Are You Eating Enough Protein?

THE WEEKLY SHIFT #1

Are You Eating Enough Protein?

If you lift weights, want to build or maintain muscle, lose body fat, or simply stay strong as you get older, protein is probably the most important part of your nutrition that you can control.

But here's where I see people get confused:

Eating a lot of protein isn't necessarily the same thing as eating enough protein.

And "enough" is going to look different depending on your body size, training, goals, age, and whether you're trying to lose fat or build muscle.

So how much do you actually need?

For most people who exercise regularly, a good general target is around:

0.7–1.0 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day.

For someone weighing 180 pounds, that's roughly 125–180 grams per day.

You don't necessarily need to hit the top of that range.

But if you're training consistently and your goal is to build or maintain muscle, consistently getting too little protein can make your efforts less effective.

For most people, the bigger issue isn't whether they need 150 or 180 grams. It's whether they're consistently getting enough protein in the first place.

But there's another part of the equation people overlook.

Protein quality matters.

Your body doesn't use every protein source in exactly the same way.

Protein is made up of amino acids, and the essential amino acids—particularly leucine—play an important role in stimulating muscle protein synthesis.

That's one reason I generally want the majority of your protein coming from high-quality sources such as:

• Eggs

• Chicken

• Turkey

• Lean beef

• Greek yogurt

• Cottage cheese

• Milk

• Whey protein

• Other complete protein sources

That doesn't mean you need to avoid plant proteins.

It means you should understand that 20 grams of protein from one food isn't necessarily physiologically identical to 20 grams from another food when your goal is maximizing muscle protein synthesis.

And this is where next week's email gets interesting.

We're going to dig into PCAA—protein quality, amino acids, and what actually makes one protein source better than another for building muscle.

Here's the simple takeaway for this week:

Before worrying about the perfect protein powder, the perfect timing, or whether you should eat protein before or after your workout...

Figure out whether you're consistently eating enough total protein.

Then we can worry about optimizing it.

TRY THIS THIS WEEK

For the next 7 days, track your protein intake.

Don't change anything yet.

Just see where you actually land.

You may discover you're eating 180 grams a day without trying.

Or you may discover you're eating 80 grams and wondering why your training isn't producing the results you expected.

You can't optimize what you don't measure.

I'll see you next week.

Josh

The Weekly Shift

Fitness. Health. Mindset. Life.