TN50#184_DO NOT Skip Your Protein Shake, Even If You Didn’t Earn It_16 December_2024
Hi Team,
Can you believe Christmas is in 9 days? I can’t. 2024 has been a ridiculous fast year for me – so far! And that seems to be the case for most people I talk to.
So I was talking to a client the other day, I’ll call her Beth, and Beth has been travelling and busy with Holiday activities. Beth mentioned she hadn’t been getting in all her workouts at the gym, so she has been skipping her protein shakes, as Beth put it, “I didn’t earn them”. I replied, “Beth! Those are the days you really need those protein shakes the most.”
Happy Monday and welcome to The Next 50 #184. I like to think of personal performance in 3 components: physical, mental and emotional. My framework focuses on 4 Buckets: Eat, Sleep, Move and Think. This blog is my sandbox for sharing information that you might find useful for your personal performance.
The next thing I told Beth was, “I need to write a quick blog about this”.
So first a little background on Beth. Based on her DXA scans, Beth doesn’t need to lose any weight, but she does need to gain muscle. Based on this fact alone my goal for Beth is for her to hit her “Protein Baseline” daily, and based on Beth’s normal eating habits this means she can’t skip her daily protein shake.
Next let’s define a “protein shake”. We’ll start by describing what it isn’t. It isn’t the 1.5-pound, 957 calorie concoction you get for $20 on the way out of your fitness club café, not that these aren’t delicious! It is a protein shake you make at home with high quality ingredients, especially the protein powder, that allows you to get around 40g’s or so of protein while keeping the overall calories down in the 200 to 250-ish range.
Here is an expanded version of the WHY I explained to Beth:
Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS) is basically what our body does to turn the protein we consume into new muscle mass in our body. We eat protein, our body breaks this protein down into amino acids, these new amino acids are taken up into the muscles of our musculoskeletal system to repair and build more muscle. Getting “swole” as my gym bros would say!
Muscle Protein Synthesis (MPS) has to be turned on (picture a light switch).
When we do manual labor or go to the gym for some fake manual labor, we create an environment where our muscles have less than optimal levels of amino acids, this deficit creates a pull for the amino acids that become available for the protein that we eat. Think of your muscles pulling that MPS “light switch” to “ON”.
When we don’t do enough manual labor or enough of a workout, we don’t create enough of an amino acid deficit to have our muscles “pull” the MPS switch to “ON”. In this case we have to consume enough protein to “push” the MPS switch to “ON”. Picture a little army of amino acids massing to push that light switch to “ON”
For an adult, like Beth, who has a goal of gaining muscle, and no other special circumstances, we want that MPS switched “ON” every day!
By knowing your “Protein Baseline” AND having a plan to hit it daily you won’t go wrong.
For a lot of folks this means – DO NOT skip your protein shake!
Does this make sense? If not let me know!
If you don’t have a clue how much protein you should be consuming, let me know, I’ll send you my “Muscle Math” (protein baseline) worksheet! alex@fpp.llc
To kick off your day from a MPS standpoint, I always recommend 30g, minimum, of protein for your first calories. Other professionals will tell you at least 20g of protein.
Want to take a little 40-minute trip down the rabbit hole on all this? Here’s your source:
https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/protein
This is a great summary from earlier this month from Rhonda Patrick, PhD.
Who do you know that could use this information? I bet you can think of a couple of people before you click the next email, please share the post with your team and anyone who might find it useful and let me know what you think!
Have a good one,
Alex
- CHECK OUT my most recent podcast with Athan S. on Doing The Work Pod
PPS. If you’re new to First Principles Performance Coaching, here’s a one stop shop for all my stuff.
PPPS. Ready to perform at a whole new level? Email me so I can introduce you to my new BBP Coaching opportunities! alex@fpp.llc
