HOW MUCH PROTEIN DO YOU REALLY NEED?
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Episode 278:
Show Notes
The episode focuses on understanding protein needs for optimal metabolic health and weight management, presented by Dr Mary Barson and Dr Lucy Burns on The Real Health and Weight Loss Podcast.
The discussion centers on how much protein individuals should eat, why it’s vital, and practical ways to meet daily protein targets through whole foods rather than supplements. Both doctors emphasise the importance of protein for muscle maintenance, hormone production, satiety, and metabolic health, especially in preventing issues like type 2 diabetes, sarcopenia, and heart disease.
- Recommended Intake: Aim for a minimum of 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, with a general baseline of 90 grams even for lighter individuals..
- Importance of Protein:
- Builds and repairs muscles, enzymes, hormones, and tissues across the body.
- Supports metabolic health and helps manage or prevent type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
- Promotes satiety, reducing overeating and aiding weight loss.
- Prevents muscle and bone loss associated with aging.
- Understanding Amino Acids:
- There are 20 amino acids, 9 of which are essential and must come from diet.
- “Complete” proteins contain all essential amino acids.
- Protein Sources:
- Whole foods are preferred: meat, fish, dairy, eggs, and some legumes.
- Estimation tip: approximately 25 grams of protein per 100 grams of meat, fish, or chicken.
- Meal Planning:
- Aim for around 30 grams of protein per meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner).
- Include examples such as a frittata with eggs and cheese, Greek yogurt with nuts, or a “protein-rich air fryer mix.”
- Protein Powders:
- Generally discouraged because many are ultra-processed and loaded with sugars or additives.
- Can be helpful for specific cases like bariatric surgery patients or those on GLP-1 medications with limited food intake.
- Should be used as supplements, not meal replacements.
- Mindset Advice:
- Remember that convenience foods often come at a nutritional cost.
- Focus on whole food nutrition for sustainable, long-term health.
- Next Episode Teaser: The following episode will cover managing protein intake during fasting periods.
This episode delivers a clear message: prioritise whole, nutrient-dense protein sources, avoid over-reliance on processed alternatives, and understand protein’s role not just for muscle but for overall health and vitality.
Episode 278:
Transcript
Dr Mary Barson (0:04) Hello, my lovely friends. I am Dr Mary Barson.
Dr Lucy Burns (0:09) And I'm Dr Lucy Burns. We are doctors and weight management and metabolic health experts.
Both (0:16) And this is the Real Health and Weight Loss podcast!
Dr Lucy Burns (0:21) Good morning, gorgeous friend. It's Dr Lucy here on a spectacular Tuesday morning, and Melbourne has turned on a bit of sunshine for me — and I have my own ray of sunshine talking today with us, of course, the beautiful Dr Mary. Hello, my friend, how are you?
Dr Mary Barson (00:37) I'm fabulous, sunny Lucy. You are very, very, very sunny in your personality, gorgeous one. It’s a good thing that I am sunny because here in the South Coast, it’s not so good. It’s pretty windy, pretty cloudy — the weather’s not so good. If I wasn’t, like, you know, recording this with the camera on, I would definitely be in my hoodie right now.
Dr Lucy Burns (00:59) Oh, goodness. Wow, isn’t that amazing? I mean, we’re only across the bay. So, for any listeners out there, we live about two and a half hours from each other. We hardly ever see each other in person, really. But we live on opposite sides of the Melbourne Bay, and the weather can be completely different. Because right outside my window at the moment, it is sunny and lovely.
Dr Mary Barson (01:24) Well, I hope this bad weather isn’t blowing towards you. I think, looking at the trees, I think it’s blowing away. I think you’re safe. I think you’re safe.
Dr Lucy Burns (01:29) Oh, good, good. Excellent. Excellent. All right, lovely friend. Today, we are answering a question that we get asked all the time. And that question is, how much protein should I eat? It seems to be a really confusing topic. So we thought we’d just go through the basics and explain our recommendations — why we think these are good recommendations — and then how you can get your protein sources. And, you know, just wrap it up with a bit of chitchat, as we often do.
Dr Mary Barson (01:58) Yeah, sounds good.
Dr Lucy Burns (02:00) Drum roll! Dr Mary — how much protein? How much protein should people eat?
Dr Mary Barson (02:07) We recommend that you should eat, at a minimum, one gram of protein per kilogram of your body weight. So, if you weigh 120 kilograms, then you want to have 120 grams of protein a day. 100 kilos, 100 grams. If you weigh 90 kilos, 90 grams. But then, actually, if you weigh less than 90 kilos, we probably still think you should keep your minimum — aim to get your minimum protein still at around that 90 grams a day. And there are good reasons for why we recommend that.
Dr Lucy Burns (02:41) Absolutely. Could you please tell me those good reasons?
Dr Mary Barson (02:44) Well, I’d love to. Protein is really important. It’s a vital nutrient that our bodies need to survive and thrive. And we know the three macronutrients are protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Under normal circumstances, we don’t use protein as an energy source like we use fat and carbohydrates for — although we can. Instead, we use protein to build and maintain muscle, to replenish all of the amino acid supply that we need to make enzymes, cell walls, all the structures of our bodies, our hormones, our neurotransmitters — to maintain all of the tissues in our body, not just muscle, but every single tissue in our body. Protein is an absolutely essential building block. So that’s why we need it, and we need to get enough of it. But beyond even that — just the vitalness of protein for our bodies to be able to run properly and run efficiently — protein in our diet, a high-protein diet, also helps improve our metabolic health. It does this through multiple mechanisms, but one of the most useful things about having a high-protein diet is that it really helps tame your hunger. It’s one of the most satiating things that we can eat. So it can really help with our satiety, which, in turn, helps with weight loss. And diets with increased protein have a really positive effect on our metabolic health. People who eat a higher-protein diet — it can help you prevent type 2 diabetes. If you already have type 2 diabetes, it can help you manage it and get better blood sugar control and better metabolic health. It can prevent metabolic disease, and it can help treat metabolic disease if it’s already there. And it could probably even help prevent heart disease. And we definitely know that a high-protein diet is really helpful to prevent sarcopenia, which is muscle loss as we age. It’s one of the most detrimental things that can happen to us as we age — we get weaker and more frail. And a high-protein diet also helps prevent bone loss and osteoporosis. So there are lots and lots of reasons why getting a good enough amount of protein is really important for your health and well-being. And so I hope that I’ve encouraged you all to want to do it. And I think it would be important to now dive into what that actually looks like. What does one gram of protein per kilogram of body weight look like? And how do you do that — especially, how do you get there if, probably right now, many of you listening might not be eating anywhere near that?
Dr Lucy Burns (05:32) Absolutely. Absolutely. So I guess there are a couple of things even, you know, just to break down further. We know that protein is big, long chains of amino acids. So we've got these little tiny building blocks, which, as you mentioned, Mears, are used to make, you know, every hormone, every enzyme, every piece of connective tissue in our body, as well as our muscles. So it's not just muscle, it's for a whole lot of other things. So these little amino acids are then joined together, and when they're joined together in little groups, they might be called peptides. When these peptides are joined together a bit more, they might be called polypeptides. And when the polypeptides are all joined together, they're sort of known as protein. So it's just big chains of things.
Dr Mary Barson (06:17) I like to think of them as Lego bricks. Amino acids are the little Lego bricks that build the proteins that build us.
Dr Lucy Burns (06:22) Exactly. Exactly. We have things called essential amino acids and non-essential. And this is the same with lots of things in our body. We have the same with fatty acids, which are essential and non-essential, which are actually really dumb names. Like, if I was in charge of naming, I would never have called them that. Because essential means that it's essential you eat them in your diet. Who thought of that? Who thought of that?
Dr Mary Barson (06:50) Yeah. And that's it. Because there are, like, 20 different amino acids that we need to make all the different Lego blocks that we need to build our bodies, build our enzymes, build our muscles, build every single part of us. But there are nine the human body can't make. And those nine, we have to eat. And because we have to eat them, that's why they're called essential. Yes. It's even more jargon. There’s a word like “complete protein.” A complete protein is one that has at least some of all of the essential amino acids in it. And an incomplete protein is the word if it's missing one, two, or more of them. Lots of jargon to contend with.
Dr Lucy Burns (07:27) Yeah, absolutely. And again, jargon can be hijacked by marketing. And we'll talk a bit more about that. But ideally, we need to be eating protein because that will, in general, include the majority of our essential amino acids. When we get protein from different sources, then we are likely to have eaten our essential amino acids. So, huzzah. And if we then go, okay, well, yep, goodie. Thanks for the science lesson, Dr Lucy. But what does that actually mean? And so we go, all right, well, protein sources — and there is nothing that comes in nature that is pure protein. Like there is nothing. Everything comes — protein comes usually bundled with a little bit of fat or a little bit of carbohydrates, or in some cases, a lot of fat or a lot of carbohydrates, which is okay. But what’s important to do is know that there is — people go on, I just eat protein. No, they don’t. That’s right. No. We then go, okay, goodie, that’s good. So how can I get these 90 grams of protein a day? And what happens if I don’t meet that? So if we want to talk just again, in round numbers, because the human body is not a computer where you have to be absolutely precise. What we put in is imprecise because even how we measure that is imprecise. Like even how you measure the amount of protein in a piece of meat is a guesstimate. So we go, okay, good. So we know it doesn’t have to be perfect, but we’re looking roughly — and I love your formula for protein, Miss, in meat and fish and poultry. What formula do you use?
Dr Mary Barson (09:10) I just love simple math. So meat — it’s not pure protein, as you mentioned, it’s got a lot of water in it. It’s got a bit of carbs. It’s got a few other things in it. I just like to quarter it. So I say that, like, your meat has roughly one-quarter protein. So a hundred grams of steak — I say that’s 25 grams of protein. I do the same for chicken. I do the same for fish. It’s not absolutely 100% precise, but there is no need to be obsessional about this counting. It’s not going to be helpful because, as you mentioned, there is lack of throughout the entire system when it comes to counting things in biology. So I find that really helpful. I just quarter it. That’s what I find is sort of useful. A hundred grams of steak — 25 grams of protein.
Dr Lucy Burns (09:55) Oh, absolutely. I love that. So we go, yeah, 200 grams salmon fillet, 50 grams of protein, give or take. This is why we don’t need to be absolutely precise because humans aren’t like that, but a ballpark is good. And every now and then it can be helpful to do an audit of what you eat. We don’t need to track again. Some people love tracking. Tracking can be just another name for dieting, but an audit every now and then can be helpful to go, right, yeah, what do I roughly eat on most days? And, you know, you go, well, you know, oh, well, I eat 87 grams of protein. Well, good enough. I’m happy with that. That is good enough. But if you suddenly go, I only eat 50 grams a day, most days we’re probably going, not quite good enough.
Dr Mary Barson (10:40) That’s right. A lot of people would probably find that if they actually did track it, you might be surprised that you’re not eating as much protein as you would hope.
Dr Lucy Burns (10:48) Oh, absolutely. And I think because also eggs have been — most people, if they’re eating eggs for breakfast, would eat two eggs, but two eggs is really only somewhere, again depending on the size of your egg, around about 12, 13, maybe 14 grams of protein for two eggs. It’s not very much. So if you’re just having two eggs, it’s not enough.
Dr Mary Barson (11:10) That’s right. We’re talking more about how people can hit their protein targets. How do you actually do that? That aiming to get about 30 grams for each meal is reasonable. Thirty grams of protein for each meal, I think, is quite reasonable. And that would be a really good thing to sort of aim for. If you’ve got a lot of weight to lose, if you’ve got, like, type 2 diabetes, if you’ve got metabolic disease, these are reasons why you might want to get even more protein than just that, you know, three times 30 grams, 90 grams a day. But if you just start with that, trying to get 30 grams of protein per meal, that’s going to be a really good way to do it. But the way that you want to do it is by focusing on whole foods, protein-rich foods that could include eggs (but you have to eat quite a few of them), meat, seafood, dairy products, a few legumes that are higher in proteins — contentious, but there are a few that you can pick. These foods — they’re not only higher in protein — yeah, Lucy and I were having a bit of a legume argument before this podcast, we almost went to fisticuffs, it was pretty funny. It’s all right, we don’t always have to agree with each other.
Dr Lucy Burns (12:18) It’s all right, and what it will be, it’ll be a great, you know, it’ll be one of our Instagram posts — you know, Team Lucy, Team Mary. You can be pro-lupin and pro-legume, and I’ll be non-pro-legume.
Dr Mary Barson (12:31) I don’t know if I’m pro-legume, I’m just not anti-legume necessarily — I’m legume moderate. But the thing is, these whole foods — and you and I can get our punch on later about lupin beans and whether or not they should be included here — they’re high in nutrients in general. And so if you are doing this, if you’re focusing on these protein-rich foods, by definition your high-protein diet is also a high-nutrition diet, which is key. That means you’re going to be getting all of the goodness that you need to fuel your body, to nourish your body — all the vitamins, all the minerals, all of those macronutrients, micronutrients — everything is going to be in there when you focus on whole foods. So by far and away, that is the best way to do it. Which leads us to another question we get asked a lot, Dr Lucy — well, couldn’t I just have protein powders to hit my protein target?
Dr Lucy Burns (13:33) Yes. So our thoughts are that protein powders are useful if you’ve got altered anatomy or altered physiology. And what we mean by that is that if you’ve had bariatric surgery, then you don’t have the same anatomy as someone without bariatric surgery. So it can be very hard to literally fit the protein into your shrunken stomach. If you are using GLP-1 medications, then again, altered physiology, and it is hard to ingest enough whole protein because you’re so full. And as we’ve discovered, protein is a very satiating nutrient, and it’s very hard to overeat it. And it’s very hard to eat it if you’re on appetite suppressant medication. So those cases aside, I mean, protein powders — the majority of them — are just ultra-processed food. They would fit into our category of the sheep in wolf’s clothing. They pretend and they’re marketed as being healthy. And the majority of them are not. They’re full of — I mean, lots of them are full of sugar for a start.
Dr Mary Barson (14:50) Yes, so true.
Dr Lucy Burns (14:51) They’re often full of emulsifiers. Yeah, they’re full of things. And they’re marketed to — you can have exactly the same powder, let’s say the same formulation — it’ll have a black label on it and pictures of muscles, and it’ll be marketed to men as muscle building. And then the same powder will be pink and marketed to women as a lady shake of some sort, and marketed for weight loss. So shrinking, yeah, all this stuff. So we really need to be very mindful of the marketing around processed protein powders. And I think we just need to call them out as being an ultra-processed food. They’re not a food — a powder, a protein powder, is not the same as getting your protein from whole foods. You know, and again, meal replacements will have vitamins and stuff in them, but we also know the body doesn’t even process vitamins the same way from powders and formulations as it does from whole foods. Yes.
Dr Mary Barson (15:51) So by and large, whole foods are going to be much, much better for you. We have mentioned this before, but there are perhaps a couple of circumstances where protein supplements might be helpful to help people hit that protein target and help get the metabolic benefits of protein — if they're on weight loss medications where the gut just doesn't function normally because of the effect of the weight loss medications, and if people have had bariatric surgery and again, the gut has an abnormal functioning because of the surgery. So what would we say for these groups of beautiful people? What would we recommend?
Dr Lucy Burns (16:32) Yeah. So look, there are less processed meal replacements — ones without the sugars, the sweeteners, and the marketing hype around them. And we've got a few brands that we, you know, would look at that are on our website. Again, people have to try different ones because I've also spoken to people who have tried some of these recommended brands from us and they still, you know, they cause gut pain or they cause bloating or things like that. So this is the thing that we do need to be mindful of. It's like everything — it's not a one-size-fits-all. It's sometimes, you know, try it and see if they suit you. So those can be helpful. Some people again, perhaps with bariatric surgery or with GLP-1s, focusing on a whole food diet — so they've got plenty, they’re getting their vitamins and their micronutrients, but they're just still not quite getting enough protein because they're too full — they can supplement. So not replace a meal, but supplement a meal with a protein powder. And we've got a couple of links on our website for recommended protein powders. The marketing around protein powders is that it's so simple — you just, you know, put it in water and shake it up and off you go.
Dr Mary Barson (17:48) You don't even have to eat! It's just, you can drink — it's just, it's so simple. We've taken the whole problem — meals, everything — it's solved for you. Just have a shake. You'll get thinner. It'll be amazing.
Dr Lucy Burns (17:59) Yeah. It's so tempting to think that this is your solution. This is the solution to everything you've had — to just eat a shake or drink a shake. But it's not. It's not the solution. It might be useful very, very occasionally, but it's not something that is really going to be helpful long-term. The solution, I always think, is — and again, this is a good little mindset — if your brain's going, "Oh my God, I haven't got time," is to remember that back in the olden days, which really weren't that long ago when you think of human evolution, we had been hunting and gathering for tens of thousands of years, if not hundreds of thousands. Even only a few hundred years ago, even only 200 years ago, we didn't have refrigerators in every house. People were still often getting their own meat, gathering their own vegetables, fossicking and foraging. And so, imagine you decide, "Wow, it's time for dinner. Oh, I've actually got to go and hunt my food now." But we don't have to do that. All we have to do is open a fridge or a cupboard. We don't have to go and hunt. We don't have to go and imagine that you think, "Oh my God, I'm a bit hungry. Wouldn't mind a snack. Oh, I have to go and hunt down a bison or snare a rabbit. Oh, now I've got to skin the rabbit. Oh God, now I've got to do all that." Like, we don't have to do any of that. We live in this environment, this world where getting food is the least of our problems, but yet we want to make it even less of a problem. And we do all of this at the expense, really, of our health and wellbeing. Yeah.
Dr Mary Barson (19:43)Beautifully put, Lucy. Beautifully put.
Dr Lucy Burns (19:45) I know. Yeah. So don't fall for the little tricks, because this is the other thing — the protein powders — they'll tell you all about how your hair and your skin are going to glow and all those sorts of things. Honestly, you can get all those benefits just from eating real food.
Dr Mary Barson (20:02) Yeah. Plus more. All those benefits and more.
Dr Lucy Burns (20:05) Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, for my current 30-gram breakfast at the moment — again, I oscillate between having — I'll make a little frittata that's got three eggs. So that's about 18 grams of protein, or 19, give or take — whatever, 20, let’s say, round it up — and a little bit of cheese in it. So then cheese is, again, your quarter recipe works well for the cheese. So, 100 grams of cheese, 25 grams of protein. So therefore, I go, right, if I want 10 grams of protein, I need 40 grams of cheese in it. So, yeah, that’s kind of — then that’s the protein. I’ll fling in a few veggies. So that’s a great 30-gram breakfast. The other one I’ll sometimes do is Greek yogurt. Again, not all of the Greek yogurts have the same amount of protein in them, but I just get one that’s Greek yogurt. My one has about nine grams of protein per 100 grams, give or take. So, and I have about 200 grams of Greek yogurt. So, you know, it’s 18 grams of protein, give or take, and then some chia seeds in it and a few nuts on top. So that brings that up to close to 30 grams as well. Close to — you know, near enough, somewhere in the ballpark is good enough.
Dr Mary Barson (21:20) That’s right. You don’t need to be obsessionally counting and weighing everything. At the moment, my sort of favorite 30-gram breakfast is air fryer mess. That’s something I just made up and named myself. I know — in the air fryer, I chuck in some spinach, tomatoes, and leftover veggies, whatever I’ve got really. And I’ve got just little meatballs, little bristles that I’ve made — sort of make a huge batch all at once. I break them up and chuck that in. I chuck in some grated cheese and I crack a couple of eggs in it. And then I just cook it in the air fryer. And it’s pretty nice. The spinach and the broccoli go all crispy and the cheese goes all crispy. And then I sort of scoop it out and eat it. It does not look pretty, but it tastes really yummy. That’s a really good high-protein brekkie.
Dr Lucy Burns (22:03) That sounds amazing. Are the meatballs already cooked?
Dr Mary Barson (22:07) Yeah. So, the meatballs that I’ve already cooked that I have sitting in the fridge or freezer — just really super simple meatballs. Sometimes they’re actually literally just meat, but I might often put a bit of egg or salt and spices when I make them. And I just bake them. It’s just really easy and they’re pretty yummy. And yeah, they’re there, ready to go.
Dr Lucy Burns (22:27) Yeah. I love a bit of minor prep in advance. So I will air fry. So I buy my chicken already chopped. Again, you can chop your own chicken if you like, but for me, it's easier to have it pre-chopped. I buy a kilo of diced chicken, bang that in the air fryer, and then just stick it in a container in the fridge. And then you can add that to, yeah, whatever. And it's already done. So suddenly, diced chicken in — I'm going to try Dr Mary's air fryer mess. Absolutely. Sounds wonderful. Sounds wonderful. So lovely peeps, summary: do a protein audit. See if you're hitting somewhere around about your target. Next week, we're going to be talking about fasting in the podcast. So we will let you know how do you manage your protein intake if you're also fasting. We've got lots of tips on that. So tune in to next week's episode to hear more about that. But yeah, and if you can, as much as possible, get your protein from whole food sources, and your body will thank you for it.
Dr Mary Barson (23:29) Yeah. Be grateful you don't have to go and hunt your own bison.
Dr Lucy Burns (23:34) Exactly. All right, lovely friends. We'll see you next week.
Dr Mary Barson (23:40) Bye for now.
Dr Lucy Burns (23:43) The information shared on the Real Health and Weight Loss Podcast, including show notes and links, provides general information only. It is not a substitute, nor is it intended to provide individualised medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, nor can it be construed as such. Please consult your doctor for any medical concerns.
