This is something that is all too common unfortunately…
We’ll use a fictitious character and call her Sarah. Sarah shows up to the studio religiously 3x per week.
Every day that Sarah comes in, she works her butt off.
Sarah doesn’t make excuses and is always up for the challenge.
Sadly, Sarah doesn’t see as much progress as she would like.
Sarah starts to get a little discouraged, however, I’m thankful to say that Sarah finally brings this up to me and we have a discussion.
It doesn’t take long for us to identify the red flag.
Turns out, Sarah isn’t consuming hardly any protein. This is a problem because protein is the building blocks of muscle. You can’t build lean muscle without it. It will also help with fat loss, improving satiety, and leads to healthier hair and nails.
In a nutshell, without protein all that hard work in the gym is not going to give you a great ROI and it’s going to hurt your hair and nails… YIKES
Is it still beneficial to workout if you don’t consume much protein? Yes. It’s much better than doing nothing at all, but it would be like hiking 3 miles uphill wearing a backpack full of college textbooks… not very efficient.
Sarah is like many clients we’ve seen over the years. Not getting enough protein is very, very common.
That brings me to the point of this message.
If you aren’t consuming protein on a regular basis (by regular I mean at least 20g several times per day), then here are a few strategies you can try out to see what works best for you…
- Include a high-protein food with every meal.
- Have a protein shake for breakfast or lunch (if this interests you, I’ve got some solid recommendations here).
- Add protein rich foods such as eggs or chicken to your salad.
- Choose high-protein items such as greek yogurt, deli meat, or cottage cheese.
Moral
of the story, if you do not want lean muscles then ignore everything I
just said. However, if that sounds like something that would be a great
match for that amazing personality of yours then make sure you’re
getting your protein!
Also,
in case you were wondering, within a month of adding in more protein
Sarah was able to get over that plateau, increase her lean muscle
tissue, and drop a few pounds of bodyfat. Not bad if I say so
myself!
Oh and remember if you are adding in protein, you might need to take away something else.
Ok, all this food talk made me hungry. Time to go cook up some eggs to help maintain my lean muscles. And if you are curious about good sources of protein – check THIS out.