to get those materials from somewhere. That's actually how our body works. And so protein is important for our body, not just the muscle level, but all of the things that make protein in our body. For example, all of our organs are made of proteins, the enzymes, our hormones, also our muscle, but things like our skin, our hair, our nails, all of these are made of proteins. And the way that they work in our body is similar to how it works in your house where like the tile starts to get worn out or the hardwood floors, you have to replace it.

And similarly, we need to eat protein, break it down into amino acids, have those amino acids go into our blood to help rebuild all the proteins in our body. So it's like the fundamental nutrient, not for to be burned as an energy source, but the fundamental nutrient that literally helps us rebuild our body. So if you want to have healthier skin, if you want to have healthier muscles, if you want to be able to do any of these things in your body, have your organs function well, protein is how you get that. So it's like it's it's it's like at the heart of what makes our whole body, you know, work.

And you talked about amino acids and there's essential amino acids, right? But I'm just curious. If somebody is like, okay, I wake up and I eat two eggs and like a piece of sausage. And then at lunch I have like chicken. And then at dinner I have a piece of fish. Are they getting their protein needs met? So I think it all depends on how big they are as a person, their activity levels, and their age. So what I would say is like the general kind of historical recommended daily allowance, which is the minimum.

So you don't have organ failure and your hair doesn't fall out and bad things don't happen to you would be 0.4 grams of protein per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 100 pounds, it'd be 40 grams of protein per day. If you weigh 150 pounds, that'd be 60 grams of protein per day. So, you know, if you eat two eggs and some sausage and you only weigh 100 pounds and then you have, you know, the fish and you have these other things throughout the day, it's like you're actually doing pretty good. You're above that 40 grams of protein. But if you want to live more vibrantly, like I think Dr. Lyon will attest to it. She recommends something closer like a gram of protein per pound of body weight. So you want to be more at like 100 grams of protein a day. So you're definitely getting closer, right? But if you weigh 150 pounds, the two eggs and the sausage is not maybe quite. enough, right? And like the serving of the chicken might not be that amount. That said, if you are in any one of these conditions, if you want to lose fat, but you want to maintain your muscle, you need to consume even more protein. And we can get into why. If you have any like athletic ambitions, like you're trying to run faster or add some lean muscle, just change like your body definition and to include

more definition. Or third, you're over the age of 30, which is really when the ability to digest protein and use amino acids to help rebuild all these proteins about your body. That means, well, at the age 30, it becomes more difficult for your body to rebuild proteins. And that's not just like your muscle. That's your skin. That's why skin starts to lose its quality at age 30. And you were describing earlier, like, God, it seems like your late 30s, like it's quite different than like late 20s. Like maybe you started noticing your late 20s. This is not like I'm 8 years old anymore. But late 30s, it advances even more. And that's because 36. I was like, what the fuck is happening? Yeah. So it's what is happening? It's actually going to speed up even more.

Wonderful. Yeah. So our ability to digest protein and our sensitivity to use the amino acids in that protein to help rebuild our skin, to rebuild our hair, to maintain lean muscle reduces. And it keeps getting worse and worse and worse and worse. So that means the older that we get, potentially the more protein we need to eat or the larger portion of our diet protein needs to make up of it or the importance of potentially supplementing with protein powders or essential amino acids or other options that are going to help you have even more. So going back to your question is, you know, is the eggs, you know, two eggs and a piece of sausage and some chicken with your salad and then at lunch and then maybe some salmon at dinner. Is that enough? Well, it depends. You know, I think if you're

like lightly active and you weigh 100 to 120 pounds and and you're 24 years old, like, that's probably good. If you're older than that or you weigh more than that and you want to weigh less than that, if you are 20 years older, if you're trying to be more active, then maybe it's not enough. Reminds me of that saying, youth is wasted on the young. It's like, why? Yeah. Why?

Okay. So you said that it gets harder to digest protein as we age, and yet we have to eat more protein as we age. So how does that work? Yeah. So as we age, it makes general sense if you think historically, right, and kind of the evolution of people, like we didn't used to live past like 50. So as our body's age, the top priority is not to maintain like biologically. It's not like maintain the most youthful glowing skin. So you look like you're 18, right? It's not to maintain this super tone physique. So. that you can be, you know, athletically endowed to like go and hunt or to reproduce or,

you know, whatever the reasons why our bodies might want to be more vibrant. Instead, it's like, I just survive, right? And so in that, your body's ability to actually eat protein and digest it. When I say digest it, what I mean is the reason why we eat protein is we want the amino acids in them. The amino acids are the essential amino acids in them are the things our bodies can't make and we need them to help rebuild all the proteins in our body. And they're also the active component when we eat them. That's what stimulates our body to say, hey, let's take this old skin cell and actually rebuild it and make a new one. So as we get older, our ability to get the amino acids out of the protein becomes diminished. It's simply not as good at it.

It makes sense. As we get older, it's not as good at things. And our sensitivity to want to make that skin more youthful and glowing to want to make them lean muscle stronger is diminished. So that's why I'm saying that's why there's an importance to actually increase the amount of essential amino acids that you get in your diet to overcome the fact that while in the past, the two eggs and a piece of sausage that was fine, now it doesn't do the same thing that it did. Like literally for you. Your body's not as efficient at using it. Yeah, at 38 it doesn't do what it used to do when it was 25 with those same two eggs and that sausage. Yeah, it just doesn't. And then you also said that you need to eat more if you're trying to lose weight, right? Or add more muscle, lose more fat? Can you talk about that? So this would

be the basic idea is that I assume when people say they want to lose weight, that what they really mean is they want to lose fat. Like most people aren't like, I want to lose weight. And they're like looking to lose lean muscle. Yeah, right? The idea is like, hey, I want to like lose these certain pounds of fat, but I want to maintain all my lean muscle, and thus I'm going to end up looking trimmer and having more definition, right? So the unfortunate thing, though, is the way that it works to lose weight is to reduce calories. You eat less calories than you burn in a day. But when you reduce calories, you don't only burn fat in your body. You actually end up burning muscle as well. And this is the reason for that. So fat actually is like the...

energy reservoir for a body. So if you eat more food than you need, your body stores it as fat in your body so that at a later time, when you don't have enough food, you would have something to live off of. In a similar way, when you eat protein and you do certain types of physical training, you build up muscle. And when you go through a period where you don't have protein, your heart tissue, your skin tissue, your liver, they have to keep on living and going. But the way that nature works is that all proteins are in this constant state of turnover. So literally, your heart tissue right now is breaking down into some degree. And there's little proteins breaking apart. Amino acids are going into the blood. And it needs to be rebuilt. So where is it going to get the amino acids

from to like rebuild that heart tissue? If I'm eating protein, then it just uses the amino acids from the protein. But if I go through a period without eating protein, what's going to happen is I actually start breaking down my muscle. So I break down my lean muscle because I can spare it to help fuel my body with amino acids to rebuild my heart, my skin, grow new hair, et cetera. So when you go through calorie deprivation, you cut calories to try to lose weight. What's going to happen is you're not only burning up the fat in order to survive off of. You're using the fact you don't have enough amino acids to replenish your needs to do, you know, rebuild all these other proteins. You start burning up your muscle too. To overcome that and be in a situation in which, hey, I'm only

going to lose fat, but I'm going to maintain all my lean muscle, you need to consume a lot more of essential amino acids, either via really quality protein or through a supplement. And the most recent science has shown that even just a 30% caloric deficit. So if 2,000 calories per day is what you would eat to maintain your current weight, if you cut 30%, that'd be 600. calories a day. If you did that for a week, you'd lose a little more than a pound, a fat. Well, in just that amount of reduction, you need a 300% increase in amino acids. So three times the amount of essential amino acids that you needed before to maintain your lean muscle. You need that much more. That's because your body just starts breaking down your muscle tissue to support your

organs, but also you start utilizing any of the protein that you do eat in a less ideal way than than to like rebuild proteins your body because you're hungry, right? You actually start converting that protein into glucose. There's this thing called gluconeogenesis where you convert the amino acids into like a sugar instead. So in short, if you want to lose weight, meaning you really want to lose fat but maintain muscle, you need to make protein an even larger portion of your diet while also cutting calories and or you could add something like essential amino acids. to make up for that difference of what your body's looking for while still, you know, while still cutting calories.

I think that's really important for people to hear because I don't personally do this anymore, but I used to like do the whole macros thing. And I know that people will sometimes log just to like check in where they're at. And if you are trying to cut, if you're trying to lose weight, it doesn't account for that, you know. So if you're at 2,000 calories a day and then you're cutting whatever down to say 1800, it's just going to keep you at the same ratio. right, 40, 30, 30 or 50, whatever the breakdown is of protein carbs and fat and it's just going to adjust the ratio without taking that into consideration. And then people are losing muscle. You're burning muscle. Yeah. By now you guys probably know that I start my day every single day with my protein yogurt bowl. So I do coconut yogurt with some protein powder and then I do berries

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in this day and age, we don't have to be drinking coffee and getting that spike in cortisol and then the crash and getting on to that unhealthy cycle that I know so many of us have been on. So Mudwai is hooking up my show with with a special offer. If you go to mudwater.com slash blonde, you can get a free frother and $20 off. That's M-U-D-W-T-R.com slash blonde for a free frother and $20 off. Again, mudwater.com slash blonde. Okay, so essential amino acids, tell us about them. Yeah.

So when you eat protein, they're inside the protein. So if I eat, say- Are they in every kind of protein? Yeah, so this is actually a good question. So this is kind of the debate over complete proteins versus not complete proteins. In dietary protein, I'll just take an example of like chicken, you have 20 amino acids and nine of them are essential and 11 of them are non-essential. The nine essential ones are, and when I say they're in there, they're actually like,

they're actually like tied together in a string and that's what makes up the protein. Like they're the little building blocks. and the nine essential ones are essential because your body can't make them. So there's like essential omega oils as well that you have to consume. There are things that our bodies can't make and we need them in order to survive. So these essential amino acids, our bodies can't make them. But on top of that, like I said earlier, they're actually the thing that they have this kind of chemical messenger component where when you consume and they go into the blood, they tell

your body to rebuild proteins. So you need them for both of those reasons. And there's this debate over, you know, complete and not complete proteins because many plant proteins don't have all of the essential amino acids in sufficient amounts to actually be considered a complete protein, like the very small trace amounts, the equivalent of none. And so, no, not all proteins do have that. So if you're looking for quality protein, you want to be either combining plant proteins, like you need to eat lentils and rice together, or where they have different compositions. The protein and lentils and the protein and rice are different. Each one is

higher in different amino acids and when you combine them together, they're complementary. Or if you eat any type of animal protein is complete. So that's not just animal meats, but that's dairy and eggs. I will say as the inventor of protein, I don't even remember where that started some episode earlier this year. It is very hard, at least for me, to eat a sufficient amount of protein I think every day because something that I noticed when I shifted, especially when I started eating like protein first thing in the morning, like 30 to 40 grams, which I did for like all kinds of reasons. My blood sugar, hormones, cortisol, all, you know, everything. My appetite, like, I'm satiated. When I eat, when I focus on protein at every meal, I'm satiated. I'm not that hungry.

I'm not as hungry as I am if I'm, you know, a little more carb heavy or whatever. Like, it's very satisfying. And so sometimes I find it hard to kind of hit the number that I'm aiming. Yeah. So I think that's another reason why supplementing is so good. I think people might be listening going, well, I eat, you know, my steak and chicken and eggs and whatever. But I know for myself, especially since I am older, I need more protein. And just for that reason alone, like it just, it's so hard. Like, it's hard to overeat anything, I think, when you're focusing on protein. And then it's also hard to, like, want to eat that amount of protein every day. Yeah, totally.

I think that's a real advantage. So that's one advantage. And I'll tie it to another one of something like taking a free form essential amino acid supplement. And so now just to describe what that is. So essential amino acids, as we described them as being part of like this protein, you can also get them just in isolation via a supplement form. And basically the way that happens is we ferment different types of sugars. And from that, you're able to derive these. It's like the way that kombucha, for example, is made or even like cheeses.

Through fermentation, you can generate these essential amino acids. And then you can take just them. And they, like you're saying, you can take them in like in a capsule form or you can take them as part of like a fruit-flavored beverage. So it's more just like a light drink. It's not like you're eating a whole other thing of Greek yogurt or a piece of chicken. Or it's like it's easier on your body. and you can do it really like any time of day. The other benefit is actually because not all protein is equal.

And I don't want to complicate it too much earlier when you're asking like, hey, are two eggs and sausage enough? What I'm about to describe becomes all that more important as we age and or I think probably, you know, if you're trying to lose fat and maintain muscle. Different protein sources have different impacts on our body and there can be worth a lot more to us. So if I eat 30 grams, well, actually just say, this is in young adults, so like in their 20s, 30 grams of protein from steak eaten on its own generates as much protein synthesis, meaning it communicates the body to rebuild all the proteins as does over twice that amount, 70 grams of steak if I eat it as part of a mixed meal. 30 grams of protein from steak on its own versus 70 grams of protein from steak with like broccoli and potatoes, et cetera, stimulates the same amount.

Why is that? So the reason for that is because what we've uncovered the last 20 years is that the body's ability to break down the protein, get the essential amino acids in the blood as quickly as possible and hit this kind of peak concentration. Like imagine there's a maximum amount of the essential amino acids. that get into the blood all at once, that's what determines the amount of new protein synthesis. So if you don't eat it with these other foods that get mixed up in your belly, like what? And overall kind of slows down the digestion, then you're getting like less bang for the buck

from overall protein synthesis. Now, when you compare that lean beef to, say, a protein powder, like a way protein isolate, the way protein isolate, same amount, stimulates three times the amount of protein synthesis as that lean protein. Whoa. Yeah. So basically the beef on its own was like twice as much if you eat it on its own. The protein powder is three times as much. Whoa.

As the beef. And that's even mixed with like, because I have weight protein in my smoothie. Well, it's actually that that was a study of being isolated. Oh, oh, isolated. That was of being isolated. Damn it. I'm like, this is terrible news because all of my protein I eat in like a bowl with vegetables and the rice and sweet potato.

I think it's fine though. I mean, this is the thing. I don't want to make it towards like. people are overthinking this, but I'm just trying to offer more tactics or ideas about how you can think about trying to fit in the protein. Like, yeah, maybe you don't want to eat this whole thing again. But if you had just a little bit of protein powder, it's going to actually do more than it would than trying to eat more meat. And what I would say is, so yeah, so going back to this, this protein powder in isolation, it has three times the amount as the beef.

Like mixed with water? Yeah, like mixed with water. Yeah, mixed with water or milk. But Here's what I'd say is the reason for that is because the protein powder, like a way protein isolate, is also stripped of carbs and fats and all these things. It's called isolate because it's an isolated form of the protein. So while I don't have like a study to show this, even it mixed with like say fruit and some of the type of milk in a smoothie, it's very likely going to have a much more significant impact on protein synthesis than the meat will. simply because it's already in this more isolated form, even if you're mixing with other things. Now, if you compare that to essential amino acids, essential amino acids have three times the impact

as the way protein isolate. And the reason for that is because, as we said earlier, the essential amino acids are actually the active component of the protein. They're the half of the protein, half of like the way in your shake, while it's still, they're still good, is made up of amino acids that you, that actually do nothing to stimulate new protein synthesis. Some of them get used to build new proteins. Some of them actually just convert into urea or into sugars. But when you take essential amino acids, all of them get used and all of them stimulate more protein synthesis. So gram for gram is just like so much more potent. So when you think

about that and you're in the situation of like, okay, I'm definitely above, like I would never advise someone to replace your 0.4 grams of protein that you need per pound of body weight every day. Yeah. Drink amino acids all day. Yeah. So like if you weigh, you know, 100 pounds, like for sure eat 40 grams of protein a day like through healthy whole balanced meals but if you're trying to get to those higher levels and like I just ate like you know 25 30 grams of protein for breakfast like I'm just not hungry again for lunch then like it is a potential option to like supplement with something like essential amino acids and you can know that the impact is so much greater than if you had just actually tried to eat one more egg right yeah

And with the essential amino acids, is that also isolated or can you mix it in your smoothie? Yeah, you can mix it in water. Yeah, you can mix it in smoothies. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. This is what's interesting. If you mix essential amino acids with protein, they actually make the proteins more beneficial. So if you were to drink essential amino acids as part of a smoothie or even just like have essential amino acids when you have a salad with some chicken at lunch, because it stimulates

so much more protein synthesis, it'll actually then use the chicken more effective. efficiently to rebuild proteins. Wow. Almost think about it like a little, I mean, it's not, I don't want to like be too provocative in saying this, but almost think about it's like a little mini workout. Like when you work out, when you when you lift a weight or you do Pilates, you do yoga or even you run, you are stimulating new protein synthesis. You're telling your body to rebuild old proteins. When you consume essential amino acids, you are telling your body to stimulate new protein synthesis and rebuild proteins. And so when you do that alongside a meal, similar to like if you go workout and then you eat a meal, you actually use that meal more efficiently. It's the same idea. So,

Yeah, it totally makes sense to consume along other things. After a few weeks in Europe of just complete indulgence and zero wellness habits, which, by the way, is totally fine. I want to tell you about the first thing that I did when I got back home, and that is I went into my sauna blanket. I remember saying to my boyfriend on the plane, I cannot wait to get home and get in my sauna and shower. That was like all I wanted to do. So let me tell you why. The sauna blanket, I think I have said before, is probably my number one wellness hack, non-negotiable. If I had to choose just one thing in my routine, this would be it.

So the sauna blanket basically works by raising your heart rate to that of physical exercise. So it burns calories while you relax. In fact, you can burn up to 600 calories in just one session. But more importantly, it helps to flush heavy metals and other toxins out. It works by using infrared light, which heats the body directly, rather than the air around you, like a traditional sauna, which means that you get the same benefits at a lower heat. You also don't need to have your head in, like a traditional sauna. So this is what really gets me. I love a traditional sauna here and there, but I find that I can only be in there for like a limited amount of time because I have to get out or I have to take breaks because the head in and breathing hot air feeling is just suffocating to me.

I also can't really have my eyes open because it dries my eyes out. I can't multitask. So the sauna blanket is amazing because I can just roll it out. I can put it on my bed or put it on my couch. A lot of people ask me if that's gross. If the sweat leaks out, absolutely not. It's basically like a sleeping bag shape and the sweat does not get anywhere, I can assure you. And then when I'm done, I just wipe it down and roll it up and put it away. So it's super convenient. I can watch TV. I can read. I can work. I can listen to a podcast. Whatever I want to do while I'm in it. And I usually do it for about 50 minutes at 170 degrees. Obviously find what works best for your body, but it's not intolerable. Like I find a traditional sauna to be. I really find it enjoyable.

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If I have any listeners who are taking those medications, could this potentially be beneficial to them because, you know, I know that people, their appetites are less. They get full more easily. So I would imagine that it would be hard to hit those protein goals if you are on those medications. Obviously, this isn't medical advice, but yeah. Yeah, I mean, I would just broaden it to say anyone who is trying to lose weight and it's happening via eating less calories, which is the context of taking medications if you take Wagoviore's impact. What happens is it reduces your appetite. Yeah. Right. So you eat less food. It feels like magic because it's so effective for people

who have struggled previously to do it. But that's really how it works. And so everything I talked about earlier in terms of you need to actually eat more protein, consume more essential amino acids when you're in weight loss, otherwise you're going to lose muscle, is extremely true also for even if it's, you know, that weight loss is induced through medication. And maybe even more so if it's like even kind of, you know, more radical and you're losing appetite that much more because, and I think that's why people have this experience of having pretty like, for them, awesome results initially from using these types of drugs, but then realizing, wow, actually, like maybe even the muscle in my face is, I've lost it, right? Or muscle throughout my arms,

et cetera, like I wasn't trying to lose that. Well, that happened because you weren't consuming enough essential amino acids in the process. And so I think it's highly advisable for anyone who's trying to lose weight, whether through medication or not, to increase the amount of essential amino acids. And an easy way of doing it is through supplement. So we've been talking about a lot of the benefits, but say somebody is not supplementing with essential amino acids, maybe they're not getting enough protein, maybe they're getting around enough. What can somebody expect when they do start supplementing? So I think if you start to supplement daily, which I think that's really the key to any health thing that you want to do, right? It's not like you do it once or twice and it's like a magic result. Yeah, it's like you really start the habit of taking essential amino acids every single day.

And you find whatever the best time of day for you is. If you're someone who likes to do some form of intermittent fasting and wait to you eat breakfast, or if you're someone who likes to train in a situation which you haven't eaten yet, or you kind of struggle with eating bad snacks in the middle of the day. Like these are great. Let's start first thing in the morning with amino acids or fill it in that mid-after, you know, mid-morning period or mid-afternoon period or in addition, like, you know, take it around exercise.

I think the first thing you'll find is like, wow, kind of increased energy levels and overall improved mood during that period than what you would have normally experienced. And then longer term, it has the potential to impact the quality of your skin. your hair, your nails, your lean muscle, your overall metabolism, just, you know, all these different parts of your body. Most common is around body composition and someone's experience of activity. So like, wow, it's crazy. Like, yeah, I lost a couple pounds, but I did a body scan and actually I lost no muscle. Or I'm noticing I see more definition. Another really common thing is to say, you know, whatever someone's exercise routine is like, wow, I had like way more energy when I was exercising

or I was able to do one more pull-up or whatever the expression of their unique exercise modality is. Can I interrupt you? Is that dependent on when you take them? Is that like if you take it before you exercise, you're like, hey, I feel more energy or is it just the result of sustaining that muscle, building muscle, and then having more strength? Both.

So I would say like literally just the daily habit has the potential to actually have that impact in your exercise. if you also take it before or during your exercise, the potential to experience in the exercise is even greater. Okay. Because taking a beforehand basically maximizes, it's like multiplying the effect of the exercise itself in terms of the benefits it creates. It helps you regenerate even more of the muscle fibers.

It helps prevent even more of the muscle breakdown so you don't get a sore. It helps prevent the muscle fatigue so your body doesn't get as tired when you're exercising. It helps prevent the what's called central fatigue. where the amino acid levels in your body change during exercise and sometimes triptophan can get into your blood and it makes you feel sleepy. So all of these things you could actually have the experience during the exercise if you take it right before. But regardless, I think if you just start taking it every day, the potential to have those experiences in the exercise are also likely. But it'd be magnified if you take it before. Got it. Yeah. Well, we haven't even mentioned this,

but you have your brand Kian brag about it. What makes Kian different? from other essential amino acids out there. Maybe instead of trying just like brag, I can just offer advice in general with like how do you identify a good essential amino acid supplement. You're so humble. Well, I mean, I think, I hope content and conversations like this are truly educational and supportive and help people, you know, find the right thing for them. And clearly I'm dedicated to the science and trying to make good things.

So the product that I have, you know, been part of and help make, it adheres to all these things I'm about to say. If you're looking for an essential amino acid supplement and you basically wanted to do all the things that we talked about today, these are the key things you need to look for. Number one, the product needs to have all nine of the essential amino acids. So you may see some brands to advertise, you know, aminos. And it could actually just be branch chain amino acids, which is only three. Or some brands will use other types of really outdated science, or they only include eight, but like the side says there's nine. You can't really like work around it. Yeah. So you definitely want all nine of the essential amino acids. I think another thing you really want to look

for, and you know, we can't get that much into it in this kind of conversation, but you want to ensure that the formula is not proprietary. So lots of supplement companies, and it depends on what the product is, whether, like how important this is. They'll just say, you know, five grams amino acids, and it's like proprietary formula, and you won't know how many of each amino acid is in it. You really need to know exactly how much lucine, isosene, et cetera, is in the actual formula, because those proportions have a really big impact on actually how it functions in your body. You can't switch the amount of lucine with the amount of tryptophan. For example, like the leucine in our formula in one serving has 2,000 milligrams. That's two grams. And the triptophan is like 1.5. Those are the opposite

sides. And it's very important that they're that, that they're that different. So, That's really important. And then I think, you know, in more detail, like the proportions, the specific proportions matter. So if you were looking for the right supplement, without trying to geek out on it too much, the formula that has been proven to work best in the most amount of studies, and this is for the National Institute of Health, or NASA has sponsored studies. We're talking about men and women of all different ages. There are hundreds of studies on this topic.

Basically, uses a model where you take these. a proportion of amino acids as they exist in our muscle. So if actually if we biopsied our muscle, there'd be a certain percentage. And then you take the lusine amount, you increase it to 40%. You increase the valine and the isolucine to maintain their proportions and you increase the lysine. That final formula, if you looked at Keonaminos, that's the formula. Wow. So you want that. Whether you buy, you know, if you get interested from this and you look for Keon or not, like, just look for that. That's the basic proportions that you want. If there's like way more of some other amino acid in there, like there's not a good reason

for it. Or if they have additional amino acids like taurine or arginine or these non-essential ones for other like athletic purposes, you don't necessarily need those. So I'd look for that. And then finally, I would just say like you don't need a bunch of other stuff. So if you're getting capsules, it's like it's just the amino acids in the capsules. If it's a flavored thing, you know, I'd look for natural flavors, look for natural sweeteners. And then yeah, you just, you don't need a bunch of other ingredients. So there's a bunch of other ingredients. So there's a bunch of other ingredients in it, it's like not worth your time. So I, you know, I can say with confidence, like, that's what Keon does. And we do that because we want to make a product that's actually based

off what the science says that tells people exactly what's in it. And that's really clean. Amazing. Well, tell everybody where they can find Keon, where they can find you. Yeah, I mean, you can find more about Keon. Really, I mean, me, I've just poured myself into this. So I would, you can go to get keon.com. Well, thank you so much. for coming back on. Thank you, Ariel. So good seeing you. Yeah, it was good seeing you too. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that episode. And if you liked it, and if you liked the show in general, please take a second to rate review and subscribe. It goes a long way. And it's actually the best way to support the show. Also, if you want to see more about each episode, you can head over to

the Blonde Files podcast on Instagram. You can go to Arialore.com. And I'm always posting about each episode over on my personal page at Ariel Lorry. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.