Your Guide to a Protein-Rich Diet

When it comes to protein, how do you know whether plant-based or animal-based proteins are the right call? How do you gauge the amount of protein that you should be intaking? And how do you incorporate enough protein into your diet while keeping your protein-rich meals interesting, fresh, and full of things you love?

I’ve touched on the topic of protein and the role it plays in your diet in past episodes, but this episode I’m specifically dedicating to teaching you about the complex topic of nutrition and protein. In this episode, I’m sharing important information with you like how to determine how many grams of protein you should be getting daily, how to create meal plans that support your dietary restrictions, lifestyle, and preferences while prioritizing protein intake, and how to make those changes that are going to matter starting right now.

I also wanted to share with you that I am now offering the Blood Sugar Mastermind as a mini-course, and it’s available right now! So if you missed out on the live course but still want to gain access to some of the amazing teaching and resources in the original program, CLICK HERE! I will also be offering a course called Optimizing Fat Loss and Maintaining Muscle on a GLP1 in the near future. This course focuses specifically on building a healthy lifestyle around protein and muscle retention, and if you want to be the first to get notified when I launch that, you can get on the waitlist HERE.

Get the Blood Sugar Mastermind Mini-Course

Get on the waitlist for the Optimizing Fat Loss and Maintaining Muscle on a GLP1 with Matthea Rentea MD

Quotes

I want you to think about 80 year old you. Think about the work that you're doing in your thirties, forties, fifties… that work matters because you're laying the foundation for continuing to have longevity and good mobility. - Matthea Rentea MD

Protein is an essential macronutrient, meaning if you don't eat it in your diet, your body will take those nutrients from your own muscle, breaking it down. You're almost cannibalizing yourself so that your body can continue to function. - Matthea Rentea MD

Do not ‘pass go’ without doing a nutrition audit. Because you can't work toward a goal if you have no idea where you're starting. - Matthea Rentea MD

In whatever plans you make or things you decide to try, I want you to always check in with yourself and ask ‘how does this feel for me?’. - Matthea Rentea MD

Pick one protein that you’re going to incorporate, don’t try to do everything at once. - Matthea Rentea MD

Audio Stamps

01:00 - Dr. Rentea shares why knowing your protein intake is so important for your overall health and wellness

05:08 - Dr. Rentea gives us tools and a starting point with which to gauge the amount of protein we should be getting

10:45 - Dr. Rentea breaks down different categories of protein and shares insight on the easiest ways to begin incorporating more protein into your diet 

14:04 - Dr. Rentea shares her resources for optimizing protein and

All of the information on this podcast is for general informational purposes only. Please talk to your physician and medical team about what is right for you. No medical advice is being on this podcast.

If you live in Indiana or Illinois and want to work with doctor Matthea Rentea, you can find out more on www.RenteaClinic.com

Transcript

0:29

Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. I'm so excited to be back today. How is everybody doing? We are going to talk today about how to get more protein. This is something that I pretty much on a daily basis help my patients and coaching clients with. And I help myself with this as well because this is something that it I really think can become second nature if this is something that you either Have not prioritized or you find hard to do. I definitely think that it can change with time. So I think first of all, we need to understand why do we even need to care about this topic? And a, a statistic that I heard recently is that as women, we are losing about one to 3% of our muscle per year. pretty much starting in our thirties. And that's quite scary if you think about it, because I always tell my patients, I want you to think about 80 year old you, you know, the work that you're doing in your thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, seventies, that work matters because you're laying the foundation for continuing to maybe have great longevity to have a really good ability as far as mobility. Are you able to carry groceries? Are you, feeling strong? Are you able to go on trips or do you feel weak and tired and you need assistance? What are things that we can do so that you can maintain your muscle mass. or you can build your muscle mass and getting enough protein in your diet is going to be one of those things. Why? Because protein is an essential macronutrient. So meaning if you don't physically eat it in your diet, what your body will do is it's going to need a certain amount to function. And so it will take those. essential macronutrients from your own muscle. It will break that down. You're almost cannibalizing yourself so that your body can continue to function. So if we want you to be in really optimal health where you're able to either keep your muscle or build up your muscle, this is going to have to be part of the equation. getting enough protein is going to be part of making that happen. One of the things that I think is really confusing is that people, number one, they have no idea how much they need. And so I'm going to go over a few rough thoughts today, but this is really an area where I want to encourage you. that you talk to your doctor and see what they think if they don't have strong ideas on this, because not every doctor is actually versed in this, if they don't have additional training. So this might be a really good time to talk to a registered dietitian. Even if you're maybe only able to get like, let's say one session that you pay for, if your insurance doesn't cover it. But I think it's really helpful. And this is something that I do with all my patients in the beginning to get a guide. What is your actual protein goal? Now, getting goals on their own and not knowing where you're starting. It's super unhelpful. So I'll give you an example. Like if someone's telling you that they want you to get 130 grams of protein per day and you don't even know where you're at, it just doesn't even matter where they want you to go. One of the first things I recommend in this area is that you do what I call a nutrition audit. You do a few days worth of writing down the foods that you're eating, what you're eating, when you're eating it, and how many grams of protein are in them. I'm actually not a fan of calorie counting or really getting obsessing with obsessed with this kind of tracking, but it's more, again, it's just the word audit. You're just trying to figure out what's actually going on. And then you take an average of those days and you see. How much protein on average am I getting with my patients? I like to say at least a three day log. Some people want you to do up to seven days. Honestly, I'm trying to set the bar low enough where people can actually do it and get it done. It tends to be hard enough for people to track three days. And this is why a You constantly tracking and weighing and measuring isn't part of what I do all the time because you just can't stay on top of it long term. But initially, just to get a sense of where you are. So once you've done that nutrition audit, by the way, do not pass go without doing this. This is a really big part if you did my blood sugar mastermind. I actually walked through this entire process, We are actually offering this as a course coming up where you can just watch the replays. Now, there's not going to be all of the things that were in there. If you're someone that did the course live, we're not having all the bonus calls that went with that. But if you want to be walked through this process of how do you do the nutrition audit? What do you look at all the different parts? I went through all of this in that blood sugar mastermind. And again, We are coming up here. I don't know if when this comes out, it will be under here, but on my course site coming up, we will have that as an option. If you are someone that didn't do it and you want to go through and learn this process, but do not pass go without doing this nutrition audit because you can't work on something if you have no idea where you're at. So number one, figure out how many grams on average per day you're getting. Now, how many should you be getting? There's lots of calculations and things like that. I'm going to give you some rough numbers today. that I find work well for majority of people. However, if your weight is on the lower side, or your weight is, let's say, BMI 40 or above, then I think you need to get some specialized recommendations. Again, talk to your doctor, talk to a registered dietitian. But in general, I like to say, kind of a target 100 approach targeting 100 grams of protein per day. So for women, that will look like 30 grams of protein three times a day for men, 30 grams of protein four times a day or again, breaking that up into three different portions throughout the day. If you're eating more protein than that at once. Generally, if you look at studies, they'll say, Oh, you can't absorb more than 30 grams of protein at a time. I don't think that's true. I think that people eat more than that and they do just fine. But again, I wouldn't recommend that you try to get all that protein in at one meal. It tends to not work out great from a purely volume standpoint. Back to the recommendation. Again, there might be a million reasons that it differs for you, but most people in general, if you're getting at least 100 grams of protein, you will at least be able to maintain the amount of muscle that you have. If you are working on muscle gain, that again will be a different equation. There'll be different consideration, but if you're getting at least 100, you will normally be doing good. One of the things that I really want to go over is and we'll talk about this more in the episode I think when people think about increasing protein they think oh this means I'm just gonna only have to be eating chicken all day and Oh, egg whites, and there's this like horrible perception of what's gonna have to happen. And I think you would be shocked what 30 grams of protein can look like. I just put on my Instagram stories the other day, if you don't follow me, I'm the tarantia MD on all the different social, but on Instagram. I do more on my stories, kind of like day to day, some things I'm eating or where I'm going, things like that. And I had a portion of edamame. If you get it from Costco, I want to say it's like 12 grams of protein. And then I had two pieces of Ezekiel bread with Sharp cheddar cheese and mustard and that was 37 grams of protein. So it's funny, you know, you always think with protein that it has to be this slab of meat and whatever, but really that was more than enough protein for me at that meal. Loved it. It sort of think sandwich with some edamame. Loved it. It was a combination that worked Great. I want you to open your mind that 30 grams of protein can look very different than you think it can be. Some milk with maybe some Catalina Crunch cereal, maybe you put some strawberries or blueberries in there for flavor in between. If you're doing like a Fairlife milk and a Catalina Crunch, you can for sure get to 30. You could do a Greek yogurt. You could make it salty. You can make it sweet. There are so many different ideas for how you can do this. And so one of the first things that I'm saying here is that you do the nutrition audit so you know where you're at. And then. Thing number two here that needs to happen is you need to decide what works for you. So there's many different ways to get in protein. There can be, I like to think about animal based sources. So whether that's meat and dairy, and then I like to think about plant based protein. It does not matter how you go about it. You can still get the protein. I don't care if you're a vegan and you eat nothing that is animal based and you're doing a hundred percent plant based, you can still get your protein. For those of you, if you're newer to me, I've actually been a vegetarian my entire life. Now, recently, because I've been just really wanting to work on my body composition, I have been entertaining the thought, could I put in some shrimp or. Some meat in different ways. If it feels okay for me for me, not eating meat has always been a taste texture thing. It's not for moral reasons. It's not that I didn't grow up in a family where we eat meat, all those kind of things. But what I always find is when I'm trying to plan in those things, I just don't end up eating them. I don't like them. I don't want to go for them. And so again, you can do whatever you want. But yeah, However you decide to do it or plan or what you try, I want you to always see how does this feel for me. I want to give you an example. When you're eating protein, protein helps to keep you satiated because it helps to bring down ghrelin level. Ghrelin is the one that says you're hungry, start eating. And so it's this really nice balance where protein is not jacking up your insulin level. Remember, insulin is really a fat storage hormone. Yes, we think about it for blood sugar management, but insulin also very much so is linked to if you're able to maintain a weight set point. We think that if your insulin levels are down, maybe you're able to stay at the lower weight set points better. And so again, if you're getting enough protein, you are balancing things. Your ghrelin level is down. There's really a lot that's going to be happening in a great way for you. Now that you know, okay, roughly, I know what I might be aiming for. Again, you might talk to someone specifically to get a goal. You've done your nutrition audit, so you know roughly where you're at. The one thing I want to say is, let's say you do this audit and you're I don't know. You're at 60 grams per day on average. Do not suddenly go up to a hundred. That is way too big a jump. What I normally recommend to people is that you don't go up then more than maybe like 20 grams per day for let's say a month and then you continue to go up after that. What this basically ensures is that you're bringing one more serving of protein in there. And then you're working toward what the goal is, but you're not overnight doing such a radical change that it can't stick around. So let's talk about just a few ways that you can get meat. I'm going to get meat, a few ways you can get protein, and I'm going to break it down into either a category of meat, dairy or plant based, because those are kind of the three big ones that I think about in my mind. I'm sure there are many more ways to think about it, but my mind breaks it down as such. So if we think about meat categories, typically, If you are working on a fat loss journey, usually really lean cuts of meat are going to take you potentially further. So lean meaning that there's not that much fat on it. So typically things like chicken are going to take you a really far way. Then there are also things like seafood, shrimp, things like that. And then when we think about other forms of meat, there can be pork, there can be steak. There are so many different forms of meat. So if that is something that works for you, that's one to consider. Now, again, you do not need to be sitting there eating meat all the time. In fact, I want to just come to the land of GLP ones for a second. A lot of patients on GLP ones, they will find that meat just sits like a rock in their stomach. They actually don't feel great if they have a lot of meat. So they might get some because they want to get protein, but they might actually feel better if they bring in some plant based sources of protein as well. Just that they're not saying they're having sulfur burps all day long or feeling like things are really sitting like a rock in their stomach. So nothing wrong. with you deciding if you get on a medication, you know what, I'm not actually going to keep it so meat heavy right now. I feel better doing different things. Okay, so the other category that I think about is dairy and I, I'm a huge fan of dairy. It, again, for me it really works, but for some people it might not. But those are things like cottage cheese, amazing source of protein, eggs, Greek yogurt, milk, string cheese, things like that. So, These can be sources if you enjoy the texture, the taste, if it works with your digestion, they can be a really great way to get things in. The other thing I want to bring up, not that these are dairy sources, but these are actually non dairy sources. There are actually lots of Yogurts and things like that that are made with nothing related to dairy where you could add protein powder into there and you can still have some of that in your life. If you're someone, let's say that's lactose intolerant or you just don't do well digestion wise with dairy. The other thing that I have on here is plant based options. So these are all the things such as At a mame, tofu, tempeh, all the type of beans, legumes, things like lentils. You might also find, plant based protein in things like, nuts, for example, right? There's always the example with peanut butter. Or for example, protein powders like, pea based protein powders. So there are lots of ways that you can get this protein in. My biggest suggestion to people is always you do your nutrition audit. You figure out where you're at and then you look at where is my goal. Am I at it? Amazing. If I'm not and I want to go up, I always say research these different types of proteins or hear what I'm saying. You know, there's Tons of resources out there things like that and then you decide I want you to pick one Protein that you're gonna incorporate don't do everything at once pick one thing So is it that you're gonna add a Greek yogurt? Are you gonna add cheese stick? Are you gonna add some edamame? You know, what's the one thing that you're gonna change? You do not need to do all of this overnight If you are someone that likes a very guided approach to this again I'm at the point now where I have resources if you're someone that wants to dig deeper into these kind of things. So the Blood Sugar Mastermind, I went into a lot of different sources on this and I had a lot of different things in there about how to increase protein. That's one area if you want to purchase that. The other thing that I'm working on, and this is going to come out toward the end of the year, it's really a course on optimal fat loss and maintaining protein on a GLP 1. And part of that, I'm actually going to redo some of the nutrition things that I have in there. It's going to be a very targeted approach to those that are on a GLP 1 medication because sometimes you're really wanting, you want some suggestions of what it can actually look like. Okay, what about the protein, the fiber, the fat? Like, how do I put this together in a way that might really work? And you know that. It's not ever going to be perfect, the suggestions, but you sort of want a few ideas for meals and snacks laid out for you. That is going to be part of that mini course. So if that is something that you're interested in, we will have the waitlist for that underneath this so that you make sure to not miss it. Again, this is going to be A small offering, I'm really targeting something that is specific to all the challenges that I see when my patients are on a GLP 1. And this is not a course just if you're my patient. This is also if you're someone that's listening, you follow with a doctor. There's no medical advice in this course, but it's. Everything that I see between not being able to get enough protein and fiber or feeling restricted with the food and needing to get enough nutrition, or you get constipation side effects, all those kind of things, this course is going to target all of those. That's coming out soon. I've already recorded all the videos. I'm putting together all the resources. I think it's going to be amazing. And protein is a big part of that. So if you are someone that's interested in that, again, the wait list for that mini course for really optimizing fat loss and maintaining your muscle. When you're on a GLP 1, the waitlist for that is going to be underneath this video because I don't think it's going to be underneath this in the show notes because I don't think it's going to be released by the time that this episode comes out. So again, I want to reiterate to make this simple with protein. I want you to decide. what your target is. I want you to look at where you're at at the moment before you even try to hit that target. Don't even change anything when you do the nutrition audit to begin with. And then once you know where you're at and you know what the target is, I want you to get some inspiration for the protein ideas. We talked about a bunch on here. Again, there are courses like mine if you really sort of want like a handheld approach through it. I love to do that with my clients that comes through. And then if you want to get ideas for that, and then take one thing and go do it, I will say this. I worked with a trainer here recently. And one of the best gifts that this trainer gave me is because we were working on getting this protein intake up. And she said to me, she listed five ideas for protein. And she said, just pick one of these. And I loved that, that it was, hey, you get to pick from this list, just pick five and go with it. Because in all And These areas, this is the, the, the teaching I want to end with any area you look at, how to get more protein, how to get more fiber. It's just endless where you can look and what you can hear and what they're saying, but then it needs to align with your taste preferences and what you like and the timing of things. And maybe you're someone that you're on a GLP one. And so the volume of the food you eat can't be so high. You don't feel good with it. And so something like, I don't know, like two cups of lentils, not going to work for you. Just feel bad, right? Right. We've got to listen to all of that. So when you've done your audit and you're increasing your protein, then you've got to check in with yourself. That's step three here with getting more protein. You might be someone, by the way, when you do your audit, you see that you're not where you want to be. You could just increase the sources that you already like. You don't have to go out there and start buying a ton more food and doing all these new things. I know for me, I'll tell you for protein, I like to have. protein sources in the pantry, in the fridge and the freezer. So I will tell you like, and this is by the way, this is off the top of my head right now. I'm like, Oh, I hope I can remember. So in my pantry, I'll give you one example. I've got chickpeas. So earlier today, we haven't gone to the store in a while. I'm by myself here. I'm doing some work today. I made for myself for lunch. I did a chickpea curry where I added green beans. Yeah. Green beans to it. And then I did cottage cheese on the side. Wow. Was that combination? Amazing. Lasted me several hours felt great. That's one example. I have in the fridge for protein. I've got eggs. I've got egg whites. I have tofu. I've got little mini mozzarella balls. I have cheese sticks. And again, I could probably, milk, right? I could find a bunch of other stuff. Oh, the other thing in the pantry, would be, like protein drinks that I always have. And then when I think about freezer, I've got edamame in there, I've got shrimp in there. So, you see how no matter what's happening, I'm going to be able to get my protein in, because we could have not gone to the food store for a while, and we're privileged enough to have things in the pantry and freezer. Sometimes the fridge runs out, you know how that is, depending on... If you're like me and you have lots of kids in the family as well, people are eating different things. We don't always have sliced meat in the house or, or rotisserie chicken, things like that, but there's always something available. Make it easy on yourself. These options that you pick, make it things that you like to eat, things that are in a variety of options to you and things that you can easily get to. All right. I hope this episode was helpful to you. And I would love if you love this episode for you to share it with a. friend or someone that you think would, would like to hear it or tag me on social. Tell me what the best part was and we will talk soon. Take care.