Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the
Simplicity of Wellness podcast.
I'm your host, board-certifiedholistic nutritionist and
professional life coach, amyWhite.
The purpose of this podcast isto share information that you
can use to become leaner,stronger and healthier by losing
weight, shedding inches,maintaining muscle and managing
(00:21):
your mind, all while living yournormal busy life in this modern
, sugar-filled world.
Hello, simplifiers, today Iwant to talk about protein, more
specifically, how to improveweight loss using the right
amount of daily protein.
As a listener of this podcast,I suspect that you are a smart,
(00:44):
independent woman who doesn'twaste time waiting for someone
else to give you what you want.
You decide what you want andthen you figure out how to get
it.
This is the type of woman whoreaches out to me for weight
loss and health coaching.
My clients know strong trumpsskinny and that healthy, lasting
weight loss is a real thing,but what they struggle with is
(01:05):
what exactly is healthy weightloss?
The one area where women arebeginning to realize they're
stuck is with dieting.
My clients get it.
They know that in order tomaintain their independence and
enjoy living life the way theywant to live it, especially as
they age, they have to havemuscle and strength.
Old, outdated dietingprinciples are hyper-focused on
(01:27):
calories and trying to forceweight loss by cutting those
calories so low that you feelhungry, cranky and weak from
lack of energy.
Dieting principles that ensureyou'll gain all of your weight
back that's not healthy weightloss.
That's not the type of weightloss that my clients or you
should want or settle for.
(01:47):
Yes, calories matter when itcomes to weight loss, but if you
want to lose weight in ahealthy way, so that the weight
doesn't just pile back on, thenit's time to focus on where your
calories are coming from.
You want to lose weight feelinggood, full, satisfied and with
lots of daytime energy.
All of the calories that enteryour body come from a mix of
(02:09):
protein, fat and carbohydrates.
Think of protein as freecalories.
This is very simplistic, butlet's just go with this.
Proteins have a lot of jobs inthe body, so the calories that
come from protein in most casesget used rather than stored.
Fats and carbohydrate caloriesare used as fuel to produce
(02:30):
energy within the body.
Your body will use what itneeds and then, if there's extra
, it will store the extra as fat.
Most people eat beyond theirenergy needs and this causes
weight gain.
When the calories you eat comefrom mostly carbs and fats, it
makes it easy to gain weight andalso difficult to lose weight.
So how, as a smart, independentwoman who wants to lose weight
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in a healthy way, do you eatenough to maintain your muscle
and strength while also reducingyour incoming calories enough
to shed the extra weight?
You prioritize protein overcarbs and fats.
You see this all over socialmedia as setting a daily protein
goal by counting the grams ofproteins you eat in a day.
(03:13):
Up until recently, this isexactly what I've helped my
clients do target a dailyprotein goal in grams.
There's nothing wrong with thisapproach, but I have found that
many of my clients struggle tohit their daily protein goal.
The current health-forward ruleof thumb for protein is to eat
your ideal weight in grams ofprotein.
If you weigh 200 pounds and youbelieve your ideal healthy,
(03:36):
strong weight is 150 pounds, youshould be targeting 150 grams
of protein a day.
Sounds simple until you try it.
I have found that even a targetof 130 grams a day is hard for
many of my clients to hitconsistently.
I do believe there's a betterway, and that's what we're going
to get into in this podcast.
It's likely that the averageAmerican woman only gets about
(04:00):
50 grams of protein a day.
I'll explain how I got to thisnumber shortly.
When you tell someone who onlyeats 50 grams of protein a day
I'll explain how I got to thisnumber shortly when you tell
someone who only eats 50 gramsof protein normally that they
should be getting 130 or moregrams of protein in a day, they
totally check out because thatseems absurd to them, totally
unrealistic.
The better way, instead of adaily protein goal in grams,
(04:23):
what I'm now encouraging myclients to do, is look at the
percent of their calories thatare coming from protein.
If weight loss is a goal, I'masking my clients to shoot for
40% of their daily calories tocome from protein.
Based on the research done byMarty Kendall, 40% appears to be
(04:44):
the sweet spot for weight loss.
Now, just a minute ago, Isuggested that the average
American woman is likely onlygetting about 50 grams of
protein a day.
I said this because 14% ofcalories from protein is the
American average.
This is the food bliss point,the point at which our taste
buds, brain and the cells of ourbody are all happy If the
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average American woman is tryingto lose weight and she's eating
1300 calories a day which, bythe way, I think is generous.
I think most women, when tryingto lose weight, drop their
calories much lower than that.
If she's eating 1300 calories aday and only 14% of those
calories are coming from protein, that's 182 calories.
(05:29):
Of those 1300 calories comingfrom protein, there are
approximately four calories pergram of protein.
If we divide 182 calories byfour, we will get 45.5 grams of
protein.
So my estimate of the averageAmerican woman getting 50 grams
of protein a day was actually alittle bit high.
(05:51):
She's probably getting a littlebit less than that.
This food bliss point of 14% ofcalories from protein helped us
evolve as humans.
It helped our ancestors findfood that had a lot of energy so
that they could store theexcess and stay alive when food
was scarce.
In our modern food world, thisbliss point sets us up for
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maximum fat gain because food isnow very plentiful.
This bliss point the point atwhich we overeat food is the
point when all of our bodysystems taste, pleasure and
nutrients converge.
The food is super tasty, so ourtaste buds love it.
The food has enough fat andcarbs to create that pleasure
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dopamine response in the brain,so the brain loves it, and
there's just enough protein tokeep the cells interested,
realizing that there's a hint ofthe nutrients they need to
function properly.
So they want more.
The bliss point is the point ofmaximum fat gain.
As humans, we will overeatcalories in an attempt to get
the protein that carries thenutrients that our cells are
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looking for.
The cells sense the protein,but it's not nearly enough, so
they increase our appetite toencourage more food intake.
Our taste buds and brain areall in because of the pleasure
response.
This food bliss point is whatfood manufacturers successfully
achieve with all of thosepackaged foods we love.
Again, this bliss point is when86% or more of the calories you
(07:21):
eat are coming from acombination of carbs and fats,
leaving 14% or less of thosecalories coming from protein.
People who get 60% of theircalories from protein eat
approximately 56 percent lessfood in a day, compared to the
people who only get 14 percentof their calories from protein.
(07:44):
Can you see how this helps withweight loss?
You eat less food.
Trying to maintain 50 to 60percent of your calories from
protein consistently isdifficult because your overall
energy intake from carbs andfats goes way down.
Now you're running into theage-old weight loss problem of
feeling cranky, exhausted andcraving carbs and fats.
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This is why getting 40% of yourcalories from protein is the
sweet spot for weight loss.
When 40% of your calories comefrom protein, the research shows
that you eat about 50% lessthan what you would eat if only
getting 14% of your caloriesfrom protein.
You'll also notice that you'renot cranky, tired or craving
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carbs and fats.
When consuming 40% of yourcalories as protein and 60% as a
combination of carbs and fats,you give the cells everything
they need to function properly.
In return, because your cellshave the energy and the
nutrients they need, they tellyour body to turn your appetite
down.
Protein, as 40% of yourcalories, calms your appetite,
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curbs your cravings and causesyou to eat less without feeling
hungry, deprived or weak fromlack of energy.
This is healthy weight loss.
This is how you create acalorie deficit that still
allows your body to geteverything it needs, without
causing excessive hunger,deprivation, muscle breakdown or
(09:12):
lack of energy, so you can stayalert and engaged in your day.
The two big reasons I'mswitching my clients away from a
daily protein goal in grams toa percent of calories from
protein are number one it makesit easier to stick to the number
one weight loss rule Don't eatif you aren't hungry.
(09:32):
When tracking protein grams asa daily goal, it's very common
to feel that you have to hityour goal by the end of the day.
This means if you haven't hitthat magic number and you're not
hungry, you'll likely eatanyway to get those extra grams
of protein.
When percent of calories fromprotein is your goal, you can
(09:52):
achieve that goal when you havea big appetite, and when you
have a very small appetite, yourappetite will ebb and flow.
This is normal On a lowappetite day.
Instead of trying to eat morethan your body needs, make sure
what you do eat comes from foodthat gives you approximately 40%
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of your calories as protein.
Number two, when you focus onpercent of calories from protein
, you weed out the proteinsources that are calorically
expensive, meaning you eat lessof the proteins that are
actually making weight loss feelreally hard.
There is protein in many foods,but they're not all good options
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for weight loss.
Many common go-to proteins areweight loss saboteurs because
they have more fat and carbsthan protein.
An example of this is peanutbutter.
Only 16% of the calories youget eating peanut butter come
from protein.
This is only slightly higherthan that bliss point of 14% and
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way off from the weight losssweet spot of 40%.
Once again, the typicalAmerican gets about 14% or less
of their calories from protein.
The typical American isoverweight.
I'm sure this sounds greatbecause it is great, but you're
probably wondering how you canuse this in your life.
(11:16):
First, the best way to trulygrasp what's going on with your
calories is to track your food.
When you track in a foodtracker like carb manager or my
fitness pal or chronometer,you'll see how your proteins,
fats and carbs break down in aday.
You should be able to see theindividual grams for each, as
well as how your percent ofcalories break out.
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If you're at the store and wantto know percent of calories
from protein on anything with anutrition label, do this.
Look at the grams of protein.
Add a zero to that number.
Now look at the total caloriesper serving.
If the grams of protein withthe added zero is the same
number as the calories perserving, then 40% of the
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calories from that food will befrom protein.
If the protein grams with theadded zero is greater than the
calories per serving, you knowthat more than 40 percent of
your calories will be comingfrom protein.
Both of these would beexcellent protein sources.
If the protein number, withthat added zero, is lower than
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the number of calories perserving, then you'll be getting
less than 40% of the caloriesfrom protein.
Here's something that is supersimple when you eat whole food
proteins like ground beef,ground turkey, steak, pork, fish
, shrimp and other lean meatsyou'll be getting 40% or more of
the calories from those foodsas protein.
(12:43):
If you don't want to track yourfood, the simplest thing to do
is make sure that you have avery simple protein source on
your plate, something that youcan identify.
You know what it is it's asteak, it's a burger, it's fish,
whatever it is.
That's the primary thing onyour plate.
From there, you add somenon-starchy vegetables and maybe
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you'd use a little bit of oliveoil or butter to make that food
super tasty.
That will be a high proteinmeal.
That meal will be 40% or moreof your calories from protein.
But I still think the bestthing you can do is actually
track your food in a foodtracker.
It just makes this so simple.
You can actually see how yourmeals individually are breaking
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down when it comes to percent ofcalories, but you can also see
the entire day and then fromthere you can start looking at
what your average is over a week.
And that's really where themagic is.
It's that averaging Because,like I said, your appetite will
ebb and flow, so some daysyou're going to eat a lot less
and other days you're going toeat more.
So you really want to see whatis your average intake and what
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is your average percent ofcalories from protein.
I'm hosting a free masterclassthis coming Friday, october 25th
, at 11 am Pacific time on howto feel great and lose weight
during the holidays.
One of the topics we'll coveris how to properly use protein
for consistent weight loss.
Click the registration link inthe show notes to register.
(14:11):
I will record the live class.
So, even if you can't make itlive, as long as you've
registered, you'll be on thelist to receive the recording.
Invite your friends and familyand anyone else who's going to
be around you a lot during theholidays, because you're in this
together.
Support each other, beaccountability buddies.
I do encourage you to come live.
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I will be taking questions aswe move through the class.
The more questions you have andask, the more you'll get out of
the masterclass.
I hope to see you this Fridayfor the live, but if not, I will
be back in the next podcastepisode.
Do you like the idea of eatingfor the body you want?
Is there a piece of you that'seager to learn how to become
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leaner, stronger and healthierwithout having to overhaul your
entire life?
If this is you, then you're inluck, because this is what I do.
I can help you reconnect andwork with your body so that you
can enjoy the body, comfort andconfidence you deserve, eating
foods you love.
Click the free consult link inthe show notes.
(15:14):
Let's talk about where you are,what you want and how you can
get there.