What is Protein?
Protein is a puzzle, that’s how I like to picture it.
Protein is made up of several “puzzle pieces”, called amino acids, arranged in different ways to give it it’s function and form. These can be pulled apart and put together to create the many completely unique proteins. Some proteins can be used for building and maintaining muscle or organ tissue, some proteins are digestive enzymes which help to break down and digest molecules in food, and some other proteins are hormones, the messengers that communicate throughout your body. Protein, with it’s many different functions is an essential macronutrient, you will not survive never mind thrive without enough protein.
The puzzle pieces of a protein are amino acids and while there are hundreds of different amino acids, only 20 are needed by the human body, and only 9 of those 20 the body isn’t able to produce itself. These 9 amino acids are essential, and can only be obtained through consumption. They are; histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. They each have their own function and role to play within the body, but suffices to say you do need them all.
These amino acids are found within protein in the diet, some may be more prevalent in one meal while others may be lacking. The key to getting all the amino acids in the protein you consume, is variety. Variety along with adequate protein consumption is generally all you need to worry about for health and even muscle-building purposes. Under-consuming protein or not getting all the essential amino acids in your diet leads first to weakness, tiredness and low immunity and eventually onto more serious health complications.
The RDA (recommended dietary allowance) for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight, so if you weigh 100 kilograms, you would want to consume at least 80 grams of protein per day to meet your basic nutritional requirements. Key word here being basic, for the purposes of building muscle you are looking at probably double that amount, and not taking in enough really will limit the muscle and strength-building potential of your training routine. Specifically a good guideline to go for is 2 grams per kilogram of lean bodymass, this is how much you weigh if you literally had zero fat on your body. Nobody does, so this means you would have to find out your bodyfat percentage (or estimate it) and then your lean bodymass and times that by two to set yourself a good target for the grams of protein you need to consume daily.
If you’ve ever tracked your protein intake for an extended period of time, you’ll know it’s not easy to consume that much protein. The silver lining however is that it really doesn’t matter when you decide to do it, despite what smart salespeople would lead you to believe… There is no post-workout window, there is no maximum amount of protein you can “absorb” in a single meal, there is also almost no difference between eating six meals per day vs one giant meal (assuming they are equals). The protein you eat will be digested and broken down throughout the day and the speed of this differs from person to person, day to day and meal to meal. As long as you are consuming enough protein from varied sources, everything else will make a negligible difference if any.
However, where timing a high protein meal might make a difference is for those who want to lose weight. Protein generally is very satiating, meaning it tends to make you feel full and satisfied after consuming it. For example, if you eat either a chicken thigh or a quarter of a watermelon, you’re likely to feel fuller and more satisfied from the chicken thigh even though they have very similar amounts of calories. This is because the chicken thigh contains protein (and lipids) and the calories in watermelon come almost exclusively from carbs. For someone attempting to lose weight, eating enough protein is not only crucial for well-being and health but, to come full circle, it is also very helpful for feeling full on the same amount of calories (which again, is the real key to losing bodyfat storage). So eating a few high protein meals throughout the day will keep you feeling fuller and more satisfied and keep you from snacking or overeating.
Generally though, as always it comes down to personal preference. Whether you eat or don’t eat breakfast, whether you prefer fish, meat, eggs or plant protein, the key take away is that protein is crucial not just for the development of muscle and strength but even more so for health and wellbeing. Some of the best sources of protein are eggs, red meat, poultry, fish, dairy and legumes.
