Ever hear that too much protein is bad for you? Some people, even many medical professionals believe that high amounts of protein can be damaging to the body. Heck, even some of my fellow trainers still hold onto the old belief that too much protein is bad for us.

 

Are they right? If you read my newsletters, you may know by now I’m not a fan of those who say too much protein is bad for us. Simply look at the statistics. 66% of the US population is overweight or obese, and I can tell you one thing, it’s not because they eat too much protein. In fact, I’d say it’s because they don’t eat enough protein and are loading up on processed carbs.

 

If someone has kidney issues, then yes, protein consumption does need to be monitored, but for the vast majority of us, without kidney problems, higher amounts of protein can be beneficial for fat loss.

 

What better way to explain this than with actual results? A client of mine (Wendy) recently had her body fat taken with the Bod Pod. A few months ago she discussed with me that her weight loss was slowing down, and looking at her nutrition she wasn’t consuming enough protein. In fact, most women don’t. Take a typical portion controlled flavored yogurt (yup, tons of sugar in there) that people eat. One of those small containers has a measly 5-8g of protein.

 

I wanted Wendy to be consuming a minimum of 120g of protein per day. That would be pretty difficult if someone is only eating 5-8g per meal. We worked on her diet and over the next few months she was getting her protein intake up. After 3 months and the next Bod Pod test, she lost another 13 lbs of body fat, but just as impressive, she gained 2 lbs of lean mass (muscle being part of that). Hmm, seems like more protein did her body good.

 Strive to be better than the average, eat your protein!

Filed under: Nutrition

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