We need more. We need less. Beef is best. Beans are better. Fed up with your friends’ conflicting Facebook posts? Here’s how you can power up your plate for real. Protein is crucial to nearly every bodily function. We need it to have energy, to feel full, to build and repair muscle to process nutrients and boost immunity, to send chemical signals—basically, to stay alive. And with so much new research pointing to the nutrient’s power as a hunger buster and super sculptor, it’s easy to think the more protein, the better. Many women I see are making a conscious effort to get more protein in their diet. But is that wise? Ahead, the most evolved advice.
How Much Do You Really Need?
The recommended dietary allowance (RDA), which is the minimum amount you need to be healthy, is 0.8 grams per kilogram (0.36 grams per pound) of body weight per day—46 grams for an average woman. That equals as little as 10 percent of your daily calories. If you’re not super active, that’s likely adequate, and you’ll hit the target effortlessly if you follow a typical Western diet. In fact, American women already eat about 68 grams of protein a day, according to the latest data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. “There’s no reason to go out of your way to get protein,” says Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy. “Just eat a variety of fish, nuts, beans, seeds and dairy, including yogurt.”
However, increasing your protein well above the RDA may make sense if...
You're very active. That means you get at least 35 to 40 minutes of moderate exercise four or five days a week, including resistance training two or more times a week. Consider eating 1.2 to 2 grams of dietary protein per kilogram (or about 0.5 to 0.9 grams per pound) of your body weight each day, says Nancy Rodriguez, PhD, professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Connecticut. That amount is best for rebuilding muscle tissue, especially if you do a lot of high-intensity workouts, research suggests.
You're trying to lose weight. Protein takes longer to digest than carbs, helping you feel full, and it also pushes your body to secrete the gut hormone peptide YY, which reduces hunger. “When you bring protein to about 30 percent of your daily calories, you’ll naturally eat less,” says Lauren Slayton, RD, founder of Foodtrainers, a nutrition practice in New York City, and author of The Little Book of Thin. “Protein decreases appetite and also, in my experience, helps you manage cravings.”
While research is mixed about whether consuming more protein leads to weight loss, it’s pretty clear that protein can help you retain more lean muscle as you lose fat. A studies suggests amping up protein to as much as 1.8 to 2 grams per kilogram (roughly 0.8 to 0.9 grams per pound) of body weight per day to stave off muscle loss when restricting calories. Cut back on refined carbs to balance out the extra calories from adding protein.
You're in middle age. Eating more protein as you get older may help you maintain muscle and ward off osteoporosis, “so you can stay stronger and more functional,” says Rodriguez. In a study, adults over the age of 50 who roughly doubled the RDA (eating 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram, or 0.68 grams per pound, of body weight per day) were better able to rebuild and retain muscle after only four days, compared with control groups eating the RDA.
Doubling the RDA gives you “optimal protein,” a concept that Rodriguez and more than 40 nutrition scientists advanced at a recent Protein Summit, the findings from which were published in 2015 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Optimal protein works out to be about 15 to 25 percent of your daily calories, still below the level recommended by many popular high-protein diets. Over a day, that could look like 20 to 30 grams per meal and 12 to 15 grams per snack, for a total of 90 to 105 grams daily.
The Dangers of Loading Up
When experts decry protein-heavy diets, the issue is usually not quantity but quality. “It’s not protein per se that’s a problem, but the ‘passengers’ it brings with it,” explains Tom Rifai, MD, regional medical director of metabolic health and weight management for the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. “You can’t compare egg whites, fish or beans to fatty porterhouse steak.” Eating a lot of meat means getting a ton of calories and saturated fat as well as a digestive by-product called TMAO, all of which can contribute to higher risks of certain cancers, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Indeed, a study showed a hike in cancer mortality risk for people who ate more animal protein in midlife. On the flip side, a new study found that adults who ate a plant-based diet and dropped one or two servings of animal-based foods (to four or fewer servings a day) cut their risk of type 2 diabetes by up to 20 percent. The takeaway: If you want to bump up your protein, grab those extra grams from plant sources or even fish (both of which offer additional beneficial nutrients on top of protein) rather than red meat.
Eat Early, Eat Often
Folks who ate 35 grams of protein at breakfast consumed 400 fewer calories throughout the day and lost more body fat than those who ate a breakfast with 13 grams or skipped an a.m. meal entirely. I’ve seen many women who, after shifting more of their daily protein to breakfast and lunch, stay more satiated, preventing overeating in the late afternoon and evening. A sample high-protein breakfast: 6 ounces of nonfat Greek yogurt (17 grams of protein) with ¼ cup of almonds (8 grams), 2 tablespoons of sunflower seeds (4 grams) and ½ cup of mixed berries (1 gram).
More incentive to add protein earlier in the day: Other research suggests that it does the best job of keeping your muscles in rebuilding mode if you spread your intake over the day’s meals and snacks rather than cramming in most of it at dinner. Eating all your protein at one sitting also backfires because your system can process only so much at once—about 25 to 40 grams, for most people. “If you can’t use the extra protein, your body just turns it into carbs,” explains Dr. Rifai.
Go Complete
“Complete protein” is a term often used for foods that contain, in the right proportion for our dietary needs, all nine of the essential amino acids our bodies can’t manufacture themselves. (We can make the 11 other amino acids from scratch.) Think of your amino acid requirements like a Scrabble game: Some letters you need over and over again, like E, and some you don’t need as many of, like Z. Animal products, such as chicken, fish and eggs, provide the right letters (amino acids) in close to the right proportion that we need to spell words (build proteins in the body). Certain plant-based foods (quinoa, soybeans, amaranth, buckwheat) also provide roughly the proper proportion of amino acids.
Other plants contain all the essential amino acids, but not in the optimal proportion—usually there’s not enough of one or more of them, which is why the classic advice for vegetarians and vegans has been to pair complementary foods, like rice and beans, in order to make a complete protein. The good news is, it doesn’t need to be that complicated. As long as your weekly diet includes a reasonable variety and amount of beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds (for example, lentils, chickpeas, oats, brown rice, walnuts, almonds and sunflower seeds), it’s likely that you’re getting what you need.
Workout Wisdom
Ideally, you should get 20 grams of protein within 30 to 40 minutes post-workout for optimal muscle recovery and growth. That said, you can’t chug a protein shake after spin class and skimp on protein the rest of the time. You still need a healthy total amount spread out through your day.
Power Trip
Here are the steps protein takes in your body, from first bite to final exit.
Step 1: You eat some grilled chicken or a plate of beans.
Step 2: Stomach acids and gut enzymes break down the proteins in the chicken or beans into amino acids, the building blocks of protein.
Step 3: Amino acids are absorbed through the walls of your small intestine and enter the bloodstream. In addition to helping build muscle, these amino acids help produce, maintain and repair numerous proteins throughout your body, including antibodies, hormones and neurotransmitters.
Step 4: Extra amino acids aren’t stored for much longer than 24 hours (that’s why you have to eat protein every day), so once the body has used what it needs, the leftovers go to the liver. There, some are converted into glucose and used as a fuel source. Nitrogen by-products from amino acid breakdown are excreted in urine.
10 Real-Food Boosts
Powders have their place (assuming you’re picking one with superclean ingredients), but they’re not the only way to amp up your intake. Try these easy hacks to add whole-food protein to a meal or snack.
1. Prepare ½ cup oatmeal with 1 cup milk (8g) instead of water.
2. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons chia seeds (6g) onto 2 slices avocado toast.
3. Blend ½ cup silken tofu (6g) into soup or a smoothie.
4. Toss ¼ cup cashews (5g) into a stir-fry.
5. Blend 3 tablespoons hemp seeds (9g) into salad dressing (try one made with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and herbs).
6. Add 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds (5g) to granola.
7. Scatter 1 cup green peas (8g) over pasta.
8. Top pancakes or waffles with 2 tablespoons almond butter (7g) instead of maple syrup.
9. Add ½ cup canned black beans (7g), drained and rinsed, to salsa.
10. Trade cream cheese for ¼ cup cottage cheese (6g) on a toasted bagel.
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