When I started on my lifestyle upgrade one of the first things I had to change was my diet. I lived and worked in New York City and a standard breakfast for me was a bagel and a cup of coffee. Lunch was a ‘junior whopper meal’ from Burger King. Dinner was the only time I had a decent meal with the proper proportion of nutrients.
Unfortunately, breakfast and lunch resulted in me adding unwanted weight in all the wrong places. The job didn’t help either since I was trapped in a cubicle for most of the day.
To fix my diet I started eating a proper breakfast each day to include healthy protein and cut the amount of carbs at each meal.
Growing up in a West Indian home meant eating a lot of starchy foods such as rice, cassava and yams at every meal. Once I eliminated these foods from my diet it took little or no time before I started to lose the excess weight.
I also joined a gym and got serious about working out regularly. It took a while to reach my goal of getting to an ideal weight (those last few pounds are very stubborn) but with perseverance and encouragement from some of the programs I bought into I have much more control of my weight and am healthier and fitter now than when I was in college. I applied the basics of the 3 week diet . . . . only over a longer period. You can check it out here.
How Much Protein Is Too Much Protein?
Remember that scene in the movie Rocky where Sylvester Stallone downs a cup of raw eggs while he trains for a big fight? If you haven’t seen it, here it is:
I was a little girl when I saw it, but it stands out as one of the first times I learned about the benefits of protein for muscle growth. Of course, back then I only associated heavy protein consumption with meatheads and bodybuilders—think: Arnold Schwarzenegger circa 1980.
Lucky for protein, it has a great publicist. These days it’s the standard in just about any diet, whether you want to get fit, run a marathon or compete in a bodybuilding contest. We’ve also learned that a protein-heavy diet can potentially lead to major weight loss thanks to trends like The Atkins Diet and the now popular Paleo Diet. After all, it helps build bone and muscles, makes our skin and hair more beautiful, and performs crucial functions in the body. It’s no wonder nutrition bars and shakes pack upwards of 30 grams of protein per serving.
The problem is, we’re never really told how much protein we should actually consume and just how much our bodies can even absorb. That’s why I turned to registered dietician and author of the F-Factor Diet Tanya Zuckerbrot to break it down.
She says, “The amount of protein-rich foods you need to eat depends on your gender, age and level of physical activity. On average, women should consume around three to four ounces of lean protein during meals or snacks throughout a day.” She adds that one ounce of protein is about the equivalent of seven grams.
That’s about 21 to 28 grams of protein per meal.
So what happens if you consume more protein than you need in a sitting? Zuckerbrot says it can backfire on your weight loss efforts.
“It does not matter if the excess calories come from protein, fat, or carbohydrates; consuming more calories than you burn will result in weight gain as your body converts those unnecessary calories into fat, for storage,” she says.
Suddenly that power smoothie with 50 grams of protein doesn’t seem like such a good idea anymore, right? While it may have more nutrients than a milk shake, it could also pack the calories of one.
Plus, studies show that only the first 30 grams of protein eaten in a meal will actually contribute to muscle growth. Anymore is just excess.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should stop eating protein. Zuckerbrot says to choose lean protein sources such as fish, white meat skinless poultry, and 90 percent or higher lean beef, along with beans, nuts peas and soy products for vegans and vegetarians. If you need help with portions, she says to think of it like this:
Three ounces of lean meat, poultry or tofu equals a deck of cards.
Three ounces of grilled or baked fish equals a checkbook.
Two tablespoons of peanut butter or hummus equals a golf ball.
Or you could also just focus on eating a well-balanced, healthy meal and not make protein the only star of the show.
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P.S. If you are planning to include a protein shake as part of your daily meal program then you will want to make sure to choose the right protein. Read the label on the package or ask the vendor what kind he uses for his drinks. Avoid any product that uses protein isolate as an ingredient and instead opt for products containing protein concentrate.
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