Josh Kennedy: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the Cricket Matters podcast. Today's topic is about how much protein cricketers need during in season. James, have you had any protein for your breakfast this morning? I have actually. I've had, I've had my eggs, 

James Breese: I had steak, burgers and eggs. How about that? Steak, burgers and eggs for breakfast.

That's a breakfast of champions. That is absolutely it. I find so much better. I just, well, not just that, I just find on high protein and fat. I just feel so much better throughout the course of the day. I, my body doesn't tolerate well with carbohydrates mostly, but it's just, that's just me. But, so I always do a lot better.

I just feel more cognitively awake, uh, ready to do podcasts and, uh, fit and healthy, where to go. It gets my protein in start of the day. Which is the topic. It's their show, right? 

Josh Kennedy: Well, exactly. Um, I think most people, I, I do as well. If I, you know, have something I'm lazy and I have some toast or something, I always feel.

Have a dip later on, you know, and then you get like, oh God, I need a snack or something. But if you have, I have my eggs, a bit of watercress, I add some mushrooms, [00:01:00] um, a bit cheer seeds on there. For your, for your, uh, fiber. Fiber as well. Pro good gut health. And it does, it fills you up. Done it ity, yeah. Makes you, makes you feel better.

Absolutely. It's all about. All about, uh, gut health and recovery, et cetera, et cetera. So, yeah. Why, sort of like, before we dive into the amount of protein cricketers might need, why is it important? Let's talk about that first. God, 

James Breese: there's so many reasons, right? Uh, let's start with the simple one. You eat more protein, you feel more full.

And if you are more full for longer and it stops you overeating because one of the biggest problems in season, 'cause it's about protein for in season, is. Cricketers put on weight for various different reasons, and it's a way of keeping you and making you stay full for longer so you're not craving all those energy drinks, all those extra sweetss and chocolates and various different things.

So that's a starting, that's a starting point. Secondly, uh, it help helps you maintain [00:02:00] muscle mass. Right. Because if most people who are training hard throughout the year anyway, their, their training, the gym tends to drop during the season. Yeah. Because they have to recover. They haven't got time. They've got too many games going on.

So therefore, we need to try and maintain that muscle mass, mass, mass, mass, mass. You must exactly need, need, need to maintain that muscle mass for as long as possible. Right? Mm. Now. If you don't have enough protein, that won't happen and you ate very, very quickly in, in comparison. So you got that now, but again, this is the time before, well, before 

Josh Kennedy: we move, before we move on, actually before we move on, I think to make a point about, you know, talking about maintaining muscle mass and not putting on weight, because we, I think we've done a podcast about this in the past, and I don't have the statistic off the top of my head when you, you know, every, uh, couple of percent increase in weight increases your injury risk, right?

James Breese: Yep. Which is very, very relevant because it is the start of June. We're one month into the crooked season, and what [00:03:00] has happened already amongst a lot of people, they're injured. Yep, for a variety of different reasons. So you need protein levels if you are recovering from injury as well to help support the repair of tissue and muscle if need be.

So there's many, many factors why you need protein. Uh, and we can't emphasize enough, but guess what? It's the least understood thing. People think they're getting adequate protein, but when they actually count it. They don't, they're getting far, far from it. So this is what we're trying to raise awareness around.

You know, here is part of a simple solution because for us, protein comes first. Like when you are calculating your macronutrients, your proteins, your fats, your carbohydrates, you could argue that alcohol is a, is a macronutrient as well. So you've gotta take, especially in cricket integration, and especially in cricket, postgame.

So you've gotta think about these terms. So protein comes first 'cause everything else comes [00:04:00] off the back of that in our professional opinion. So the question is like, well how much, how much do you need? 

Josh Kennedy: Quick question. How much was your, 'cause you track your food. Mm-hmm. How much protein did you have this morning?

Your breakfast with your eggs and your burgers and about 80 grams. Actually, that's a good start of the day, isn't it? Yep. 

James Breese: That is uh, four eggs. Three steak burgers. Um, three steak burgers. You're hungry this morning. Steak burgers was, yeah, exactly. All mini eight. They're all 80 grams each. They're all from the butchers.

Oh, nice. Around the corner. I know, I know. They're all, it's 240 grams in total of steak burger, which is all Lee Mints put in, put in butter butchers and four eggs, four medium size eggs. So it's, I know quality protein as well. There you go. That's another thing. Yeah, it is, and it's, I know that is with a bit of sauce on the side, that's about 575 calories.

For a lot of food is, is quite low in, in, uh, calorie density effectively Makes sense, but high in protein. Yeah. So is an idea, but so well, where do we [00:05:00] start? Okay. Now there's different studies saying different things and different times to have different levels of protein, but they all kind of agree around the same mark.

It works out as about two grams per kilo. For your protein intake. So if you weigh, let's just take me now. I weigh 72 kilos as of this morning, which I weigh myself in at. And so for me, I should be aiming for 144 grams of protein as part of my calorie intake per day. That is literally what I should be aiming for.

They do say between 1.2 to 2.5, that is like kind of a mix. But in terms of getting stuff here, there's no really upper limit. But then the more you have an upper limit in terms of grams per. Per kilo, it means you have more and consume more calories, which then takes away from the carbohydrates and fat, which you need as an athlete to keep consuming.

Josh Kennedy: Yeah, of course. You gotta get that, you gotta get that balance. 'cause you need cars for recovery as well. Exactly. Energy. [00:06:00] Yeah, it is. 

James Breese: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And repair tissue of everything. It's, it's so vital. Uh, and cognitive fun function. Yeah. You don't have enough carbs. You literally can't think clearly or think straight when it comes to performance 'cause it's just too much going on.

So two grams per kilo of body weight is what we should be aiming for in a nutshell. Okay? You can argue till the cows come home, but that's what the research says and we double checked it all this morning with what the latest research is. Now on the lower end of scale is 1.2. Again, for all our athletes, the best performing ones they have around that two grams of protein.

So again, if you are a hundred kilo athlete, you know, that's 200 grams of protein a day, which I know is a lot, but that's what is a lot need. Uh, if you're 72 kilos like me, that's 144 grams. Or if you're more like some of the female athletes, we work with about 55 kilos. Again, you're looking at 110 grams per protein.

Per day. Mm-hmm. To have that, to support your function and optimum performance [00:07:00] throughout the course of the season. Yeah. But it goes beyond the season. This is, this is kind of minimum levels throughout the year, you know, changes 

Josh Kennedy: your. Or, or you're in a deficit, then you, you need even more protein and I think goes up.

The recommendation is up to about 2.5. Yeah. Uh, grams per kilo. Which is a lot, 

James Breese: isn't it? Exactly. But it's all part of supporting the healing and reducing inflammation. Yeah. There's a lot of guys who have hurt their ankles recently. It's in guys with knee problems. Coming around at the moment. A lot of back issues happening at the moment.

So maybe actually, you know what, we should actually do a podcast about back spasms. I think Josh, that'd be one for the topic we can bring up at some point today 'cause that happens a lot. So, but yeah, that's it. It's it. You don't need to go much further than this. It's just very simple ideas to think about.

Aim for two grams of protein track if you haven't got, if you can't track, use your palm, you know, over five big palm size portions per day. If you'd like to give it a go and let us know how, how better you feel from it, and also hopefully how would you improve your performance. 

Josh Kennedy: Yeah, [00:08:00] try and get protein in with every meal, basically your breakfast, your lunch, your dinner, um, and make it as quality as you can.

'cause obviously quality matters. Um, it does actually. Good. Go on. Sorry. Go on. I was gonna say look for high. Um. High protein foods, which I think, if I remember correctly, you're looking at 10 grams of protein per hundred calories is cost as, uh, high protein chicken, Turkey. 

James Breese: Uh, I use Lean Mints and use Lean Mints in in Steak Booers as an example.

So yeah, absolutely fish, yeah, fish high, high protein intake comparison to calories. So that's a really good way to white meat too. So it's again, for those who are vegan or vegetarian. There's multiple options out there in terms beans. 

Josh Kennedy: You gotta get your beans in. Yeah. And probably in probably a protein shake as well if you are vegan, vegetarian.

James Breese: Yep. And if you talk about protein shakes and everything, make sure it's high quality. Like I can't, oh God. I went into a, there's a new [00:09:00] nutrition, uh, restaurant open up in Cardiff. I won't name names, but I went into it yesterday and I was disappointed. I was disappointed. Really? It was awful. It was awful.

Like it, it's pitching itself as nutrition, but it's just cheap, nasty food. Frozen card, they'll know exactly what I mean if they go to wood church. But, uh, you know, if you go in there, it was a very poor, in poor replication of a nutrition bar. And then I asked for a protein smoothie. I thought, just try it out.

And they brought out the cheapest nastiest protein powder that you could possibly imagine. No doubt. Says it all. So again, go for high quality. I know it's, it's, it's not. You know, it's expensive, but it all counts to how you feel. Yeah. And how you wanna perform at the end of the day. Exactly. 

Josh Kennedy: So go for high quality protein about two, uh, two grams per kilo body weight and avoid the, uh, protein shop in Wich Church.

God, if, uh, that is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe. And if you would like our free training plan, then go to cricket matters.com/train. And [00:10:00] remember, our goal is to make you a better cricketer.