July 17, 2025 • 31 mins
Protein stands as the unsung hero in our nutritional landscape. While many of us understand it's important, fewer grasp why it deserves priority status in our daily eating habits—especially when body composition goals enter the picture.
The thermogenic effect of protein alone makes it worth your attention. Your body burns approximately 25-30% of protein's calories just through digestion—meaning that 100-calorie serving of protein effectively nets only 70 calories after processing. This metabolic advantage becomes particularly powerful during weight loss phases when preserving muscle mass becomes crucial.
Most fitness enthusiasts know the standard recommendation of 0.7-1g of protein per pound of body weight, but Justin and Ethan take this knowledge further by exploring when to aim for the higher end of this spectrum (during caloric deficits) versus when the lower end suffices (during maintenance or surplus phases). They dispel myths about protein sources, confirming that while animal proteins typically offer more concentrated nutrition, plant-based options absolutely work with proper planning.
Where this episode truly shines is in its practical application. Rather than leaving you with abstract targets, the hosts share their go-to protein hacks: Quest chips delivering 20g of protein per serving that satisfy chip cravings; protein-enhanced overnight oats that revolutionize breakfast; low-fat cheese options that dramatically improve protein-to-calorie ratios; and creative protein-rich desserts that prevent diet fatigue.
By assembling 8-12 high-protein, satisfying meals you genuinely enjoy, you create the foundation for sustainable nutrition that supports your fitness goals without feeling like punishment. After all, the best dietary approach isn't the most extreme—it's the one you can maintain indefinitely while still living a full life.
Take the first step toward protein optimization today by implementing just one strategy from this episode. Your future self will thank you for the muscle preserved, the fat lost, and the sustainable approach to nutrition you've established.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
why we want to eat protein, why it's good for us,
how much we should be eating,why protein is so important.
And when we're dieting,especially because we are in a
catabolic state, our body wantsto just catabolize tissue.
Welcome to episode 64 of In theGrand Scheme of Fitness.
(00:27):
I'm your host, justin Scallard,and I am Ethan Wolfe co-host.
Today, folks, we're talkingabout protein.
We're not going to do like asuper deep dive, we're not going
to, like you know, talk aboutthe biochemistry of protein.
We're just going to kind ofgive a general overview of why
we need to get it.
I think at this point you can'tif you have any interest in
fitness whatsoever.
I guarantee we've all seen atleast a hundred posts of some
(00:49):
person talking about how to getprotein and why you got to do it
right.
So what we're going to do todayis just kind of break down a
little overview of why it'simportant.
So it's not just this obscurerecommendation we get.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
And why you got to do it.
Yeah, why you got to do it yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
There you go, which would take 30 minutes instead of
30 seconds.
Yeah, just like why it'simportant you know, some of the
basics and what it does in yourbody.
And then I think what'll becool is and this is what most
people tend to be most intriguedwith that I just have like
general conversations with ishow to get it in.
Besides just like sitting therewith a nasty, dry chicken
breast, like what are somecreative ways that we can get
(01:25):
protein in, sufficient proteinthat doesn't feel like a
punishment, that feels kind of,dare I say, enjoyable?
yeah, it's actually thatpunishing feeling, though, that
helps you lose weight I meanwhen I'm sitting there drinking
16 ounces of just raw egg whites.
I like the punishment of it.
I just it's like I'm givingpenance or something.
(01:47):
All jokes aside, I willabsolutely drink 16 ounces of
raw egg whites another 10 of thepastries out for those
concerned out there.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, your carton egg whites are pasteurized.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
They're safe to drink yeah, but even if I had to
crack just the eggs, I'd do it Iwould do that too, it's true
because it's like 16 ounces islike 50 grams of protein.
You are unadulterated and I can.
I can slam that in four gulps.
Yeah, legit.
A lot of you are out thereprobably thinking like, yeah,
he's joking, I'm not joking.
No, I will do that, but we'renot.
I don't recommend thatnecessarily.
(02:20):
So we're going to be talkingabout, like, some more enjoyable
ways to do it.
Yeah, that is certainly a way,but I've graduated to that point
.
Some of you might not be readyfor that level of intensity yet.
So okay.
So let's just talk aboutprotein here.
I'm going to defer to my musclebound colleague to discuss the
(02:40):
virtues of protein.
So Ethan Protein is veryvirtuous, and there we go.
So general overview of protein.
So Ethan Protein is veryvirtuous, and there we go.
So general overview protein.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I mean.
So you know, I think, lookingat protein as the building
blocks of your body versus aprimary fuel source like fat and
carbohydrates.
That's kind of like, I think,an easy distinction to wrap your
head around.
Like the fat and carbs, they'rethere for the fuel and then the
protein is there for the partsyou know.
And essential amino acids arecalled essential because they're
one of the few things that ourbody can't produce.
(03:08):
Most of us have body fat, so ifwe needed some form of energy
we could pull off our body fatsupplies.
We've got a ton of protein inmainly skeletal muscle, but our
bones, tendons and our body canuse protein to create glucose
through gluconeogenesis.
It doesn't necessarily like it,it's a little inefficient
inefficient, but technically wecan create.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
And for those of you that are trying to keep up.
Glucose is the main, is one ofthe main energy preferred energy
sources in our body.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Preferred, I mean, like our brain can only use
glucose and ketones.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
If you want to go there, yeah, so like nothing's
like hard and fast as far aslike what your body can do with
macronutrients, but in a perfectworld it would.
Our bodies would prefer to beallocating amino acids and acids
via proteins to building andmaintaining tissue.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, like again.
Like I just said, you can usemuscle to build protein or to
make blood glucose, but it's notpreferred.
But fundamentally we can kindof like.
Our body has ways of creatingthose macros if needed.
But the essential amino acidsare, I think, nine that you
cannot get from your own body.
Your body can produce all theother amino acids it needs, but
it cannot produce those nine, sowe have to eat them.
(04:09):
So that's just.
You know protein's important.
The other thing is that it has,in the game of body composition
and weight loss and looking ourbest, it has a huge thermogenic
effect, which just simply meansthat to utilize and digest
protein takes a lot morecalories to do so.
So it's about 30%, give or take25, 30%.
So that means if you eat ahundred calories worth of
(04:29):
protein, it takes 30 caloriesjust to assimilate those hundred
calories worth of protein.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And for those astute listeners out there who might've
had a little light bulb go offyes, that means that if we, when
we look at a lot of diets andwe definitely do this with our
clients too over-indexing alittle bit on protein, going to
the higher ranges, like, it'snot necessarily because, like
this, middle-aged person withvery little muscle mass needs
(04:56):
one gram of protein per pound ofbody weight, but what it does
do, it's not hurting them to eatthat, but it also, a keeps them
feeling full, because proteintakes a second to chew and
swallow.
But then B, because of whatEthan said, the thermogenic
effect.
It means that, like I, canincrease the amount of calories
your body's burning throughdigestion by over-indexing a
(05:18):
little bit on protein.
So you're feeling more full,you have ample supplies of
proteins to preserve muscletissue as we're trying to lose
fat.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
but then also it's okay if we over index a little
bit, because it burns 30 ofitself through digestion anyways
yeah, it's kind of like anegative calorie that's built in
a little hack a little bit yeahin a sense and I don't want you
know, I wouldn't, I wouldn'tthink about it that way but it's
kind of like a backdoor kind ofsituation totally, if you've
ever heard of how celeryapparently creates negative
calories because it has nocalories, but it's so fibrous in
(05:47):
order to digest it and dealwith it.
You actually are in the red, soto speak and yeah, and as
justin said, it helps maintainyour lean muscle mass if you're
in a deficit satiate you in factyou know this isn't what the
episode's meant to be on, butwhile we're talking about
maintaining muscle tissue on adeficit, that's kind of the.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
The downside of like semaglutides is for sure it
makes people lose weight, butthe problem is in the way that
makes you lose weight, is itslows your digestion, it mutes
your appetite.
Other things happen too, butgenerally that's how it goes.
And the problem is is thatbecause protein is such a
difficult macronutrient to eatfor anybody anyways, large
portions of yeah, sufficientamounts of, to actually maintain
(06:27):
significant muscle tissue whenyour appetite's like bleh, when
you do eat, you're not reallygoing to be hammering down eight
ounces of chicken breast.
Yeah, you eat a half pound ofsome animal.
It's not going to go down,You're going to be like going
for something that's a littlebit more palatable.
(06:48):
Like soup.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, something that's lighter.
And if you also think about howprotein is very satiating
because it is harder to digestall things considered and you
also have a slower gastricemptying, it's going to just sit
like a ball of cement in yourstomach.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
It might make you feel indigestion.
It's going to contribute toindigestion.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
It's going to contribute to any of those
potential side effects comingfrom the semi-glutide.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And then you're probably less likely to eat even
more.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah it's because it's going to satiate you so
much yeah, that you're justgoing to have more, so that you
know it's one of those thingsthat the people that are on the
semi-glutide just have a veryhard time eating enough, and
because they're just not eatingenough and because he's not
eating enough to even eat enoughprotein is very very difficult,
and then they end up losingsubstantially more amount of
lean mass yeah from their totalweight like a good ratio.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Let's say we lost 20 pounds.
15 16 of it's from fat, four orfive is from muscle.
That's like a typical ratiowith someone who's losing fat
through diet and exercise right,but now someone who loses 20
pounds on a some-glute diet.
It's more like a 50 50 ratio.
So you lost 10 pounds of fatand 10 pounds of muscle.
And now listen, if we are justmorbidly obese, that's fine.
(07:52):
Just getting aggregate weightdown in general is the win yeah,
the 50% of fat leaving is yeah,I have a better chance of doing
good things and but for thoseof us who just have like
anything, probably like under 40pounds of body fat they want to
lose, which means you'reprobably still in the realm of
some normalcy.
You just maybe aren't stokedabout the way you look, but you
could probably do a veryefficient job through just diet
(08:14):
and exercise Then I wouldstrongly advise you consider
what we just said aboutsemiglutides as far as how much
muscle mass you lose, but that'skind of besides the point, but
it is sort of, I think, relevantin the sense of why protein is
so important.
And when we're dieting,especially because we are in a
catabolic state, our body wantsto just catabolize tissue.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
It wants to incinerate everything.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, but if we can manipulate that via high levels
of protein and resistancetraining.
So we're signaling to our bodyyes, we are eating less calories
than our, than we are burning,but through our activities of
eating protein and weighttraining, we want to maintain
that muscle tissue as well as wecan while we lose weight, so we
look better, we feel better,we're stronger and it's just a
(08:57):
better outcome in general.
Which is why protein is soimportant, whether we're losing
weight or whether we're tryingto put on weight, for obvious
reasons, if we're trying to gainmuscle, then you know, you know
it's a no-brainer, we got toeat enough protein.
But, believe it or not, whenwe're losing weight, we actually
want to like.
If we're like hypocaloricmeaning we're just we're eating
in a calorie surplus it'sactually okay to eat on the
(09:18):
lower end of the proteinrequirements of like.
So 0.7 to 1 gram per pound ofbody weight is the range
everyone pretty much typicallyrecommends.
If you're like eating in a 500calorie surplus with the
intention, it's actually okay tobe on the lower end of that
because you're in a caloriesurplus.
Your body's not catabolic,you're anabolic.
You're putting on size andweight adding, you're not.
Yeah, your body kind of wantsfor nothing.
(09:40):
So but if we're dieting andwe're, let's say, we're in a 500
calorie deficit, it's actuallymuch more beneficial to be on
the higher end of that range,like one gram, because of all
the reasons we just saidpreserving muscle tissue,
feeling satiated, thermogeneticeffect of protein, yada, yada,
yeah right 100 so yeah, andjustin just mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Just for the requirements, it's generally the
agreed is 0.7 to one pound, Ifyou're doing, or one gram to one
pound if you're doing the onegram to one pound.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
You can generally look at it, though, as your goal
weight you know, if you're 300pounds and it's not, you're not
going to eat 300 grams.
It's ridiculous, you know.
So if you're 200 pounds.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
You want to be 185,.
You could look to be 185 gramsand do it by 0.7.
I do think there is actuallyeven like the minimum is 0.7 per
goal weight to even have enoughto create the potential for
muscle gain.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I think to keep the nitrogen balance in our body,
it's 0.5 grams, but the goalisn't to just maintain it the
goal is to like be above thatthreshold, which is where the
0.7 came from.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
A little extra slack in the rope.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Right, right, right.
A little cushion in there.
So that's your general overviewof just sort of like why we
want to eat protein, why it'sgood for us, how much we should
be eating.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, and one thing I'll also say real quick too is
that there's probably lots ofdiscussion, but fundamentally
there's not going to really be adifference of where your source
of protein comes from.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, I tend to agree as well.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
You know you could split some hairs and talk about
plant sources versus animalsources and potential like
bioavailability and efficiencyand things like that, but push
come to shove.
I think that lose the forestand the trees and that kind of a
conversation, and so those thatare curious, it doesn't really
matter.
Now, obviously, animal productsare going to be a more
concentrated source of proteinversus, you know, having more
(11:19):
carbs or fat along with them,like in tofu or something.
So generally, animal productsdo make it it easier, but if
you're eating beans and lentilsand whatever else to get your
protein, that's totally fine.
It just tends to be a littleless concentrated.
So why animal products aretends to be looked at, but your
options are limited.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
The protein molecules tend to be a little bit more
bound in fiber and plant things.
Not all plant sources are thecomplete amino acid profile of
all nine, so not to say that anyof that's a deal breaker.
You just got to be a littlemore conscientious where, like,
if you're doing like anincomplete protein like a tofu,
then you might want to combinethat with like another
(11:57):
incomplete protein like a beanor a rice, so that way, as it's
mixing around your stomach anddigesting, you do accomplish and
check the boxes of eating allnine amino acids which create
like a complete protein andanimal products.
We're not like we don't reallycare.
Like, honestly, if plantproteins were more bioavailable
(12:18):
and had the full amino acidprofile, like I think we would
all just be fine with eatingthat too.
It just so happens that, likeanimal products, animal proteins
have all all nine amino acids.
You don't have to think hardabout it.
But if you are like adegenerative vegan, plenty of
ways to do it.
There's tons of powders thatmake sure they have all nine of
them, like you can I know?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
it's not that hard, it's just more like that, just
in case people are curious,plenty of jacked uh vegans out
there.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
but wherever you fall on that spectrum like, there
are options.
But yeah, the most importantthing is like don't overthink it
, just hit the number and beconsistent and you'll be fine.
So now speaking of which, howdo we hit those numbers Exactly?
Speaker 2 (12:52):
The numbers.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
It's been like a little hobby of mine, like a fun
little pastime recently of justlike loser protein grams of
deliciousness no, but it is trueit is I think is the cliche is
everybody thinks about just likea plain shitty chicken yeah I
actually.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
You know, if you do a chicken breast right, it's
pretty good, but it is also ahigher chance of not being good
and break away from the cliches,in a sense, as well, yeah, but
you know, for most folks, though, it's like you, yeah, like they
don't.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
We're trying to like get people who are like just
snacking and eating like 30 or40 grams of protein a day, like
literally full grown men barelygetting as much protein as we
would get in a single meal, howdo we like just what's the very
next step?
That's kind of the idea is like, how do we make it good enough
where it's like, okay, fine, Ican do this trade off and so,
like, one of my favorites isthose Quest chips.
(13:44):
Man, they're so fucking good.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I just find them to be so satisfying.
Yeah, so just say they're aprotein chip, that I believe
they're made out of like a waycrisps.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Either way, chris yeah, they basically.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
You know they really satisfy the one for a chip, but
there's 20 grams of protein in abag.
You know they have some fatalong with them, like a regular
chip would.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
But you know, if you're gonna eat a bag of chips
you might as well slam dude,it's 20 grams of protein for
like 140 calories, I think likea regular, you know normal size
on the calories.
Yeah 140, dude.
Yeah, and like I think like aregular bag of doritos would be
at least a couple hundred andthey're 100 350, I mean it's for
a little bag not, maybe not thelittle bag, but like 250 I mean
like a comparable bag ofdoritos would be?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
would be at least double.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, I mean those like yeah, big personal bag is
like 470 man dude.
It's insane and like two gramsof protein, you know.
And so literally, like for methe nacho cheese flavored or the
taco flavored or the you knowwhatever, it's almost as good as
the real thing, like I mean thereal thing, like a dorito or
something.
It's like 90 of the way.
They're totally fine with me.
(14:42):
But like it's so delicious andlike what's cool about is you
can make fun stuff like I madenachos with it where it was like
some black beans, some groundbeef, low-fat cheese, but like
the base of it was, those waslike the nacho cheese.
Questions the questions and itwas like 70 grams of protein,
right and I'm sitting there withlike nachos and you know it was
like none.
(15:03):
You know those are the hackslike that's how we do it to have
this like experience of like.
Oh, this feels like I'mcheating yeah, this is.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
This is super delicious.
I mean, it's another one.
I've heard of the quest chipsfor like a breading oh, that's a
good idea like you crush upyour quest chips and then you
coat whatever it is, and thenyou air fry it and you get this
like crispy texture, littlesituation.
I like that idea.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, yeah, that's another one so like right there
there, you know, like for someof you out there who are like
but I just love crunchy chips,it's like I get it.
But you also want, you know,more muscle and less body fat
and to feel good and like, haveless regrets in your life.
So, like what we just saidright there, like the quest
chips by themselves or in anacho dish or as breading, it's
like find ways, find littleinroads to get 20 extra grams
(15:46):
here and there.
And like by the end of the day,like the average person is
eating 50 grams protein, theaverage person probably needs
more, like 150.
Like, that's how we do it,that's it.
That's the game.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Same way we've talked about in the past like little
caloric restrictions, likelow-fat sour cream, low-fat
cheese it's the same thing.
I'm just like finding littleways to introduce protein into
things.
Same thing.
I'm just like finding littleways to introduce protein into
thing.
I mean, one thing I'll say in acliche sense is to just find a
protein powder that you can atleast participate with.
At least look the other way ifit's that bad.
There are so many out there,ranging from vegetarian to
lactose-free way to concentrates, minimal ingredients, birthday
(16:20):
rainbow skittle, blueberry,birthday cake yeah, you can go.
I mean, they have clearproteins.
If you don't like them thick,they have like frozen, like like
italian ice lemon likerefreshing kind of non-thick,
non-creamy proteins.
You can make them into frozendesserts.
So there's really there's somany options and I know not all
of them are great.
It might take some trial anderror, but like there's just,
(16:41):
they're just such a helpful toolso easy to just throw a scoop
in do the job.
There's no bullshit.
They don't spike your bloodsugar.
All the things against whey arepretty much nonsense.
It's a whole food Totally.
It's a byproduct of cheesemaking.
I've seen commercials be likedid you know whey protein is a
byproduct of cheese.
And it's like okay, yeah.
And trying to paint it in thisnegative light, so I just really
(17:01):
recommend it again.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Just like muscle mass is a byproduct of eating
protein.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, because really it just.
It is such a bang for your buckof protein to calories that is
so accessible, even if you'rejust putting it in water.
Relatively inexpensive.
And then you can put it inthings to make other things just
have protein in them and likeagain I will say it takes trial
and error, like I've been usingthis.
Brand Levels it's a minimalingredient list, just like
(17:25):
natural flavor, nothing crazy.
Brand levels it's a minimalingredient list, just like
natural flavor, nothing crazy.
And I normally get vanillacinnamon and strawberry.
Like I can put vanilla cinnamonin a bunch of things, I can put
strawberry in a bunch of thingsI don't.
I don't mind drinking them bythemselves, and lately I've been
like taking frozen berries,just like a half cup or less,
and blending them and putting itwith the strawberry and it
tastes like a creamy, like berrymilkshake, totally so delicious
.
I guarantee 99 of people wouldat least enjoy it enough to
(17:47):
drink it.
Yeah, now I recently wanted tostart getting into some dirty
desserts, which we'll talk aboutlater, and so I got their
double chocolate and it's prettygood, kind of has like a little
grittier texture.
So I'm like, yeah, but it kindof tastes like a nest quick
hershey kind of thing totallydelicious.
I also got their chocolatepeanut butter because I wanted
to try that and I got the smalltub of these.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
I got two small tubs of those because I plan on
making desserts, five already,though no, I don't have the
vanilla cinnamon.
I've only been doing strawberryokay, but the thing about it is
the chocolate peanut butter wastrash, it was just gross like I
just don't want it.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I have a small three pounds.
This is gross, and so Iunderstand that, even within a
certain brand or company, butreally just find a protein
powder that works yeah, yeahthere's no excuse and like one
of the things as an example islike overnight oats, I think
this is a great food in general.
Take some almond milk or sometype of milk, especially if
you're in a hurry.
Yeah, in the morning you putsome frozen berries and you can
(18:36):
put some cheeses if you want andif you just put some protein
powder in there, mix it up,maybe some greek yogurt, another
like a no fat greek yogurt.
You can just create a very easyon the go, eat it cold.
You can just drink it out of amason jar if you wanted to, and
easily just put as much proteinas you want in there.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Totally.
I mean, that's what I did andit came out to about 500
calories.
A serving about 40, 45 grams,but it was, you know, half a
tablespoon of chia seeds, 45grams of oats, scoop of protein
and then probably four or fiveounces of vanilla greek yogurt
stirred it up, oh, and like ahandful of blueberries stirred
(19:12):
up pro tip.
So what you want to do is youwant to get a six pack of of
little 16 ounce mason jars andyou just literally go conveyor
belt, just like the same servingin each one oats, chia seeds,
protein powder, yogurt, berries.
Mix them up or then, like, puta soy milk or something in there
.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
That's like an extra, yeah, like an extra few grams.
Bring in more protein too, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Stir them up, put in the fridge, boom, you've got
easy, convenient, delicious,high protein breakfast every
single morning, just done, andfor a lot of people that could
be like anywhere from a third tohalf of your day's worth of
protein right there in one meal,you know.
So you can see where this isgoing, guys.
Where it's like, let's just sayyou did that scenario where, if
(19:51):
nothing else, you just did theovernight oats with the protein
powder, yogurt, chia seeds andoatmeal and berries.
Okay, five ingredients takesyou 30 seconds and you got six
days worth of breakfast to do so.
Let's say you did that andthat's about 50 grams of protein
.
And then you did, like a questchips as an afternoon snack.
So now we're at 70 grams ofprotein.
And then let's just say forlunch and dinner you have like a
normal, you know, protein, carb, veggie combo, nothing crazy.
(20:13):
Two, three three, four ounces ofprotein in each one, you have
to go crazy.
You're at 120 130 grams ofprotein for the day, and male or
female.
If we're just getting the ballrolling, those like that alone
getting you over that hundredgrams of protein threshold each
day is gonna, over time,dramatically improve the
composition of your body, andeverything we just mentioned
(20:34):
could be done in like I don'tknow a second, like a minute,
like honestly it's not crazy.
And then like well.
So now, in the spirit ofvariety, another thing that I
like to do is I like to getlow-fat cheese.
I, I think low fat cheese.
If you're not lactose intolerant, this is a huge hack because
it's delicious, which isimportant.
Palatability is so important.
If it's not good, I don't carehow healthy it is, people just
(20:56):
aren't gonna do it.
So low fat cheese is killer,dude.
Whether it's just like threelow fat string cheeses that you
can hammer down, it's 20 gramsright there.
Or I've been getting thelow-fat cheddar cheese slices
eight grams of protein per slice, only 80 calories, so great
protein to calorie ratio.
Put four slices of that in aezekiel wrap, put it in the
microwave for one minute andyou've got like a cheesy
(21:18):
tortilla with 45 grams ofprotein and like and like 280
calories yeah, it's insane,insane yeah, right, or protein
to calorie ratios.
On point so they're.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
You could use a carb savvy tortilla, which really
tastes great.
Get a bunch of fiber, bringyour calories down and, like you
know what we were talking aboutearlier, it's like you can even
then just get like go to traderjoe's, get some of the pre-made
chili lime chicken breasts.
You know no labor tastes goodthrow it in.
There you have like a cheesychicken wrapped on the go, you
know, rocking in over 50 gramsof protein, minimal calories.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Get some hot sauce on there so here's, here's a
sample day for you guys.
Overnight oats, what we justdescribed in there for breakfast
, yogurt, protein, chia seeds,oatmeal berries boom, that's
your breakfast.
That's 40 grams, 40 to 50 grams.
And then let's say for lunch,we do.
Let's just say you're like thelast thing you want to do is
cook, so you, just, you makethat tortilla that I just
described, where it's fourslices of low-fat cheddar cheese
(22:13):
.
You get at trader joe's maybethree ounces of the pre-cooked
chili lime chicken breast,trader joe's, wrapped up in an
ezekiel tortilla.
Four or five hundred calories,probably.
60 grams of protein boom, we'reat 100 grams already.
And it's only noon, yeah.
And then afternoon snack, let'ssay we have like an apple and a
bag of the quest chips, yeah,so now we're at 120 grams of
protein by afternoon.
And then dinner, let's just sayI don't know you do more of the
(22:37):
pre-cooked chicken breast orany sort of pre-cooked meat at
twitter joe's and some frozenrice and a veggie and now we're
at like literally 150, 160 gramsof protein.
It required virtually zerocooking, maybe maybe three
minutes yeah, I'll just sayeverything all in is like less
less than 10 ingredients for theentire thing and relatively
affordable.
(22:57):
And that could be an entire day.
A couple thousand calories, 150grams of protein and for 80% of
us out there, if you just didsome version of that every day
and you trained, you're going tobe looking pretty fucking good.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, I mean, that's it, that's just kind of it just
showing that to that every dayyeah and it's it's the thing of
as you do it, longer you'll, youknow you'll start to find ways,
like I'm in the place now whereI definitely realize that
finding out how to make foodsthat satisfy me and meet what
I'm looking for and have thatmiddle ground is really the way.
(23:29):
It's the long-term way.
Like at first you might be cool, just like bare boning it and
just keeping it super dupersimple, but year after year you
start to realize that you wantto be able to.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
You want to enjoy your food a little bit, right, I
think it's like if you just, ifyou just take a little time.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
So one of the other thing is that like I'm being
bombarded with desserts likehigh protein desserts, desserts,
you know, and they're eitherusing blended blended cottage
cheese no fat, greek yogurt andor protein powder as an addition
.
And then I'm seeing all thesehacks.
Those can be bases.
So it's like one egg, zero fatGreek yogurt, cottage cheese,
cacao powder or some other typeof seasoning and then that's
(24:06):
like an easy cheesecake that'shigh protein, you know kind of a
thing.
You can use a little fat creamcheese if you wanted to really
make it more like a traditionalcheesecake and then like things
like chickpeas and pumpkin puree.
So I really just made a trufflethat was like chickpea.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
I didn't put protein powder in this one because I
just wanted to taste it withoutChickpeas and a truffle yeah,
dude.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So it's like chickpeas dates like a few
medjool dates, but you just puta few in you know and you could
always use like stevia or monkfruit, if you wanted to go down
that road, and cacao powder andyou literally just those three
ingredients like a little saltand you just blend it and it
becomes like super smooth.
And then I just got some darkchocolate and melted that and
like, coated the balls in thedark chocolate and put them in
the freezer fridge.
(24:43):
It's super delicious.
You know they were about.
They were a pretty big ball, Iknow, not bad, it wasn't the
greatest, but it was still muchcleaner in terms of ingredient
list, definitely lower calories,super, super satisfying.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
And if I'd added protein powder in there it would
have racked up the protein, andso I'm kind of in this phase
right now, starting to exploreand just seeing what's good
Cause I've been craving dessertsso much.
My sweet tooth is back, I thinkcause I'm in a caloric deficit
right now.
That's pretty strong.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Oh yeah, you're craving it.
Yeah, especially at night.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I just like it's kind of like that de-stress, want a
sweet treat kind of thing, andso I'm in that phase.
But like, another good exampleis, I had this craving for
burgers the other day and I justdidn't go get them, and it was
fine.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I just had a protein shake instead.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I just suffered, no but I was actually at Trader
Joe's and they have these likecaramelized onion and pepper
turkey burgers and so I lookedat them and they're great.
They're super low fat.
I think they have like 22 gramsof protein, or 20 grams of
protein, let's just say 22.
Yeah, probably In there, and soI made myself.
I got some mayo on there,ketchup, lettuce, tomato, onion.
(25:51):
I didn't do any cheese becauseI didn't have any when I got
home and I was able to make twoof those burgers for like 50
grams of protein total and under500 calories right, you know,
there's no sides, but likefundamentally, it's like, with
all the the onions and tomatoand everything on there, super
satisfying.
I still had the mayo stillcreamy and it was just like
completely satisfied, my one fora burger and I get to eat it at
(26:12):
home.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
I actually had it last night, it was great, and so
just like things like that Ithink that, like the game is
like middle we are, we we haveto start thinking about like a
protein to calorie ratio.
And what you just described waslike okay, I know I want like
the 800 calorie triplecheeseburger from hi-ho, yeah,
but you know I don't want towake up tomorrow and feel like I
(26:33):
got hit in the face of thefrying pan because I'm all puffy
and, like you know, inflamedfor all the sodium and fat and
heavier.
But if I make the substitute oflike a turkey burger in here
that you just exam, that youjust gave an example of, it's
like is it as delicious?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
no, but it's almost there it's 80 of the way there.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
It's very satisfying, for sure, surprise, but like
half the calories, double theprotein, and it's just always
like what's the next bestdecision I can make that isn't
aligned with my, my long-termgoals, not what I want right now
, but what I want most, and it'slike okay.
So instead of a bag of doritos,I go for the quest chips.
Instead of full fat cheese, Igo for low fat cheese.
(27:12):
You know um, instead of regularvanilla ice cream, at the end
of the night I'm going to go forthe like halo top protein ice
cream.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah, you do the 96.
Yeah, you 9% lean ground beef.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Lean ground beef instead of the 85.
And it's like these choicesseem inconsequential in
isolation, but I promise you,over the course of your week,
you are doubling your proteinand you are cutting your
calories in half.
And, my friends, if there'sever any sort of high level
advice, that's it right there.
Cut your calories down andincrease your protein and just
keep keep working for that.
(27:45):
Protein to calorie ratio higherthe protein, lower the calories
.
Every meal.
How can I optimize?
How can I optimize?
What substitutes can I make?
Yep, and then you know, startto optimize for taste as you get
more experience.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
But like man and so Dale, going down this rabbit
hole you know you have tons ofinfluencers on social media Like
you pop the bubble and you'rejust getting blasted with like
here's this recipe here, likeeverything we're talking about,
here's this dessert, here's thisrecipe.
I this recipe.
I found this one chick.
I forgot her name off the topof my head, but her recipes are
amazing.
She bounces between sweet andsavory and just breaks it down.
(28:16):
And you know, I think you'd justbe surprised with how many like
little knickknack things thereare to do to make things
delicious and like this one Ihaven't done yet that I have to
do, and she does it with chickenand shrimp and she basically
gets like a like what would belike a sushi nori, like a like a
seaweed square yeah and shejust cooks rice and she just
smashes the rice down, likecreates like a thin layer on the
(28:36):
seaweed and then makes it intolike a taco shape and puts it in
the air fryer oh, that's good.
And like basically makes it likesuper crunchy, super crispy,
and then we'll just like throwshrimp in there.
And then makes like a chipotlesauce out of like greek yogurt
as the base and flavors it andbasically makes these kind of
like saucy protein filled thingssuper low calorie.
You know, the primary thing, Imean the rice and is the only
(29:00):
carbohydrate and you can makejust like a thin little layer
and they just look so good and Iwas like wow, that's such a
great idea.
I haven't heard it's so easyrice cooker who doesn't like
crispy rice?
Yeah, and with like some shrimpand sauce on it.
It sounds amazing yeah, so Ijust think it's like when you
start thinking outside of thebox versus just like the plain
chicken breast on the plate andtanya and I totally and like and
like, also like, take libertyto modifying recipes.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
So the first version of this is assuming you don't
like to cook and you just wantto, like, you know, simplify
your life.
But maybe you do like to cook,that's cool, like what you just
described.
Like.
Look at the ingredients, tanyaand I do this all the time.
Oh, it calls for fourtablespoons of olive oil.
Let's see what happens if wemake it with.
Two turns out it's great, yeah,you know like.
Oh, it calls for this cut ofmeat that's notoriously very
(29:42):
fatty.
Well, let's see if we went withthis cut of meat that's a
little bit leaner.
That same cuts maybe a grassfed or pasture raised.
So it's just a leaner cup.
Same same type of meat and youcut the calories down, increase
the protein.
Cut the calories down, increaseprotein.
Like that's the game that we'reall trying to play.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
If we're, if you're, interested in things like you
know, more muscle, less body fatyeah, I mean in baking I think
it's like a common thing thatyou can substitute oil for
applesauce and, like I said, Ijust recently saw another recipe
that was like an applesaucebase, like this applesauce
brownie, that was like cacaopowder and applesauce and like
something else, and they're likeI don't really taste the apple
at all and it's the same withlike the chickpea one like you
can kind of tell that it wasn'tlike purely indulgent cream for
(30:19):
the truffle but it wasn't like Iate it and I was like that's
chickpea like.
I would not have been able toname chickpea if someone gave
that to me, yeah you know.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
So it's to require you listeners to start doing
your own googling and researchor just talking to your phone,
and you'll get fed on instagram,even though they swear they're
not listening.
But this is the game, and I keepcoming back to this point.
But like you're not going tofind anybody who's been able to
(30:46):
like, maintain it or sustainthat hey, their macronutrient
targets, keeping their caloriesdown, still enjoying the foods
they eat that hasn't exploredand developed this repertoire of
high protein, low calorie,highly tasty, palatable stuff.
So get your, get your.
You know eight to twelve thingsyou can make, like we just
(31:06):
described on rotation, and youknow, continue to tweak and
iterate, but like this is thisis it, and the better you get at
this and the sooner we can geton board with it and faster you
know, continue to tweak anditerate, but like this is it,
and the better you get at thisand the sooner we can get on
board with it and faster you'regonna be starting to see those
results.
And, by the way, in themeantime, you'll be like this
isn't so bad.
Actually, I think I can seemyself doing this indefinitely
and that's the game, that's thewhole point.
So okay, guys, that was episode64 of Coach's Corner.
why we want to eat protein, why it's good for us,
how much we should be eating,why protein is so important.
And when we're dieting,especially because we are in a
catabolic state, our body wantsto just catabolize tissue.
Welcome to episode 64 of In theGrand Scheme of Fitness.
(00:27):
I'm your host, justin Scallard,and I am Ethan Wolfe co-host.
Today, folks, we're talkingabout protein.
We're not going to do like asuper deep dive, we're not going
to, like you know, talk aboutthe biochemistry of protein.
We're just going to kind ofgive a general overview of why
we need to get it.
I think at this point you can'tif you have any interest in
fitness whatsoever.
I guarantee we've all seen atleast a hundred posts of some
(00:49):
person talking about how to getprotein and why you got to do it
right.
So what we're going to do todayis just kind of break down a
little overview of why it'simportant.
So it's not just this obscurerecommendation we get.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
And why you got to do it.
Yeah, why you got to do it yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
There you go, which would take 30 minutes instead of
30 seconds.
Yeah, just like why it'simportant you know, some of the
basics and what it does in yourbody.
And then I think what'll becool is and this is what most
people tend to be most intriguedwith that I just have like
general conversations with ishow to get it in.
Besides just like sitting therewith a nasty, dry chicken
breast, like what are somecreative ways that we can get
(01:25):
protein in, sufficient proteinthat doesn't feel like a
punishment, that feels kind of,dare I say, enjoyable?
yeah, it's actually thatpunishing feeling, though, that
helps you lose weight I meanwhen I'm sitting there drinking
16 ounces of just raw egg whites.
I like the punishment of it.
I just it's like I'm givingpenance or something.
(01:47):
All jokes aside, I willabsolutely drink 16 ounces of
raw egg whites another 10 of thepastries out for those
concerned out there.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, your carton egg whites are pasteurized.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
They're safe to drink yeah, but even if I had to
crack just the eggs, I'd do it Iwould do that too, it's true
because it's like 16 ounces islike 50 grams of protein.
You are unadulterated and I can.
I can slam that in four gulps.
Yeah, legit.
A lot of you are out thereprobably thinking like, yeah,
he's joking, I'm not joking.
No, I will do that, but we'renot.
I don't recommend thatnecessarily.
(02:20):
So we're going to be talkingabout, like, some more enjoyable
ways to do it.
Yeah, that is certainly a way,but I've graduated to that point
.
Some of you might not be readyfor that level of intensity yet.
So okay.
So let's just talk aboutprotein here.
I'm going to defer to my musclebound colleague to discuss the
(02:40):
virtues of protein.
So Ethan Protein is veryvirtuous, and there we go.
So general overview of protein.
So Ethan Protein is veryvirtuous, and there we go.
So general overview protein.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I mean.
So you know, I think, lookingat protein as the building
blocks of your body versus aprimary fuel source like fat and
carbohydrates.
That's kind of like, I think,an easy distinction to wrap your
head around.
Like the fat and carbs, they'rethere for the fuel and then the
protein is there for the partsyou know.
And essential amino acids arecalled essential because they're
one of the few things that ourbody can't produce.
(03:08):
Most of us have body fat, so ifwe needed some form of energy
we could pull off our body fatsupplies.
We've got a ton of protein inmainly skeletal muscle, but our
bones, tendons and our body canuse protein to create glucose
through gluconeogenesis.
It doesn't necessarily like it,it's a little inefficient
inefficient, but technically wecan create.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
And for those of you that are trying to keep up.
Glucose is the main, is one ofthe main energy preferred energy
sources in our body.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Preferred, I mean, like our brain can only use
glucose and ketones.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
If you want to go there, yeah, so like nothing's
like hard and fast as far aslike what your body can do with
macronutrients, but in a perfectworld it would.
Our bodies would prefer to beallocating amino acids and acids
via proteins to building andmaintaining tissue.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, like again.
Like I just said, you can usemuscle to build protein or to
make blood glucose, but it's notpreferred.
But fundamentally we can kindof like.
Our body has ways of creatingthose macros if needed.
But the essential amino acidsare, I think, nine that you
cannot get from your own body.
Your body can produce all theother amino acids it needs, but
it cannot produce those nine, sowe have to eat them.
(04:09):
So that's just.
You know protein's important.
The other thing is that it has,in the game of body composition
and weight loss and looking ourbest, it has a huge thermogenic
effect, which just simply meansthat to utilize and digest
protein takes a lot morecalories to do so.
So it's about 30%, give or take25, 30%.
So that means if you eat ahundred calories worth of
(04:29):
protein, it takes 30 caloriesjust to assimilate those hundred
calories worth of protein.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And for those astute listeners out there who might've
had a little light bulb go offyes, that means that if we, when
we look at a lot of diets andwe definitely do this with our
clients too over-indexing alittle bit on protein, going to
the higher ranges, like, it'snot necessarily because, like
this, middle-aged person withvery little muscle mass needs
(04:56):
one gram of protein per pound ofbody weight, but what it does
do, it's not hurting them to eatthat, but it also, a keeps them
feeling full, because proteintakes a second to chew and
swallow.
But then B, because of whatEthan said, the thermogenic
effect.
It means that, like I, canincrease the amount of calories
your body's burning throughdigestion by over-indexing a
(05:18):
little bit on protein.
So you're feeling more full,you have ample supplies of
proteins to preserve muscletissue as we're trying to lose
fat.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
but then also it's okay if we over index a little
bit, because it burns 30 ofitself through digestion anyways
yeah, it's kind of like anegative calorie that's built in
a little hack a little bit yeahin a sense and I don't want you
know, I wouldn't, I wouldn'tthink about it that way but it's
kind of like a backdoor kind ofsituation totally, if you've
ever heard of how celeryapparently creates negative
calories because it has nocalories, but it's so fibrous in
(05:47):
order to digest it and dealwith it.
You actually are in the red, soto speak and yeah, and as
justin said, it helps maintainyour lean muscle mass if you're
in a deficit satiate you in factyou know this isn't what the
episode's meant to be on, butwhile we're talking about
maintaining muscle tissue on adeficit, that's kind of the.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
The downside of like semaglutides is for sure it
makes people lose weight, butthe problem is in the way that
makes you lose weight, is itslows your digestion, it mutes
your appetite.
Other things happen too, butgenerally that's how it goes.
And the problem is is thatbecause protein is such a
difficult macronutrient to eatfor anybody anyways, large
portions of yeah, sufficientamounts of, to actually maintain
(06:27):
significant muscle tissue whenyour appetite's like bleh, when
you do eat, you're not reallygoing to be hammering down eight
ounces of chicken breast.
Yeah, you eat a half pound ofsome animal.
It's not going to go down,You're going to be like going
for something that's a littlebit more palatable.
(06:48):
Like soup.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Yeah, something that's lighter.
And if you also think about howprotein is very satiating
because it is harder to digestall things considered and you
also have a slower gastricemptying, it's going to just sit
like a ball of cement in yourstomach.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
It might make you feel indigestion.
It's going to contribute toindigestion.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
It's going to contribute to any of those
potential side effects comingfrom the semi-glutide.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
And then you're probably less likely to eat even
more.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah it's because it's going to satiate you so
much yeah, that you're justgoing to have more, so that you
know it's one of those thingsthat the people that are on the
semi-glutide just have a veryhard time eating enough, and
because they're just not eatingenough and because he's not
eating enough to even eat enoughprotein is very very difficult,
and then they end up losingsubstantially more amount of
lean mass yeah from their totalweight like a good ratio.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Let's say we lost 20 pounds.
15 16 of it's from fat, four orfive is from muscle.
That's like a typical ratiowith someone who's losing fat
through diet and exercise right,but now someone who loses 20
pounds on a some-glute diet.
It's more like a 50 50 ratio.
So you lost 10 pounds of fatand 10 pounds of muscle.
And now listen, if we are justmorbidly obese, that's fine.
(07:52):
Just getting aggregate weightdown in general is the win yeah,
the 50% of fat leaving is yeah,I have a better chance of doing
good things and but for thoseof us who just have like
anything, probably like under 40pounds of body fat they want to
lose, which means you'reprobably still in the realm of
some normalcy.
You just maybe aren't stokedabout the way you look, but you
could probably do a veryefficient job through just diet
(08:14):
and exercise Then I wouldstrongly advise you consider
what we just said aboutsemiglutides as far as how much
muscle mass you lose, but that'skind of besides the point, but
it is sort of, I think, relevantin the sense of why protein is
so important.
And when we're dieting,especially because we are in a
catabolic state, our body wantsto just catabolize tissue.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
It wants to incinerate everything.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, but if we can manipulate that via high levels
of protein and resistancetraining.
So we're signaling to our bodyyes, we are eating less calories
than our, than we are burning,but through our activities of
eating protein and weighttraining, we want to maintain
that muscle tissue as well as wecan while we lose weight, so we
look better, we feel better,we're stronger and it's just a
(08:57):
better outcome in general.
Which is why protein is soimportant, whether we're losing
weight or whether we're tryingto put on weight, for obvious
reasons, if we're trying to gainmuscle, then you know, you know
it's a no-brainer, we got toeat enough protein.
But, believe it or not, whenwe're losing weight, we actually
want to like.
If we're like hypocaloricmeaning we're just we're eating
in a calorie surplus it'sactually okay to eat on the
(09:18):
lower end of the proteinrequirements of like.
So 0.7 to 1 gram per pound ofbody weight is the range
everyone pretty much typicallyrecommends.
If you're like eating in a 500calorie surplus with the
intention, it's actually okay tobe on the lower end of that
because you're in a caloriesurplus.
Your body's not catabolic,you're anabolic.
You're putting on size andweight adding, you're not.
Yeah, your body kind of wantsfor nothing.
(09:40):
So but if we're dieting andwe're, let's say, we're in a 500
calorie deficit, it's actuallymuch more beneficial to be on
the higher end of that range,like one gram, because of all
the reasons we just saidpreserving muscle tissue,
feeling satiated, thermogeneticeffect of protein, yada, yada,
yeah right 100 so yeah, andjustin just mentioned it.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Just for the requirements, it's generally the
agreed is 0.7 to one pound, Ifyou're doing, or one gram to one
pound if you're doing the onegram to one pound.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
You can generally look at it, though, as your goal
weight you know, if you're 300pounds and it's not, you're not
going to eat 300 grams.
It's ridiculous, you know.
So if you're 200 pounds.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
You want to be 185,.
You could look to be 185 gramsand do it by 0.7.
I do think there is actuallyeven like the minimum is 0.7 per
goal weight to even have enoughto create the potential for
muscle gain.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
I think to keep the nitrogen balance in our body,
it's 0.5 grams, but the goalisn't to just maintain it the
goal is to like be above thatthreshold, which is where the
0.7 came from.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
A little extra slack in the rope.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Right, right, right.
A little cushion in there.
So that's your general overviewof just sort of like why we
want to eat protein, why it'sgood for us, how much we should
be eating.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, and one thing I'll also say real quick too is
that there's probably lots ofdiscussion, but fundamentally
there's not going to really be adifference of where your source
of protein comes from.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, I tend to agree as well.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
You know you could split some hairs and talk about
plant sources versus animalsources and potential like
bioavailability and efficiencyand things like that, but push
come to shove.
I think that lose the forestand the trees and that kind of a
conversation, and so those thatare curious, it doesn't really
matter.
Now, obviously, animal productsare going to be a more
concentrated source of proteinversus, you know, having more
(11:19):
carbs or fat along with them,like in tofu or something.
So generally, animal productsdo make it it easier, but if
you're eating beans and lentilsand whatever else to get your
protein, that's totally fine.
It just tends to be a littleless concentrated.
So why animal products aretends to be looked at, but your
options are limited.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
The protein molecules tend to be a little bit more
bound in fiber and plant things.
Not all plant sources are thecomplete amino acid profile of
all nine, so not to say that anyof that's a deal breaker.
You just got to be a littlemore conscientious where, like,
if you're doing like anincomplete protein like a tofu,
then you might want to combinethat with like another
(11:57):
incomplete protein like a beanor a rice, so that way, as it's
mixing around your stomach anddigesting, you do accomplish and
check the boxes of eating allnine amino acids which create
like a complete protein andanimal products.
We're not like we don't reallycare.
Like, honestly, if plantproteins were more bioavailable
(12:18):
and had the full amino acidprofile, like I think we would
all just be fine with eatingthat too.
It just so happens that, likeanimal products, animal proteins
have all all nine amino acids.
You don't have to think hardabout it.
But if you are like adegenerative vegan, plenty of
ways to do it.
There's tons of powders thatmake sure they have all nine of
them, like you can I know?
Speaker 2 (12:35):
it's not that hard, it's just more like that, just
in case people are curious,plenty of jacked uh vegans out
there.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
but wherever you fall on that spectrum like, there
are options.
But yeah, the most importantthing is like don't overthink it
, just hit the number and beconsistent and you'll be fine.
So now speaking of which, howdo we hit those numbers Exactly?
Speaker 2 (12:52):
The numbers.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
It's been like a little hobby of mine, like a fun
little pastime recently of justlike loser protein grams of
deliciousness no, but it is trueit is I think is the cliche is
everybody thinks about just likea plain shitty chicken yeah I
actually.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
You know, if you do a chicken breast right, it's
pretty good, but it is also ahigher chance of not being good
and break away from the cliches,in a sense, as well, yeah, but
you know, for most folks, though, it's like you, yeah, like they
don't.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
We're trying to like get people who are like just
snacking and eating like 30 or40 grams of protein a day, like
literally full grown men barelygetting as much protein as we
would get in a single meal, howdo we like just what's the very
next step?
That's kind of the idea is like, how do we make it good enough
where it's like, okay, fine, Ican do this trade off and so,
like, one of my favorites isthose Quest chips.
(13:44):
Man, they're so fucking good.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I just find them to be so satisfying.
Yeah, so just say they're aprotein chip, that I believe
they're made out of like a waycrisps.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Either way, chris yeah, they basically.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
You know they really satisfy the one for a chip, but
there's 20 grams of protein in abag.
You know they have some fatalong with them, like a regular
chip would.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
But you know, if you're gonna eat a bag of chips
you might as well slam dude,it's 20 grams of protein for
like 140 calories, I think likea regular, you know normal size
on the calories.
Yeah 140, dude.
Yeah, and like I think like aregular bag of doritos would be
at least a couple hundred andthey're 100 350, I mean it's for
a little bag not, maybe not thelittle bag, but like 250 I mean
like a comparable bag ofdoritos would be?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
would be at least double.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah, I mean those like yeah, big personal bag is
like 470 man dude.
It's insane and like two gramsof protein, you know.
And so literally, like for methe nacho cheese flavored or the
taco flavored or the you knowwhatever, it's almost as good as
the real thing, like I mean thereal thing, like a dorito or
something.
It's like 90 of the way.
They're totally fine with me.
(14:42):
But like it's so delicious andlike what's cool about is you
can make fun stuff like I madenachos with it where it was like
some black beans, some groundbeef, low-fat cheese, but like
the base of it was, those waslike the nacho cheese.
Questions the questions and itwas like 70 grams of protein,
right and I'm sitting there withlike nachos and you know it was
like none.
(15:03):
You know those are the hackslike that's how we do it to have
this like experience of like.
Oh, this feels like I'mcheating yeah, this is.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
This is super delicious.
I mean, it's another one.
I've heard of the quest chipsfor like a breading oh, that's a
good idea like you crush upyour quest chips and then you
coat whatever it is, and thenyou air fry it and you get this
like crispy texture, littlesituation.
I like that idea.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yeah, yeah, that's another one so like right there
there, you know, like for someof you out there who are like
but I just love crunchy chips,it's like I get it.
But you also want, you know,more muscle and less body fat
and to feel good and like, haveless regrets in your life.
So, like what we just saidright there, like the quest
chips by themselves or in anacho dish or as breading, it's
like find ways, find littleinroads to get 20 extra grams
(15:46):
here and there.
And like by the end of the day,like the average person is
eating 50 grams protein, theaverage person probably needs
more, like 150.
Like, that's how we do it,that's it.
That's the game.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Same way we've talked about in the past like little
caloric restrictions, likelow-fat sour cream, low-fat
cheese it's the same thing.
I'm just like finding littleways to introduce protein into
things.
Same thing.
I'm just like finding littleways to introduce protein into
thing.
I mean, one thing I'll say in acliche sense is to just find a
protein powder that you can atleast participate with.
At least look the other way ifit's that bad.
There are so many out there,ranging from vegetarian to
lactose-free way to concentrates, minimal ingredients, birthday
(16:20):
rainbow skittle, blueberry,birthday cake yeah, you can go.
I mean, they have clearproteins.
If you don't like them thick,they have like frozen, like like
italian ice lemon likerefreshing kind of non-thick,
non-creamy proteins.
You can make them into frozendesserts.
So there's really there's somany options and I know not all
of them are great.
It might take some trial anderror, but like there's just,
(16:41):
they're just such a helpful toolso easy to just throw a scoop
in do the job.
There's no bullshit.
They don't spike your bloodsugar.
All the things against whey arepretty much nonsense.
It's a whole food Totally.
It's a byproduct of cheesemaking.
I've seen commercials be likedid you know whey protein is a
byproduct of cheese.
And it's like okay, yeah.
And trying to paint it in thisnegative light, so I just really
(17:01):
recommend it again.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Just like muscle mass is a byproduct of eating
protein.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yeah, because really it just.
It is such a bang for your buckof protein to calories that is
so accessible, even if you'rejust putting it in water.
Relatively inexpensive.
And then you can put it inthings to make other things just
have protein in them and likeagain I will say it takes trial
and error, like I've been usingthis.
Brand Levels it's a minimalingredient list, just like
(17:25):
natural flavor, nothing crazy.
Brand levels it's a minimalingredient list, just like
natural flavor, nothing crazy.
And I normally get vanillacinnamon and strawberry.
Like I can put vanilla cinnamonin a bunch of things, I can put
strawberry in a bunch of thingsI don't.
I don't mind drinking them bythemselves, and lately I've been
like taking frozen berries,just like a half cup or less,
and blending them and putting itwith the strawberry and it
tastes like a creamy, like berrymilkshake, totally so delicious
.
I guarantee 99 of people wouldat least enjoy it enough to
(17:47):
drink it.
Yeah, now I recently wanted tostart getting into some dirty
desserts, which we'll talk aboutlater, and so I got their
double chocolate and it's prettygood, kind of has like a little
grittier texture.
So I'm like, yeah, but it kindof tastes like a nest quick
hershey kind of thing totallydelicious.
I also got their chocolatepeanut butter because I wanted
to try that and I got the smalltub of these.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
I got two small tubs of those because I plan on
making desserts, five already,though no, I don't have the
vanilla cinnamon.
I've only been doing strawberryokay, but the thing about it is
the chocolate peanut butter wastrash, it was just gross like I
just don't want it.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
I have a small three pounds.
This is gross, and so Iunderstand that, even within a
certain brand or company, butreally just find a protein
powder that works yeah, yeahthere's no excuse and like one
of the things as an example islike overnight oats, I think
this is a great food in general.
Take some almond milk or sometype of milk, especially if
you're in a hurry.
Yeah, in the morning you putsome frozen berries and you can
(18:36):
put some cheeses if you want andif you just put some protein
powder in there, mix it up,maybe some greek yogurt, another
like a no fat greek yogurt.
You can just create a very easyon the go, eat it cold.
You can just drink it out of amason jar if you wanted to, and
easily just put as much proteinas you want in there.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Totally.
I mean, that's what I did andit came out to about 500
calories.
A serving about 40, 45 grams,but it was, you know, half a
tablespoon of chia seeds, 45grams of oats, scoop of protein
and then probably four or fiveounces of vanilla greek yogurt
stirred it up, oh, and like ahandful of blueberries stirred
(19:12):
up pro tip.
So what you want to do is youwant to get a six pack of of
little 16 ounce mason jars andyou just literally go conveyor
belt, just like the same servingin each one oats, chia seeds,
protein powder, yogurt, berries.
Mix them up or then, like, puta soy milk or something in there
.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
That's like an extra, yeah, like an extra few grams.
Bring in more protein too, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Stir them up, put in the fridge, boom, you've got
easy, convenient, delicious,high protein breakfast every
single morning, just done, andfor a lot of people that could
be like anywhere from a third tohalf of your day's worth of
protein right there in one meal,you know.
So you can see where this isgoing, guys.
Where it's like, let's just sayyou did that scenario where, if
(19:51):
nothing else, you just did theovernight oats with the protein
powder, yogurt, chia seeds andoatmeal and berries.
Okay, five ingredients takesyou 30 seconds and you got six
days worth of breakfast to do so.
Let's say you did that andthat's about 50 grams of protein
.
And then you did, like a questchips as an afternoon snack.
So now we're at 70 grams ofprotein.
And then let's just say forlunch and dinner you have like a
normal, you know, protein, carb, veggie combo, nothing crazy.
(20:13):
Two, three three, four ounces ofprotein in each one, you have
to go crazy.
You're at 120 130 grams ofprotein for the day, and male or
female.
If we're just getting the ballrolling, those like that alone
getting you over that hundredgrams of protein threshold each
day is gonna, over time,dramatically improve the
composition of your body, andeverything we just mentioned
(20:34):
could be done in like I don'tknow a second, like a minute,
like honestly it's not crazy.
And then like well.
So now, in the spirit ofvariety, another thing that I
like to do is I like to getlow-fat cheese.
I, I think low fat cheese.
If you're not lactose intolerant, this is a huge hack because
it's delicious, which isimportant.
Palatability is so important.
If it's not good, I don't carehow healthy it is, people just
(20:56):
aren't gonna do it.
So low fat cheese is killer,dude.
Whether it's just like threelow fat string cheeses that you
can hammer down, it's 20 gramsright there.
Or I've been getting thelow-fat cheddar cheese slices
eight grams of protein per slice, only 80 calories, so great
protein to calorie ratio.
Put four slices of that in aezekiel wrap, put it in the
microwave for one minute andyou've got like a cheesy
(21:18):
tortilla with 45 grams ofprotein and like and like 280
calories yeah, it's insane,insane yeah, right, or protein
to calorie ratios.
On point so they're.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
You could use a carb savvy tortilla, which really
tastes great.
Get a bunch of fiber, bringyour calories down and, like you
know what we were talking aboutearlier, it's like you can even
then just get like go to traderjoe's, get some of the pre-made
chili lime chicken breasts.
You know no labor tastes goodthrow it in.
There you have like a cheesychicken wrapped on the go, you
know, rocking in over 50 gramsof protein, minimal calories.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Get some hot sauce on there so here's, here's a
sample day for you guys.
Overnight oats, what we justdescribed in there for breakfast
, yogurt, protein, chia seeds,oatmeal berries boom, that's
your breakfast.
That's 40 grams, 40 to 50 grams.
And then let's say for lunch,we do.
Let's just say you're like thelast thing you want to do is
cook, so you, just, you makethat tortilla that I just
described, where it's fourslices of low-fat cheddar cheese
(22:13):
.
You get at trader joe's maybethree ounces of the pre-cooked
chili lime chicken breast,trader joe's, wrapped up in an
ezekiel tortilla.
Four or five hundred calories,probably.
60 grams of protein boom, we'reat 100 grams already.
And it's only noon, yeah.
And then afternoon snack, let'ssay we have like an apple and a
bag of the quest chips, yeah,so now we're at 120 grams of
protein by afternoon.
And then dinner, let's just sayI don't know you do more of the
(22:37):
pre-cooked chicken breast orany sort of pre-cooked meat at
twitter joe's and some frozenrice and a veggie and now we're
at like literally 150, 160 gramsof protein.
It required virtually zerocooking, maybe maybe three
minutes yeah, I'll just sayeverything all in is like less
less than 10 ingredients for theentire thing and relatively
affordable.
(22:57):
And that could be an entire day.
A couple thousand calories, 150grams of protein and for 80% of
us out there, if you just didsome version of that every day
and you trained, you're going tobe looking pretty fucking good.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Yeah, I mean, that's it, that's just kind of it just
showing that to that every dayyeah and it's it's the thing of
as you do it, longer you'll, youknow you'll start to find ways,
like I'm in the place now whereI definitely realize that
finding out how to make foodsthat satisfy me and meet what
I'm looking for and have thatmiddle ground is really the way.
(23:29):
It's the long-term way.
Like at first you might be cool, just like bare boning it and
just keeping it super dupersimple, but year after year you
start to realize that you wantto be able to.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
You want to enjoy your food a little bit, right, I
think it's like if you just, ifyou just take a little time.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
So one of the other thing is that like I'm being
bombarded with desserts likehigh protein desserts, desserts,
you know, and they're eitherusing blended blended cottage
cheese no fat, greek yogurt andor protein powder as an addition
.
And then I'm seeing all thesehacks.
Those can be bases.
So it's like one egg, zero fatGreek yogurt, cottage cheese,
cacao powder or some other typeof seasoning and then that's
(24:06):
like an easy cheesecake that'shigh protein, you know kind of a
thing.
You can use a little fat creamcheese if you wanted to really
make it more like a traditionalcheesecake and then like things
like chickpeas and pumpkin puree.
So I really just made a trufflethat was like chickpea.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
I didn't put protein powder in this one because I
just wanted to taste it withoutChickpeas and a truffle yeah,
dude.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So it's like chickpeas dates like a few
medjool dates, but you just puta few in you know and you could
always use like stevia or monkfruit, if you wanted to go down
that road, and cacao powder andyou literally just those three
ingredients like a little saltand you just blend it and it
becomes like super smooth.
And then I just got some darkchocolate and melted that and
like, coated the balls in thedark chocolate and put them in
the freezer fridge.
(24:43):
It's super delicious.
You know they were about.
They were a pretty big ball, Iknow, not bad, it wasn't the
greatest, but it was still muchcleaner in terms of ingredient
list, definitely lower calories,super, super satisfying.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
And if I'd added protein powder in there it would
have racked up the protein, andso I'm kind of in this phase
right now, starting to exploreand just seeing what's good
Cause I've been craving dessertsso much.
My sweet tooth is back, I thinkcause I'm in a caloric deficit
right now.
That's pretty strong.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Oh yeah, you're craving it.
Yeah, especially at night.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I just like it's kind of like that de-stress, want a
sweet treat kind of thing, andso I'm in that phase.
But like, another good exampleis, I had this craving for
burgers the other day and I justdidn't go get them, and it was
fine.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
I just had a protein shake instead.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I just suffered, no but I was actually at Trader
Joe's and they have these likecaramelized onion and pepper
turkey burgers and so I lookedat them and they're great.
They're super low fat.
I think they have like 22 gramsof protein, or 20 grams of
protein, let's just say 22.
Yeah, probably In there, and soI made myself.
I got some mayo on there,ketchup, lettuce, tomato, onion.
(25:51):
I didn't do any cheese becauseI didn't have any when I got
home and I was able to make twoof those burgers for like 50
grams of protein total and under500 calories right, you know,
there's no sides, but likefundamentally, it's like, with
all the the onions and tomatoand everything on there, super
satisfying.
I still had the mayo stillcreamy and it was just like
completely satisfied, my one fora burger and I get to eat it at
(26:12):
home.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
I actually had it last night, it was great, and so
just like things like that Ithink that, like the game is
like middle we are, we we haveto start thinking about like a
protein to calorie ratio.
And what you just described waslike okay, I know I want like
the 800 calorie triplecheeseburger from hi-ho, yeah,
but you know I don't want towake up tomorrow and feel like I
(26:33):
got hit in the face of thefrying pan because I'm all puffy
and, like you know, inflamedfor all the sodium and fat and
heavier.
But if I make the substitute oflike a turkey burger in here
that you just exam, that youjust gave an example of, it's
like is it as delicious?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
no, but it's almost there it's 80 of the way there.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
It's very satisfying, for sure, surprise, but like
half the calories, double theprotein, and it's just always
like what's the next bestdecision I can make that isn't
aligned with my, my long-termgoals, not what I want right now
, but what I want most, and it'slike okay.
So instead of a bag of doritos,I go for the quest chips.
Instead of full fat cheese, Igo for low fat cheese.
(27:12):
You know um, instead of regularvanilla ice cream, at the end
of the night I'm going to go forthe like halo top protein ice
cream.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah, you do the 96.
Yeah, you 9% lean ground beef.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Lean ground beef instead of the 85.
And it's like these choicesseem inconsequential in
isolation, but I promise you,over the course of your week,
you are doubling your proteinand you are cutting your
calories in half.
And, my friends, if there'sever any sort of high level
advice, that's it right there.
Cut your calories down andincrease your protein and just
keep keep working for that.
(27:45):
Protein to calorie ratio higherthe protein, lower the calories
.
Every meal.
How can I optimize?
How can I optimize?
What substitutes can I make?
Yep, and then you know, startto optimize for taste as you get
more experience.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
But like man and so Dale, going down this rabbit
hole you know you have tons ofinfluencers on social media Like
you pop the bubble and you'rejust getting blasted with like
here's this recipe here, likeeverything we're talking about,
here's this dessert, here's thisrecipe.
I this recipe.
I found this one chick.
I forgot her name off the topof my head, but her recipes are
amazing.
She bounces between sweet andsavory and just breaks it down.
(28:16):
And you know, I think you'd justbe surprised with how many like
little knickknack things thereare to do to make things
delicious and like this one Ihaven't done yet that I have to
do, and she does it with chickenand shrimp and she basically
gets like a like what would belike a sushi nori, like a like a
seaweed square yeah and shejust cooks rice and she just
smashes the rice down, likecreates like a thin layer on the
(28:36):
seaweed and then makes it intolike a taco shape and puts it in
the air fryer oh, that's good.
And like basically makes it likesuper crunchy, super crispy,
and then we'll just like throwshrimp in there.
And then makes like a chipotlesauce out of like greek yogurt
as the base and flavors it andbasically makes these kind of
like saucy protein filled thingssuper low calorie.
You know, the primary thing, Imean the rice and is the only
(29:00):
carbohydrate and you can makejust like a thin little layer
and they just look so good and Iwas like wow, that's such a
great idea.
I haven't heard it's so easyrice cooker who doesn't like
crispy rice?
Yeah, and with like some shrimpand sauce on it.
It sounds amazing yeah, so Ijust think it's like when you
start thinking outside of thebox versus just like the plain
chicken breast on the plate andtanya and I totally and like and
like, also like, take libertyto modifying recipes.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
So the first version of this is assuming you don't
like to cook and you just wantto, like, you know, simplify
your life.
But maybe you do like to cook,that's cool, like what you just
described.
Like.
Look at the ingredients, tanyaand I do this all the time.
Oh, it calls for fourtablespoons of olive oil.
Let's see what happens if wemake it with.
Two turns out it's great, yeah,you know like.
Oh, it calls for this cut ofmeat that's notoriously very
(29:42):
fatty.
Well, let's see if we went withthis cut of meat that's a
little bit leaner.
That same cuts maybe a grassfed or pasture raised.
So it's just a leaner cup.
Same same type of meat and youcut the calories down, increase
the protein.
Cut the calories down, increaseprotein.
Like that's the game that we'reall trying to play.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
If we're, if you're, interested in things like you
know, more muscle, less body fatyeah, I mean in baking I think
it's like a common thing thatyou can substitute oil for
applesauce and, like I said, Ijust recently saw another recipe
that was like an applesaucebase, like this applesauce
brownie, that was like cacaopowder and applesauce and like
something else, and they're likeI don't really taste the apple
at all and it's the same withlike the chickpea one like you
can kind of tell that it wasn'tlike purely indulgent cream for
(30:19):
the truffle but it wasn't like Iate it and I was like that's
chickpea like.
I would not have been able toname chickpea if someone gave
that to me, yeah you know.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
So it's to require you listeners to start doing
your own googling and researchor just talking to your phone,
and you'll get fed on instagram,even though they swear they're
not listening.
But this is the game, and I keepcoming back to this point.
But like you're not going tofind anybody who's been able to
(30:46):
like, maintain it or sustainthat hey, their macronutrient
targets, keeping their caloriesdown, still enjoying the foods
they eat that hasn't exploredand developed this repertoire of
high protein, low calorie,highly tasty, palatable stuff.
So get your, get your.
You know eight to twelve thingsyou can make, like we just
(31:06):
described on rotation, and youknow, continue to tweak and
iterate, but like this is thisis it, and the better you get at
this and the sooner we can geton board with it and faster you
know, continue to tweak anditerate, but like this is it,
and the better you get at thisand the sooner we can get on
board with it and faster you'regonna be starting to see those
results.
And, by the way, in themeantime, you'll be like this
isn't so bad.
Actually, I think I can seemyself doing this indefinitely
and that's the game, that's thewhole point.
So okay, guys, that was episode64 of Coach's Corner.
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