Jonathan Steedman (00:01.826)

Hey food groupies, I'm gonna talk to you today about adequate versus optimal protein intake. And if that makes you feel like falling asleep, stay tuned. It'll be pretty quick and it will be helpful. Particularly, look, this comes off the back of, I've been sent an article that came out this week, like a news article from, I don't know, like the Guardian or something probably, talking about how we don't need, the role of protein and the importance of protein is being overhyped.

and you don't actually need all that much protein and a few other claims that were made, right? And so I want to kind of unpack that a little bit and get you really clear on how much protein is what you should be targeting. And it's going to be different for everyone, of course, different goals, different body types and all of those sorts of things. essentially, one of the big distinctions we need to make is there is a difference between adequate protein, which I would define as

getting enough protein that you're not deficient versus optimal protein, i.e. eating enough protein to maximize the benefits that you could get from protein, okay? And so often what comes up is this talk about how the government guidelines suggest, I don't even know what they are off the top of my head, I probably should, oops, like 0.8, I think, bad dietician should have done his research. I think it's like 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight, might even be lower.

And so that recommendation is not a bad recommendation. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not bad science. It is what public health has to do. They have to communicate broad, super broad messaging that encapsulates, again, whatever the population of Australia is at the moment. My goodness, sorry for the lack of research on this one, 30 million, maybe? I don't know. I'm really bad at this stuff. But imagine trying to communicate a health message that...

is relevant and helpful for 30 million people. That's wild. I can't even begin to fathom how much, you know, research and effort must go into that. So I'm not here to knock those recommendations and to say that there's anything wrong with them because they are, they are, they have been created to do exactly that, to help people not become deficient in protein. Cause that's, that is a big problem if you are deficient in protein.

Jonathan Steedman (02:24.565)

And there's certain groups in Australia, certain at risk populations, which absolutely can be deficient in protein. there's lots of problems that come with that. Now, I do agree that there's a lot of people in social media land and particularly if you have any vague interest in any form of health and fitness, you probably have been pushed that idea that you crazy high amounts of protein, right? And so

What we wanna do is we wanna provide, we wanna as always find the nice happy middle ground. Now this discussion around avoiding deficiency for most people isn't really relevant because you've been exposed to all of that information and everyone's banging on about protein and myself included. Then you know, you are probably not at risk of protein deficiency. That doesn't mean that you don't stand to benefit from going above those guidelines though. In fact, every single person I think I've ever worked with benefits from going above those guidelines.

Okay. And moving into what would be more of an optimal range. Okay. And so I would define optimal very loosely as about 1.4 grams, maybe down to 1.2 depending on the person up to about two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. So that would be my recommendation aiming for 1.4 to two grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. A couple of caveats to that. Firstly,

If you are, if you have a higher body fat percentage, you don't need to use two grams, you will probably be lower in that range. Because it's actually your lean body mass, your muscle mass, your bones, organs, like all of those things that kind of define or they are the things that decide how much protein is going to be optimal for you. So if you have 50 kilos of those and 100 kilos of body fat on top of that,

or 30 kilos of body fat on top of that, the 30 to 50 or 100 kilos of body fat doesn't change your protein requirements really, okay? It's just the lean body mass that does. So if you know you're sitting at a higher body fat percentage, you can either just move to like, you know, use more like the 1.4 range, or you can calculate something called your ideal body weight. I flippin' hate the name of that, because it's like defining this is the right body weight for you.

Jonathan Steedman (04:50.604)

It's okay to get a bit of a rough idea loosely or what that looks like for you. And then you could use that number to calculate your protein requirements. So let's say that you're 95 kilos, your ideal body weight is 60 kilos, then you would use 60 kilos times 1.4 or up to 60 kilos times two to get your protein range. I hope that makes sense. I know that talking about numbers in a podcast is always a good time, but that's...

kind of roughly how I would do that. If you don't want to track or you don't want to know your protein numbers, also totally fine. If you are roughly aiming for a quarter plate of a high quality protein source at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and you're having a snack or two of, that contains a good source of protein, you're probably doing pretty well, okay? Is it going to get you optimal optimal? Probably not. You probably actually need to push a little bit higher than that, but please don't stress unless you've got really kind of high tier body composition goals or high tier.

performance goals, you probably don't need to get into that really high range of optimal. But the reason I think most people could stand to move closer to optimal is it's not just about getting jacked, right? Yes, protein plays an important role in gaining muscle, but it's also not going to do anything if you're not doing resistance training, right? But what it is really helpful for is things like appetite regulation and energy levels throughout the day, right? If you have adequate protein at each meal,

then that meal fills you up for longer. It makes you feel satisfied for longer. It makes you less likely to over-consume unnecessary calories at that meal. And then it also means that the energy that you're deriving from that meal tends to be more spaced out and come at, basically hit your system in a smoother, more even fashion rather than, you know, the kind of the sparks and the crashes in energy that we keep talking about or keep hearing about. And so even just those two things alone are very beneficial for most people. And you don't really,

you probably aren't going to get the total benefit of appetite regulation and better energy levels down at that 0.8, the government recommendations. So I would encourage you to push a little bit higher than that. That being said, if you are doing the three main meals in a snack or you are tracking and you're within that range, there's very few people that are going to benefit going over two grams per kilogram of body weight. It gets really just

Jonathan Steedman (07:12.286)

bodybuilders in a harsh cut, be perfectly honest, which I'm sure none of you are listening to this podcast, so there you go. And so yes, if you're finding the protein messaging and all the high protein products and the protein added products, and I've done a podcast on those, if you are finding that you are stressed out about that, please actually figure out where you're sitting because going over that two grams is a complete waste of your time. It's not necessarily like a...

problem, you're not going to have any major health issues from that. It's just going to be more expensive and unnecessary. And it could also limit your consumption of other really healthy foods, right? I've definitely had plenty of clients who are eating too much protein. And they're doing that by not eating enough, not on purpose a lot of the time, but just, you know, it means that their whole grain consumption, their healthy fat consumption, know, not seeds, avocados, fruit consumption, all of these other healthy foods are kind of

They're a bit lacking in their diet because they're just hyper fixated on getting enough protein. sorry for the ramble. Essentially the take home message that low level the government recommends is great for the reasons they're making that claim, right? At a population level to avoid deficiency, it will help you do that. I think as the individual, you can probably aim a little bit higher than avoiding deficiency, right? I would personally prefer to be better like,

closer to optimal, right? And so moving higher up those recommendations to the 1.4 to two grams per kilogram is gonna get you, yes, better muscle retention, better muscle growth, potentially better muscle recovery, but it's also, even if you're not interested in that stuff, it's gonna be really helpful for your energy levels and your appetite, your satiety, feeling satisfied after a meal. So I still recommend most, virtually everybody to be honest, outside of, you if you've got kidney disease and a few other situations.

going towards the higher end of that protein. However, there is a dark side with that and you can go too far or just get too obsessed about it. And that is not required either. Unfortunately, with foods, brands, you know, picking up on this fixation with protein and protein being healthy, you know, they're adding it to literally everything, protein chips, protein mousse, protein ice cream, all of these things. And it's like, we maybe don't need to include too many of those.

Jonathan Steedman (09:36.323)

We just want to try and sit somewhere in that adequate to optimal range, pushing higher up the range of optimal where you can. You're going to get all the benefits. Please don't be scared if you're eating over the government guidelines. It's all going to be okay. I hope that made sense. If you've got questions, you know where to find me. I'll chat to you next time.