Hello, everybody this week we want to talk to you about the Secret Power of Protein for Healthy Weight Loss!
We also cover this in our video on our Nutrition Leaders UK YouTube Channel, you can check it out HERE
It’s featured in our IT STARTS HERE Series which are 10 steps to reach your Level 10 result and helps you discover the best version of yourself in 2020 and helps set you up for optimum health for the new decade…
If you email us us at info@nutritionleaders.co.uk we will send you a FREE COPY of this really great booklet that covers the 10 steps to health that are very very powerful whatever your health goals are!
Okay, so the power of protein, you know, your body is really important. After all it’s the only one we have to live in, right?
We need to look after it, so that means we need to fuel it correctly, and what we find is that most of our clients don't eat well when we first meet them!
They don't eat enough lean protein in the day and it's one of the major reasons why people get stuck with their Health and Wellness goals!!!
So it's one of the first things we like to correct with them.
We have personally supplemented for a long time now in fact more than 18 years with our fantastic Herbalife Nutrition product range which makes hitting our daily protein target simple and is very cost effective, but we also advise Clients and Team members how they can do it through eating whole foods as well. It is much easier though if you're supplementing and we ourselves of course do both. Just check out our entire product range at http://www.nutritionleaders.co.uk
We have a lot of people who say to us “Look you know, do you just live on Herbalife Nutrition supplements?” and of course we don't as we're big foodies!
We love to cook, we love to socialise, and bit by bit as we've changed our Lifestyle and embraced a Healthy, Active Lifestyle we've integrated Herbalife Nutrition products into our every day lives.
We've learned a lot about the way our food has changed over time and unfortunately, every body knows, its not for the better ☹️
Herbalife Nutrition is really flexible. You can combine it around your lifestyle as you make changes. So it’s fantastic for sports and anyone who is active, and for all different ages.
What you need to know is not all protein is the same…
So we're going to talk about that.
Well, what's the difference? What's the best sort of protein? Why wouldn't you eat too much red meat? Why would you go for maybe more plant based protein?
But then what have you got to be aware of?
So if anyone ever asks you do you know what protein is? or What does it look like? You will know whereas a lot of people, maybe even a third of all people we speak to, don't really know what Protein is and they've got a bit stuck by that question.
So that means it's very hard for them to get there daily protein requirement right if they're not even aware of what it is…
In short and basic terms, I'm a bit of a carnivore, yet I am also aware of the health benefit of having plant protein in my daily diet and I get that with my Herbalife Nutrition products to give me some balance.
I am somebody who enjoys eating meat and fish. And so for me meat and fish is an obvious choice and a good choice.
If you are vegan or vegetarian, you can obviously be looking at pulses, lentils, things like that. Whoever you are, as a healthy snack, maybe look at some nuts, but not a whole packet of salted peanuts with the saturated fat that would come with it. More like a palm sized portion of dried almonds, or pistacious because obviously if you have too many and the calories can go up too much that might not help you if you are trying to lose weight healthily…
When selecting meat as a protein source I most often go for poultry or game. The reason being is that both of these choices are a lean meat with minimum saturated fat.
The reason the government recommends that we limit the amount of “red meat” (other than poulty or game) that we eat to no more than three portions a week is because although you are getting protein from red meat, it comes with higher amounts of saturated fat, and you want to control and limit the amount of saturated fat you eat.
So when you choose poultry for example or when you choose fish it's leaner and you do not get the saturated fat that you get with red meat but you are getting the protein your body needs.
We do eat “red meat” ourselves but we limit it to once or twice a week maximum, and also we'll go for the the leaner cuts of meat not just the cheapest we can find but the ones that actually say lean on the packaging and you can look at the quality and quantities by looking at all the figures on the packaging.
So we make some better choices in this area when thinking about the meat we will eat.
The mainstay of our diet is around plant based curries, chicken, fish, poultry and game for our main meal and most of the recipes we use are quite simple really.
However, it's the rest of the day where a lot of people go wrong…
Most people’s diet is heavy with protein later on in the day and evening.
But ideally, if you really want to be kind to your body and fuel it correctly throughout the day and not suffer from the highs and lows of sugar surges along with the corresponding energy dips which usually come with it you need to have some lean protein for breakfast to start your day in the best way possible and mid morning have a healthy protein snack.
At lunchtime a balanced meal including protein.
Again mid afternoon another healthy protein based snack.
In the evening for their main meal, is usually the one that most people tend to have most protein.
So what sort of average daily protein intake should most men and women be aiming for?
Most women on average should aim for 75g daily.
Men on average should aim for 100g daily.
Men generally need more protein than women because of different body shape, different size, etc.
But please be aware that these figures are averages and one of the things that we're very happy to do is send you a link which will allow you to see your exact number of grams of protein you need daily based on your own body composition and you can know exactly your own requirement simply send us a message to info@nutritionleaders.co.uk
Unfortunately, government recommendations for daily protein intake for men and women in our experience is very imprecise as it’s based on a one size fits all model and is often wrong and therefore misleading for a lot of people!
But otherwise, just use as a general guide 75g for women protein requirement daily and 100g daily for men.
Now, the other very important thing to mention with protein apart from the fact it's one of the major fundamental building blocks required by your body at a cellular level, is that the protein that you need on a daily basis actually helps you retain your existing muscle mass.
So, the challenge is that when you go on one of the many diet plans availaible, and the focus is on reducing calories and losing weight measured on traditional bathroom weighing scales (without paying any attention to the nutritional content of those calories) you inevitably tend to cut back and reduce your vitamin and mineral and protein intake unknowingly…
What this then results in that traditional weighing scales won't show you is how much muscle you've actually lost, as well as body fat!!!
Usually most traditional diets result in a 50% muscle loss and 50% fat loss.
BUT, you don't want to lose muscle!
Why? - Because the more muscle that your body has, the more calories you'll be burning at rest. And the more fat you have on your body, the slower your metabolism and your metabolism.
The way to think about your body’s Metabolism is just like an internal fire.
So what this means for many people who are carrying a lot of body fat is that their metabolism is working very very slowly like a fire which is it just about smouldering resulting in these people not being able to consume very much food without gaining yet more body fat weight and because bodyfat is roughly three times the density of muscle it means they will tend to become larger and larger!!!
Whereas, if you have a lean body with more muscle than fat it will result in your metabolism burning more calories at rest so its just like your internal fire (Metabolism) is working overtime and you're burning off more calories all day long even when your just sitting around. Sounds good right?
So the next question is, well, how do I get 75g of lean protein for a woman or 100g for a man, and what does that actually look like?
Well, if you eat meat, did you know how many grams of protein there are in a chicken breast? Most people have got no idea. So I tell Clients that's roughly 25 grams on average.
So if you are a man and your personal daily protein target is 100 grams or even 124 grams, you're going to need three or four chicken breasts a day to hit that requirement!
Now that's expensive to buy and tricky to prepare. Not always portable, and hard to digest.
And to be honest, I don't know really know anybody except maybe a bodybuilder who might want to go to the extreme side of all that preparation involved.
So that's where supplementation again comes in making this process both affordable, simple and fast.
As I said earlier you want to consume your protein requirement little and often throughout the day and not in one big hit with a massive meal at one sitting.
Maybe we have some chicken and jacket potato and some healthy salad in the evening…
But what about the rest of the day?
How about your sandwich at lunchtime?
Take a look on the back of the food label if you're grabbing one on the run and you've not had time to make it yourself at home.
Unfortunately, they hide the protein content.
Look carefully on the back of the package, it's not on the front with the nutritional traffic lights!
So flip it over, have a look and read the protein. And if you're picking up something that's got about 20 grams or so, you know, you're pretty much on track (20-25 grams would be great for a main meal).
If it's a snack, I personally look for over seven grams if I'm out and about shopping, which to be honest, can be quite hard to find and expensive usually.
If you love chocolate like I do check out the Herbalife Nutrition yummy Healthy Chocolate Protein Bars that I really love which have 10 grams of protein in them, which is excellent for a healthy snack, and I can often eat three of them in a day making a total of 30 grams to boost up my protein intake and helps me reach my Protein Factor for the day around my other food which is absolutely fantastic!
Also, as part of the Herbalife Nutrition Healthy snacking range, for those of you who love savoury, like my partner Karen does be sure to try our Roasted Soy Beans which contain 9 grams of protein per serving. They taste great, are good for you help you feel full and are great to have with a drink or a glass of wine rather than unhealthy crisps…
If you fancy a snack like Soup then we have a Healthy Gourmet Tomato Soup which has 7 grams of protein per serving which is AMAZING…
It’s good to mix things up and keep things interesting, so we direct our clients to other good choices, and provide suggested lists of Wholefood Healthy Snacks.
When you're out and about shopping try a palmful of almonds, rather than the whole packet, a small yoghurt, maybe if you like savoury food try a quarter of a tub of some hummus with some carrot sticks.
So how will YOU look at protein when your next shopping?
See, if you can look for more lean protein as this will absolutely help you!
Another thing for you to think about and be aware of is the way we're traditionally taught to eat from a very young age which revolves around three main meals per day at breakfast, lunch, and an evening dinner.
This means we're actually getting the bulk of our protein in our main evening meal usually normally after six o'clock and typically even after 8pm.
So this is at a time when we are literally moving on to prepare to go to sleep and rest and recover.
So your body is having to do a hell of a lot of work actually, in processing and digesting, this protein heavy main evening meal, when instead it really needs to be in a state where its ready to rest and recover and regenerate overnight while you are sleeping, as the body does a lot of regenerating work while you're sleeping.
This is another reason why we put our Clients on a Five Meal a Day, Healthy Eating Plan!
When we talk about Healthy Snacks we don't just mean a few lettuce leaves and a salad as that is not a balanced meal nor a snack.
You need to include protein along with with these things.
So again, our recommendation for someone who is starting on one of our Healthy Herbalife Nutrition Plans, is that they would start their day with our Award Winning Healthy Meal Smoothie Formula 1 first thing in the morning and Mid-Morning they'll have a Healthy Snack including protein which could either be from our Herbalife Nutrition Healthy Snacking Range or something else that we recommend.
One of the things I really love as a balanced Healthy Snack is an AMAZING combination of fruit and Peanut Butter!!!
But keep in mind there's different qualities of peanut butter, so if you like peanut butter, then make sure it’s a good quality one.
One I personally use and that’s really good is called “Whole Earth”.
You can buy this in Supermarkets like Morrison's or Sainsbury's or in some wholefood specialist shops. It’s a good quality peanut butter containing good levels of protein along with good fats.
Simply take an apple, slice the apple up and get a big dollop of the peanut butter and put it on top of the apple slice. Now to be clear I'm NOT talking about a teaspoon or two!
I mean a HEAPED TABLESPOON!!
If you do this and put on one or two heaped tablespoons on to each slice of Apple you'll only be able to manage to eat perhaps two slices of Apple if you're a woman and maybe three if you're a guy…
You will be surprised how filling this snack actually is and its what we would regard as a balanced healthy snack.
Lunch, if you're on a Herbalife Nutrition Healthy Weight Loss Plan would be a second Herbalife Healthy Meal Smoothie, or if you were following our Ideal Breakfast Plan, like Millions of People do, you would have a lunch of your choice, but would try to make it Healthy and Colourfull and include some protein to make sure it’s a balanced meal.
Mid-afternoon once again would be a Healthy Protein Snack followed by a balanced Evening Meal.
This is why typically people who use Herbalife Nutrition for the first time tend to say things to us like… “Wow, I can't believe you want me to eat more than I was eating before, but before I was gaining weight and getting bigger”!!!
We say yes that’s because before you were DIETING and trying to STARVE your body into LOSING WEIGHT, but now you are following a 40 year old proven Nutrition Plan.
So, it's very different and it takes a bit of time to adjust, to adjust your thinking.
That’s why our products, Herbalife Nutrition products, are not in shops because you need the personal support and guidance of a Herbalife Nutrition Distributor who has used the products themselves and got a personal product and health result and therefore is qualified to show you how you can do the same thing and to help you adjust your thinking as they had to adjust there thinking too…
So it all depends on what your Health Goals are and Why Now would be the right time for you to start working on them!?
If you would like to learn more about what we do, have any questions or would like a FREE COPY of our IT STARTS HERE- Discover the best version of yourself booklet- 10 steps to reach your Level 10!
Simply email us at info@nutritionleaders.co.uk