This is going to be a super tactical guide. I’m going to share my exact approach, right down to the foods I rely on to keep my protein intake high.
I won’t delve too deep into the importance of protein here – or why it’s a foundational health habit. And that’s because I’ve done that in previous episodes, and today I want to keep things tactical.
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If you do want to dig a bit deeper on the importance of protein, it’s worth going back and checking out episode two. In this episode, I cover each of the seven foundational health habits in depth.
But, quickly, here’s what I will say.
Building and maintaining lean muscle should be an important goal for every human being.
It helps you be a strong, healthy, capable, and let’s not forget – better looking, human being now. Also, the amount of lean muscle you have is a highly predictive metric for the quality of your life as you age, and also how long you’re going to live.
And simply put, protein plays a crucial role in helping you to build and maintain lean muscle.
Ok, let’s jump into things.
We’ll start with what is my protein goal? And how that might be relevant for you?
I aim for 1 gram of protein, per lb of body weight. Or if you go by kilograms, that would be 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.
I weigh 175 lbs (or 80KG) – so that means my goal is 175 grams of protein every day.
Now, the amount of protein you should consume is a hot topic for sure, and there is a lot of different advice out there.
The RDA (that’s the recommended daily amount, set by a government health body) is only 0.36 grams per lb of bodyweight. If I were to follow that, it would put me at 63 grams of protein per day.
I’ve never paid attention to the RDA of anything. That’s because it’s a recommendation for the average of the entire population.
I don’t want to be an average person. I’m incredibly active and I’m looking to push the boundaries on how fit and healthy I can be. That includes, putting on and maintaining as much muscle mass as I can.
So, I have drifted towards listening to advice from experts who have those goals. Experts like Peter Attia, Andrew Huberman, Rhonda Patrick, Marcus Filly, Max Lugavere, Sal Di Stefano etc.
Many of these people have a medical or science background. They all look the part – they’re strong, athletic, fit, and healthy. They back up their advice with scientific studies, and they also often share their own blood work.
This is what has led me to the 1 gram of protein, per lb of body weight recommendation – for an active person that wants to gain and maintain lean muscle. Therefore my own personal target is 175 grams of protein per day.
OK, I promised you we’d get tactical, so now let’s get tactical.
If I look back at my own journey with protein, it took me quite a while to be able to easily eat 175 grams of protein per day.
When I was building the habit, I had to crack 100 grams first. I then built towards 150 grams. Finally, only recently did I increase this target to the gold standard I was always after – 175 grams.
Now that I can reflect back on that journey, I think there are three things that stand out as super important.
I’ll cover these three things at a super high level first. And, then I’ll walk through an actual day of mine. This is the best way to understand them in practice and see how they actually play out on a daily basis.
1. You have to have a plan for the day
The biggest mistake you can make is to try and wing it. Even with the knowledge I have on strategies to eat enough protein, I will quickly get unstuck if I just jump into the day without a plan. I can easily find myself in the late stages of the day, without much hope of being able to hit my protein goal.
So, you need to think ahead for the day. Look at the day ahead and start to map out when and what you’re like to eat throughout the day. Ask the question – will this add up to being able to achieve my protein goal for the day?
2. Think protein first when it comes to every meal
You probably have three, maybe four opportunities in a day where you are going to have a substantial meal or snack of some type. If even one of these is very low in protein, it adds a big risk to not being able to achieve your protein goal for the day. Ideally, every meal plays its part in helping build towards your protein target for the day.
3. Have a good knowledge of the actual foods that are high in protein
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It will be really hard to consistently achieve your protein goal if you don’t understand which foods are high in protein. Your days will be full of guesswork and surprises – and you’ll make a lot of mistakes.
The good news is, it’s super easy to educate yourself on this. A quick google search or ChatGPT session will return lots of information on the top foods that are high in protein. It’s also easy to get this tailored to any type of dietary restrictions you may have.
If you can nail these three things, you will find it so much easier to consistently hit your daily protein goal.
OK, let’s jump into how I actually approach a typical day. This will help put those three things in context.
I tend to have two different types of days.
The first would be when I’m fasting. On a day like that, I will typically eat my first meal around 13:00, which would be lunch. I’ll then have an afternoon snack around 16:00, and an evening meal around 19:00 to 20:00.
The second type of day would be when I’m not fasting. In which case, it’s exactly the same as the day I just described, but with the addition of breakfast around 10:00.
So, I will eat three or four meals, depending on whether I am fasting or not.
Breakfast
Assuming I’m not fasting, I have 4 go-to breakfasts.
- Four poached eggs on a slice of sourdough
- Porridge, with four poached eggs on the side
- 250 grams of high protein greek yogurt, with berries and some maple syrup
- Four poached eggs, two slices of streaky bacon and half an avocado
Each of these breakfasts gives me between 25 grams and 35 grams of protein.
Breakfast is usually my lowest protein meal of the day. And that’s OK. As we talked about earlier, I always have a plan for the day and I know I have three other meals to get me to my target of 175 grams of protein.
However, If I knew for some reason, I was having some protein light meals later in the day, I would probably opt for something higher protein for breakfast -like steak and eggs. This would give me about 75 grams of protein.
In fact, I have afternoon tea at a restaurant today (sandwiches, cakes and chocolate). It’s going to be a protein disaster. I’m going to have to make breakfast really count. I will actually probably default to steak and eggs.
This is a first example of being self aware of what’s ahead for the day, and having a plan that will allow me to hit my protein target for the day.
Lunch
I like my lunch to usually give me 50-75 grams of protein. However, a lot will depend on whether I’ve already eaten breakfast (i.e do I already have a bit of a head start with protein?). It will also depend on what my evening meal is. For example, if I have an evening meal which is average in protein, I will be looking for lunch to be at least 75 grams – possibly even 100 grams of protein.
For lunch, I usually default to some type of meat – usually lean minced beef made into home made burgers, or some chicken. I’ll put some type of vegetable around it, and often a piece of fruit too.
It sounds boring. But, mince, fried in some real butter and seasoned, is delicious. And there’s plenty of things you can do to season chicken so it tastes nice too.
If it’s not obvious, almost all of the protein here will come from the meat source.
For example:
- 250 grams of lean beef mince, will give me 50 grams of protein. If I haven’t eaten breakfast, I will usually add in three eggs for an extra 18 grams of protein. This will take the total protein to nearly 70 grams.
- 300 grams of chicken (1 and a half large breasts) will give me about 70 grams of protein too.
With breakfast and lunch behind me, I would hope to be at around 100 grams of protein heading into the afternoon.
Afternoon Snack
My afternoon snack is either a whey protein shake, and / or yogurt.
The whey protein shake will give me either 25 grams of 50 grams of protein – depending on whether I have one or two scoops. And as a reminder, the yogurt meal gives me 25 grams of protein.
What I end up deciding for my afternoon snack here depends on quite a bit.
If I am sitting at 100 grams of protein, and I know I have a very high protein dinner ahead which will get me to my 175 grams goal, I will probably skip the whey protein shake altogether and just have some yogurt.
However, if I’m sitting around 75 grams of protein, and I know my dinner won’t get me to my goal, I will use the shake to fill in the 25 gram or 50 gram hole. I might even have some yogurt as well if it’s needed.
In some cases, if I’m well over a 100 grams of protein, and I know my evening meal will be high protein, and will easily get me to 175 grams, I might even skip the afternoon snack entirely to save the calories.
Again, like I said earlier, here I’m being very mindful about where I am and what’s left to come in the day. And I will tailor my afternoon snack accordingly.
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And that’s where rule one and three come in. You have to have a plan, and you have to know the protein content of the actual foods you’re eating. Otherwise, you won’t be able to do any of this thinking.
Dinner
Dinner can be pretty random. It’s the one time I have to fit into other peoples plans (my family)
For the most part, it’s a meat based meal that will give me 50-75 grams of protein.
When I get my way, it’s got some type of steak or chicken at the heart of it, which gives me a solid 50 – 100 grams of protein. Even when it’s not that, I can usually find a way to sneak some chicken or steak into it.
But, sometimes it might be something like sausages, or perhaps a jacket potato with some tuna. In this case, I’m only going to get 30 grams or so.
And in some cases, it might be a meat free, pasta type of meal. Admittedly it will be tasty – but also absolutely shocking for protein. In that scenario, I could be looking at less than 20 grams of protein.
The evening meal isn’t one which I can completely control. Yeah, I do have a reasonable amount of influence over our meal planning. And in some cases, I will even opt out of a certain type of meal and eat something different. But, it’s also important to be flexible and fit in with what other people like to eat too.
So, my dinner can be low, medium or high protein, depending on what’s on the menu. Again, here’s the important thing – I always know what’s coming. So, I will always adjust the meals that lead up to it, taking into account what it is.
One more thing about dinner. If my dinner is low protein, or I just need a top up in the evening, I will default to some yogurt, berries and maple syrup. It’s a quick way to get a 30 gram protein hit in, and it’s a good healthy option for dessert.
And that’s what my days look like to eat 175 grams of protein.
You’ll notice a few things:
I always have a plan for the day. And in some cases, I’m constantly adjusting the plan to make sure I hit my goal.
I understand foods that are high in protein, and always think protein first when it comes to each meal
My most standard day looks like
- Breakfast (30 grams of protein)
- Lunch (50-70 grams of protein)
- Afternoon snack, (25 – 50 grams of protein)
- Dinner (50-75 grams of protein)
This will consistently net me about the 180 – 190 grams of protein I eat on an average per day.
I’ll leave you with two bonus tips before we wrap the episode.
The average is what counts
I do try and hit my goal of 175 grams of protein per day. Because it’s a foundational health habit that I track, I push to be at least 80% consistent over the course of the month.
That said, the average over the week is what’s more important
So, sometimes I will come in at about 150 grams for the day. Or actually. there might be some days where I end up at 100 grams for the day (travel or a commitment).
I won’t sweat that too much. Because I know there will be other days where I will naturally come in over the 200 gram mark. That will usually even out over the week.
Track your protein
It’s really important to track your protein throughout the day and week.
Without this, it’s really hard to know if you’re achieving your target or not. I have a very good knowledge of what’s in each food. Yet, I would even have a margin of error of 20 or 30% if I was to try and guess at the end of the day. Almost on a weekly basis, I get surprised by a meal being a bit higher or lower in protein than I would expect it to be.
I track everything I eat with the myfitnesspal app. So, I always have a very good grasp of what I am eating every day, including my protein and what my average protein is for the week at any point.
You don’t have to track it as meticulously as I do. You might just jot down the rough protein amount per meal on a piece of paper throughout the day. Find whatever system works for you.
The other benefit to tracking it daily, is it’s a great way to educate yourself on the macronutrient breakdown of foods. You’ll quickly get to know which ones will give you the best bang for buck when it comes to protein.
I hope that’s been helpful. Hopefully it’s given you both a framework, and also some tactical steps to be able to consistently eat more protein.
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