🫘 Overwhelmed by protein recommendations? Read this.
Here's how you should be thinking about fueling your muscles.
Protein is a fairly simple topic
with some nuances that should be understood.
For starters, it helps break down muscle and helps it regrow, helps with immune function, and keeps you fuller for longer than other macronutrients.
However, many people are overcomplicating protein consumption and making it harder to eat protein than it needs to be.
“You NEED to consume 1 gram per pound of body weight or you’re not getting enough!”
That’s the common trope that has recently dominated headlines and needs to stop. This, among other falsehoods, may have people deceived about protein and is probably leading people to consume it incorrectly.
Newsletter Summary
Optimal ways to eat protein that doesn’t require you to gorge yourself
How the expectation effect can change your body
One quote to get you through hump day
🥜 Protein Myths
The idea that people need to consume more than one gram per pound of body weight in protein has been disproved.
I weigh 190 pounds, and I can say for sure I’ve never accidentally hit my protein goal by that metric. It’s something I need to actively try to do, and after about 150 grams, it feels like I can’t eat for days.
These projections — sometimes suggested as high as 1.5 grams per pound of body weight — are preposterous suggestions from supplement companies just trying to make an extra buck off you.
An excess of protein beyond that number would probably lead to oxidation and storage of the protein as extra body weight, which, unless you’re intentionally trying to bulk up, you probably don’t want.
There is, however, no upper limit for protein that’s bad either.
Many doctors and physiologists claim that too much protein can harm the kidneys and/or gall bladder.
This is true only of meat-based protein. More water-soluble protein — like protein powders and other more easily digestible amino acids — will not damage these organs or cause gallstones.
Opt for a protein powder as often as you'd like — preferably and most notably on workout days after your training session — for better gains, and sandwich your workout between a protein-dense breakfast or lunch along with this powder supplement for maximal gains.
🍫 The Expectation Effect
Henselmanns also discusses what the psychological effect of consuming certain things has on the body.
He cites what writer and journalist David Robson calls The Expectation Effect — that a perceived outcome from a given substance can have an outsized return with the right preconceived notion.
Robson in his book talks about how so-called “gluten-allergic” test subjects were fed two batches of food — a control batch with no gluten and an experimental batch that also had no gluten, but subjects were told it was gluten-filled.
Sure enough, after eating the gluten-in-name-only food, subjects broke out in hives, began vomiting, and used the restroom for god knows what else.*
*I would’ve loved to see their faces when they were told it wasn’t gluten food.
The test provided evidence that the mind has an incredible effect on what happens in and outside of our bodies.
Henselmanns refers to two similar studies — one where patients were given fake Dianabol, a performance-enhancing steroid, and another where patients were given fake caffeine — in his argument about consumption and the mind.
In the steroid trials, the patients who took the fake steroid (likely a sugar-placebo injection) made massive muscular gains, similar to those who took real steroids.
In the caffeine trials, those who were given a “highly-caffeinated drink” (with no caffeine in it) exhibited similar energy levels and jitters to those who drank actual coffee.
The mind will believe its way into changing the body.
The same can go for protein.
Whether you’re hitting 100 grams or 120 grams per day, it may not make that huge a difference.
So long as you believe the protein is fueling your muscles, helping you grow, and synthesizing in a way that is building your dream body, all you might have to do along with prioritizing just a tad more protein is simply believe your physique is changing, and it will.
🔎 One Quote About Belief For Hump Day
On imagining his way to healing from a truck accident with six broken vertebrae to being a fully functional human again:
“Well, there’s an intelligence that’s giving us life. … It really knows how to heal way better than me. … Look, maybe I’ll just spend the rest of my time trying to connect to this intelligence and give it a plan, give it a design, and give it a template.”
– Dr. Joe Dispenza
You may be underestimating the power of your mind, even when it comes to the food you eat.
If you start thinking about your food, specifically your protein, as a form of nourishment and rejuvenation for your body, you might be surprised at how your body responds.
See you all on Friday.