Nutrition

This is going to be a super tactical guide. I’m going to share my exact approach, right down to the foods I rely on to keep my protein intake high.

I won’t delve too deep into the importance of protein here – or why it’s a foundational health habit. And that’s because I’ve done that in previous episodes, and today I want to keep things tactical.

If you do want to dig a bit deeper on the importance of protein, it’s worth going back and checking out episode two. In this episode, I cover each of the seven foundational health habits in depth.

But, quickly, here’s what I will say.

Building and maintaining lean muscle should be an important goal for every human being.

It helps you be a strong, healthy, capable, and let’s not forget – better looking, human being now. Also, the amount of lean muscle you have is a highly predictive metric for the quality of your life as you age, and also how long you’re going to live.

And simply put, protein plays a crucial role in helping you to build and maintain lean muscle.

Ok, let’s jump into things.

We’ll start with what is my protein goal? And how that might be relevant for you?

I aim for 1 gram of protein, per lb of body weight. Or if you go by kilograms, that would be 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight.

I weigh 175 lbs (or 80KG) – so that means my goal is 175 grams of protein every day.

Now, the amount of protein you should consume is a hot topic for sure, and there is a lot of different advice out there.

The RDA (that’s the recommended daily amount, set by a government health body) is only 0.36 grams per lb of bodyweight. If I were to follow that, it would put me at 63 grams of protein per day.

I’ve never paid attention to the RDA of anything. That’s because it’s a recommendation for the average of the entire population.

I don’t want to be an average person. I’m incredibly active and I’m looking to push the boundaries on how fit and healthy I can be. That includes, putting on and maintaining as much muscle mass as I can.

So, I have drifted towards listening to advice from experts who have those goals. Experts like Peter Attia, Andrew Huberman, Rhonda Patrick, Marcus Filly, Max Lugavere, Sal Di Stefano etc.

Many of these people have a medical or science background. They all look the part – they’re strong, athletic, fit, and healthy. They back up their advice with scientific studies, and they also often share their own blood work.

This is what has led me to the 1 gram of protein, per lb of body weight recommendation – for an active person that wants to gain and maintain lean muscle. Therefore my own personal target is 175 grams of protein per day.

OK, I promised you we’d get tactical, so now let’s get tactical.

If I look back at my own journey with protein, it took me quite a while to be able to easily eat 175 grams of protein per day.

When I was building the habit, I had to crack 100 grams first. I then built towards 150 grams. Finally, only recently did I increase this target to the gold standard I was always after – 175 grams.

Now that I can reflect back on that journey, I think there are three things that stand out as super important.

I’ll cover these three things at a super high level first. And, then I’ll walk through an actual day of mine. This is the best way to understand them in practice and see how they actually play out on a daily basis.

1. You have to have a plan for the day

The biggest mistake you can make is to try and wing it. Even with the knowledge I have on strategies to eat enough protein, I will quickly get unstuck if I just jump into the day without a plan. I can easily find myself in the late stages of the day, without much hope of being able to hit my protein goal.

So, you need to think ahead for the day. Look at the day ahead and start to map out when and what you’re like to eat throughout the day. Ask the question – will this add up to being able to achieve my protein goal for the day?

2. Think protein first when it comes to every meal

You probably have three, maybe four opportunities in a day where you are going to have a substantial meal or snack of some type. If even one of these is very low in protein, it adds a big risk to not being able to achieve your protein goal for the day. Ideally, every meal plays its part in helping build towards your protein target for the day.

3. Have a good knowledge of the actual foods that are high in protein

It will be really hard to consistently achieve your protein goal if you don’t understand which foods are high in protein. Your days will be full of guesswork and surprises – and you’ll make a lot of mistakes.

The good news is, it’s super easy to educate yourself on this. A quick google search or ChatGPT session will return lots of information on the top foods that are high in protein. It’s also easy to get this tailored to any type of dietary restrictions you may have.

If you can nail these three things, you will find it so much easier to consistently hit your daily protein goal.

OK, let’s jump into how I actually approach a typical day. This will help put those three things in context.

I tend to have two different types of days.

The first would be when I’m fasting. On a day like that, I will typically eat my first meal around 13:00, which would be lunch. I’ll then have an afternoon snack around 16:00, and an evening meal around 19:00 to 20:00.

The second type of day would be when I’m not fasting. In which case, it’s exactly the same as the day I just described, but with the addition of breakfast around 10:00.

So, I will eat three or four meals, depending on whether I am fasting or not.

Breakfast

Assuming I’m not fasting, I have 4 go-to breakfasts.

Four poached eggs on a slice of sourdough
Porridge, with four poached eggs on the side
250 grams of high protein greek yogurt, with berries and some maple syrup
Four poached eggs, two slices of streaky bacon and half an avocado

Each of these breakfasts gives me between 25 grams and 35 grams of protein.

Breakfast is usually my lowest protein meal of the day. And that’s OK. As we talked about earlier, I always have a plan for the day and I know I have three other meals to get me to my target of 175 grams of protein.

However, If I knew for some reason, I was having some protein light meals later in the day, I would probably opt for something higher protein for breakfast –like steak and eggs. This would give me about 75 grams of protein.

In fact, I have afternoon tea at a restaurant today (sandwiches, cakes and chocolate). It’s going to be a protein disaster. I’m going to have to make breakfast really count. I will actually probably default to steak and eggs.

This is a first example of being self aware of what’s ahead for the day, and having a plan that will allow me to hit my protein target for the day.

Lunch

I like my lunch to usually give me 50-75 grams of protein. However, a lot will depend on whether I’ve already eaten breakfast (i.e do I already have a bit of a head start with protein?). It will also depend on what my evening meal is. For example, if I have an evening meal which is average in protein, I will be looking for lunch to be at least 75 grams – possibly even 100 grams of protein.

For lunch, I usually default to some type of meat – usually lean minced beef made into home made burgers, or some chicken. I’ll put some type of vegetable around it, and often a piece of fruit too.

It sounds boring. But, mince, fried in some real butter and seasoned, is delicious. And there’s plenty of things you can do to season chicken so it tastes nice too.

If it’s not obvious, almost all of the protein here will come from the meat source.

For example:

250 grams of lean beef mince, will give me 50 grams of protein. If I haven’t eaten breakfast, I will usually add in three eggs for an extra 18 grams of protein. This will take the total protein to nearly 70 grams.
300 grams of chicken (1 and a half large breasts) will give me about 70 grams of protein too.

With breakfast and lunch behind me, I would hope to be at around 100 grams of protein heading into the afternoon.

Afternoon Snack

My afternoon snack is either a whey protein shake, and / or yogurt.

The whey protein shake will give me either 25 grams of 50 grams of protein – depending on whether I have one or two scoops. And as a reminder, the yogurt meal gives me 25 grams of protein.

What I end up deciding for my afternoon snack here depends on quite a bit.

If I am sitting at 100 grams of protein, and I know I have a very high protein dinner ahead which will get me to my 175 grams goal, I will probably skip the whey protein shake altogether and just have some yogurt.

However, if I’m sitting around 75 grams of protein, and I know my dinner won’t get me to my goal, I will use the shake to fill in the 25 gram or 50 gram hole. I might even have some yogurt as well if it’s needed.

In some cases, if I’m well over a 100 grams of protein, and I know my evening meal will be high protein, and will easily get me to 175 grams, I might even skip the afternoon snack entirely to save the calories.

Again, like I said earlier, here I’m being very mindful about where I am and what’s left to come in the day. And I will tailor my afternoon snack accordingly.

And that’s where rule one and three come in. You have to have a plan, and you have to know the protein content of the actual foods you’re eating. Otherwise, you won’t be able to do any of this thinking.

Dinner

Dinner can be pretty random. It’s the one time I have to fit into other peoples plans (my family)

For the most part, it’s a meat based meal that will give me 50-75 grams of protein.

When I get my way, it’s got some type of steak or chicken at the heart of it, which gives me a solid 50 – 100 grams of protein. Even when it’s not that, I can usually find a way to sneak some chicken or steak into it.

But, sometimes it might be something like sausages, or perhaps a jacket potato with some tuna. In this case, I’m only going to get 30 grams or so.

And in some cases, it might be a meat free, pasta type of meal. Admittedly it will be tasty – but also absolutely shocking for protein. In that scenario, I could be looking at less than 20 grams of protein.

The evening meal isn’t one which I can completely control. Yeah, I do have a reasonable amount of influence over our meal planning. And in some cases, I will even opt out of a certain type of meal and eat something different. But, it’s also important to be flexible and fit in with what other people like to eat too.

So, my dinner can be low, medium or high protein, depending on what’s on the menu. Again, here’s the important thing – I always know what’s coming. So, I will always adjust the meals that lead up to it, taking into account what it is.

One more thing about dinner. If my dinner is low protein, or I just need a top up in the evening, I will default to some yogurt, berries and maple syrup. It’s a quick way to get a 30 gram protein hit in, and it’s a good healthy option for dessert.

And that’s what my days look like to eat 175 grams of protein.

You’ll notice a few things:

I always have a plan for the day. And in some cases, I’m constantly adjusting the plan to make sure I hit my goal.

I understand foods that are high in protein, and always think protein first when it comes to each meal

My most standard day looks like

Breakfast (30 grams of protein)
Lunch (50-70 grams of protein)
Afternoon snack, (25 – 50 grams of protein)
Dinner (50-75 grams of protein)

This will consistently net me about the 180 – 190 grams of protein I eat on an average per day.

I’ll leave you with two bonus tips before we wrap the episode.

The average is what counts

I do try and hit my goal of 175 grams of protein per day. Because it’s a foundational health habit that I track, I push to be at least 80% consistent over the course of the month.

That said, the average over the week is what’s more important

So, sometimes I will come in at about 150 grams for the day. Or actually. there might be some days where I end up at 100 grams for the day (travel or a commitment).

I won’t sweat that too much. Because I know there will be other days where I will naturally come in over the 200 gram mark. That will usually even out over the week.

Track your protein

It’s really important to track your protein throughout the day and week.

Without this, it’s really hard to know if you’re achieving your target or not. I have a very good knowledge of what’s in each food. Yet, I would even have a margin of error of 20 or 30% if I was to try and guess at the end of the day. Almost on a weekly basis, I get surprised by a meal being a bit higher or lower in protein than I would expect it to be.

I track everything I eat with the myfitnesspal app. So, I always have a very good grasp of what I am eating every day, including my protein and what my average protein is for the week at any point.

You don’t have to track it as meticulously as I do. You might just jot down the rough protein amount per meal on a piece of paper throughout the day. Find whatever system works for you.

The other benefit to tracking it daily, is it’s a great way to educate yourself on the macronutrient breakdown of foods. You’ll quickly get to know which ones will give you the best bang for buck when it comes to protein.

I hope that’s been helpful. Hopefully it’s given you both a framework, and also some tactical steps to be able to consistently eat more protein.

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Have you ever found yourself eating a meal, only afterwards to feel unexpectedly bloated and to have a huge slump in energy?

Have you struggled to lose weight, even though you’re trying really hard to eat more healthily?

Have you tried a bunch of different diets, but not found the right results with any of them?

Me too.

The title of this article wasn’t clickbait. I really do have ‘one thing’ you can try that has the potential to completely change all of this. But first, a story and some context.

I’m heading to a cafe for an English breakfast. Now, I love an English breakfast, but this isn’t a situation to take lightly. Immediately my brain clicks into gear.

This breakfast can go a few different ways. On one end of the spectrum, this will become a 1,000 calorie, high carbohydrate, high sugar, highly processed breakfast. On the other end of the spectrum it could be a 500 calorie, low carb, low sugar breakfast. And of course, there are a few options in the middle.

The 1,000 calorie, high carbohydrate, high sugar (37 grams), highly processed breakfast

The 500 calorie, low carb, low sugar (6 grams) breakfast

This needs to be a conscious choice. It needs to take into account what else I plan to eat, and how active I am that day. Because the moment I’ve finished that breakfast, I can’t take it back. It sets me off on a certain path.

If I choose to eat the breakfast that is typically laid out on the menu (the 1,000 calorie one), I better be skipping lunch, not snacking and thinking carefully about how my evening meal will close the day right. And I better be goddamn active to offset the fact that I will likely need to eat more to get enough protein. If I eat the more bespoke breakfast (the 500 calorie one), I will have much more flexibility for the rest of the day.

As you can see, I’m incredibly conscious and intentional about every single piece of food I put in my mouth. I’m aware of the calories, protein, carbohydrate, fat and sugar content of it. And I understand how the decision to eat that piece of food fits in with the rest of my day.

I have to be. I’m determined to be strong, lean and healthy. My goal is to eat approx. 2,000 calories each day. I want the macronutrient breakdown to be approx. 40% protein, 40% fat and 20% carbohydrates. And I want to keep my sugar intake around 30 grams. So, I can’t just fuck around and eat unconsciously. I have to have an extreme level of self awareness of what is happening if I’m to build towards those numbers each day.

Sometimes I WILL decide to eat that 1,000 calorie breakfast. Life is about a balance, and I know how to let loose from time to time. In fact, I have more flexibility in my life today, than I did when I was less disciplined. Discipline really does equal freedom. But, if I do eat the 1,000 calorie breakfast, the rest of my day will need to be shaped to reflect that very conscious decision. Most of the time, I won’t though – because I prefer more flexibility throughout the day.

Ok, let’s back up a bit. This is feeling a bit obsessive huh?

I get it. I get that I’m super over the top with this stuff. I have calorie, protein, carbohydrate, fat and sugar goals for the day. I track every single piece of food I eat. My self awareness and level of consciousness for how I eat is kinda off the charts. It probably even has some hints of an unhealthy relationship with food. I’m absolutely not suggesting you have to, or need to be like me with this stuff.

BUT, I think it’s a huge mistake to eat on auto-pilot each day. It’s a huge mistake to have virtually zero understanding of how much you’re eating and the makeup of the foods you’re eating. Because this leads to over-eating. It leads to eating too many carbohydrates, too little protein and too many saturated fats. It leads to consuming too many processed foods and too much sugar – EVERY DAY. And here’s the kicker. You don’t even KNOW you’re doing it. In fact, sometimes you think you’re doing the opposite. I honestly believe that 99% of people fall into this category.

Why is all of this even important? Because living your life in this way often leads to being overweight and metabolically unhealthy. It leads to unnecessary swings in mood and energy levels. It’s a one way track to feeling like crap and health problems down the road.

OK, let’s now get to that ‘one thing’.

If I could suggest one thing someone could do to start the journey of becoming a more conscious eater? Use Myfitnesspal to track everything they eat for seven days. There’s no need to do anything differently or adjust your behaviour – just record everything. Myfitnesspal makes this pretty easy. You can scan items and it also has a huge database of common foods – included branded foods. It’s also free.

I will almost guarantee that you will find out that you’re eating too much (too many calories). I will almost guarantee you’re eating too many carbohydrates. I will almost guarantee you are eating too many saturated fats and processed foods. And I will almost guarantee you are eating too much sugar. Hey, perhaps you will even find out you’re under-eating? That’s my point. What you thought you knew, will probably become completely unravelled.

It will be an education and a half. All of a sudden you will realise how wrong you were about certain foods. You know that salad you ate with dressing that you thought was a light option? Wrong. The pasta dish you thought was pretty healthy? Wrong. That glass of orange juice you were led to believe was healthy? Super wrong.

It will be the start of a journey that leads you to becoming a more conscious and healthier eater. One that helps you make more informed and better choices about food. And one that will completely change your health and life for the better (see, it wasn’t clickbait!).

How far you go down that journey? Well, that’s up to you. But, it’s a journey that’s absolutely worth starting.