The Secret to Eating Enough Protein Daily + Why It’s So Important
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I’ll be honest, I used to be so scared of eating enough protein. I thought the more protein I ate, the bulkier I would become.
Girl, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Protein is essential for building muscle. And the more muscle you build, the more fat you will burn and the more weight you will lose. Protein will NOT make you bulky, it will also make you look more slender and toned.
BUT, I know SO many people struggle to include enough protein into their diet. So that’s why I want to share a little secret with you on how I get enough protein daily…
Plus, if you’re interested in figuring out exactly what YOUR body needs to see optimal results, you can check out my Macro County Made Simple Online Academy where I personally calculate the protein, carbs, and fat your body needs daily + I give you ALL the tools you need to successfully count your macros and build the body you want.
If you loved this episode, I know you’ll also love…
Episode 99: 9 Signs You Are Under-Nourishing Your Body and Episode 59: How to Know Which Foods Work for You and Against You
TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it. Let's go.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Embrace Your Real Podcast. Really excited about today's episode. We are chatting all about proteins and the secret to eating enough protein daily and why it is so important. I love this topic because just working with thousands of women over the last few years, this is a topic that many people struggle with, myself included. When I first started tracking macros and just learning how to properly feel my body, I realized how much I was under nourishing my body with protein.
Common questions that people have is, why is it so important? How do I actually eat enough of it? In today's episode, I'm going to be sharing with you some of my protein secrets, as well as why it is so important to ensure that you're eating enough protein for what your body needs. But before I dive in, I have to share the super sweet review. It comes from Marie Forlisa.
She says, "Love. I'm loving Julie's podcast. Such great practical advice for embracing our true selves. Julie is genuine and it shines in her episodes. Episode 98 about comparison was pure fire. This world needs her message." Thank you so much, Marie, I think it's Marie, for your review. I really appreciate your reviews. They help us out so much in the podcast world.
So if you haven't already, take out your phone, you're probably already using it to listen to this, be sure to type in Embrace Your Real on the podcast app, hit subscribe, and also please leave a five-star review. And I would love to know what you're getting from this podcast. I read every single review, and I appreciate you so, so much. Let's dive into this episode. I want to start off by kind of answering some of the most common questions, and one of them being, why is eating enough protein so important?
Well, believe it or not, when you work out, your body is actually breaking down muscle fiber. When you are working out in order to rebuild, your body needs amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein. So without giving your body enough protein, your body probably will not have the amino acids that it needs to build muscle. I know that might sound like, whoa, way over my head, but I'll be honest. I used to be scared of eating enough protein. I was actually just in a conversation with Josh earlier this morning.
We were talking about protein, and he just told me, "I remember how long it took you to stop being scared about protein." I was so terrified of it. I don't know. I just had this misconception in my head of protein and how I thought that it would make me bulky. I was just so terrified of it, but that couldn't be further from the truth and I've learned that over the last nine years. Protein is essential for building muscle. And the more muscle that you build, the more fat you'll burn and the more weight you will likely lose.
Protein will not make you bulky, and it will also typically make you actually look more leaned and toned. Plus, protein is actually thermogenic, meaning that you burn calories by just digesting it. Actually you burn around 30% of the calories consumed from protein in the digestion process. For example, if you eat a piece of chicken that has a hundred calories, you'll likely burn around 30 of those calories just by digesting it. Some additional bonuses that protein might have is that it's actually the most satiating food.
The more that you eat protein at each meal, you're likely going to feel fuller longer. I have found that that greatly reduces cravings, late night snacking, making it much easier to stick to your overall food intake for the day. So ultimately, it's a great way to, for a lack of a better term, boost your metabolism and see the results you want to see from your workouts and staying consistent. But I know so many people struggle to include enough protein into their diet.
That's why today I want to share with you how I personally get enough protein daily. The number one thing that I recommend to every single person is called prepping protein batches. You might be like, "Okay, that's great, but what the heck does that mean?" Essentially meal prep batching is just batching proteins that you can use with multiple different dishes throughout your day and throughout your week.
So if you've done any of my Honor Your Body Challenges, you know that in our seven day jumpstart meal plan, we will typically give you anywhere from three to four meal prep, protein batches that will allow you to prep a bunch of specific protein that you can use in three to four or even more dishes than that. For example, you'll batch chicken by grilling five chicken breasts. Then throughout the week, you'll grab a chicken breast and you can top it into a salad. You can put it into pasta. You can eat it in a sandwich or wrap, whatever dish you're eating.
It's awesome because it allows you to eat the same prep protein, so saving you time and saving you money, but in multiple different dishes, meaning that you're able to expand your palate and keep yourself entertained when it comes to food, which is also a thing that I feel like a lot of people struggle with is getting bored super easily. I don't want you eating the same exact meals every single day. That's boring.
And likely the longer that you do that, the more you'll start to despise what you're actually eating, and that will be an easy trigger for you to fall off track. So just kind of showing you that the same exact protein can actually be prepped in multiple different dishes. You could either use that batch protein. So let's say you get a pack of chicken at Target or your local grocery store, and then you prep it, whether it's a grilled chicken protein batch, or you stick it in the Instapot or the Crockpot. You have let's say five to six chicken breasts.
Then if you want to take it a step further and you have three or four recipes that you want to create dinners for the week or lunches for the week, then you can go ahead and use that in multiple different dishes. So essentially, like I said, it's saving you time. It's saving you money, and it's allowing you to make sure that you are prioritizing your protein intake. You can honestly do this with any protein at all. I've done it with chicken. You can do it with ground turkey. You can do it with ground beef. It's really helpful.
Even if you don't make specific recipes and batch those recipes, you can just have the prepped protein in your fridge. And having that in and of itself will save so much time and will allow you to likely hit your protein intake each day. And you can also do it with like egg white bites. On our last Honor Your Body Challenge, one of the recipes was a delicious egg white bite that you just mix everything together, so it's a bunch of different veggies, avocados, tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, and I think we did feta cheese.
Mix that all in a big bowl. And then you can put it in little muffin cups and then put it in the oven. Those are so delicious. You can eat them plain, or you can add them to a bagel. One of the recipes in our previous challenge was a delicious toasted bagel with a slice of cheese and two egg white bites in the center and just making it a big sandwich. You can also have them with a piece of toast with oatmeal. I mean, there's so many different things, but just having them is so, so helpful.
Other things that I've seen people do protein batches with is shrimp, salmon, hard-boiled eggs. Whatever type of protein is your favorite, you can just cook up a big batch, put it in a Tupperware, and throughout your week, you can throw it on top of your meal or whatever meal you're creating. This not only, like I said, helps you get enough protein daily, but it saves so much cooking time throughout the week. And you also save money because you're prepping protein that you can use in multiple different dishes. You might be saying, "Why is meal prep protein important?"
Having the prepped protein ready to go is super easy to grab. I have found with working with, like I said, over thousands of women in macro counting and helping them achieve their goals, protein can oftentimes be number one hardest of the three macronutrients to reach simply because it takes time to prep it and it doesn't come naturally.
But if you already have it prepped and you already have a few dishes that you can take that prepped protein in along with, maybe just eating it plain as a snack, it can be a total game changer, and it can also help you reach your protein, thus, reaching your overall macro goals and further your fitness goals. Aside from meat, what are some other ways to ramp up your protein intake? This is a great question, and this is one that I get a lot, because sometimes people don't eat meat and they want to know some other options.
You can totally use protein supplements. I personally do that. But just like anything, I do it in moderation. I have found that my body loves to have the majority. And when I say the majority, about 60% of my daily intake coming from real food and about 40% of my intake coming from protein supplements. That is just my preference. Some people prefer more. Some people prefer less. It is totally up to you. Personally, though, in the morning, I always have a one protein bar kind of for my... Immediately right after I wake up, I'm hungry.
So I have a one protein bar, either the birthday cake flavor or the dark sea salt chocolate. Those are delicious. They have about seven grams of fat, about 23 grams of carbs, and about 20 grams of protein. It's a great way to initially get kickstarted on your protein. And then lately I've been loving a protein shake in the afternoon. If you follow me on Instagram, you know I'm big on my green smoothie. I do some ice, almond milk, spinach, Truvia, sometimes I'll do flax seed and chia seeds, and then a scoop of protein.
And that will typically give me around 35 to 40 grams of protein just in that alone. So like I said, I get about 40% of my total daily intake of protein coming from protein supplements. Totally something you can do. You don't have to do. It's up to you. As I mentioned earlier, though, hard boiled eggs are great. They make a great easy snack for on the go. Beef jerky is also awesome. Just be careful with the sodium. Not that sodium is bad.
But if you are eating a lot of beef jerky and you're also not really monitoring your sodium intake throughout the day, you can easily bump up your sodium intake by like 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams, which can typically just result in you holding more water retention. So keep that in mind when it comes to like beef jerky or something like that. Greek yogurt is also a great option. You can easily add about 10 to 17 grams of protein to your day by grabbing this as a snack. You can buy plain and add your own berries.
Sometimes add Truvia or sweetness to it, honey. I've seen people do that all the time. But just keep in mind, some of the yogurts can have higher fat. So just keep everything, again, in moderation. Nuts are also an easy source of protein. For example, one serving of almonds can give you about seven grams of protein. Again, keep in mind that nuts are very, very fat dense. If you grab a handful of nuts, most of the time, that's typically about half of your fat intake for the day. And people don't even realize that.
So looking at foods like nuts is a fat dominant food source, but one of the secondary macronutrients of nuts is typically protein. So just keeping all of that in moderation and eating that throughout your day, that can be super helpful. A lot of people talk about collagen, so I wanted to bring this up in this episode because people wonder if collagen is a good and simple way to boost your protein intake. It can be.
However, Examine.com actually states that hydrolyzed collagen taken in certain doses around 10 grams for skin health, it can also have benefits to joints, can be taken with meals, but it should not be taken in higher doses as an actual protein supplement for muscle gain or fat loss due to just having less efficacy than other protein sources and a lackluster amino acid profile. So just keep that in mind. I've seen people say like, "Oh, I'm getting 30 grams of protein from collagen."
This specific study on Examine.com, which is also a great way to ever, if you ever want to search something and just kind of see like the benefits, see the study, see what actually science says instead of just a magazine or a person, always go to Examine.com and you can type in anything and it will literally pop up with tons of different studies and the results and all of those things. So yes, you can, collagen, but at least what this study is saying that no higher doses than 10 grams of protein to count from collagen.
That's something that I wanted to touch base on. And then also, if beans don't upset your stomach, this is a great way to get carbs, as well as a boost of protein. For example, one serving of black beans typically contains about 20 grams of carbs and seven grams of protein, or you can go for black bean noodles or edamame noodles, which will typically give you around 15 to 20 grams of protein per serving. Again, killing two birds with one stone by choosing a higher protein carbohydrate. There's tons of things out there now, like high protein pasta.
I wouldn't say that it's carb friendly, but it is allowing you to get more protein from a carb dominant source. So just looking at things like that. Another thing that I wanted to mention was lavash bread. If you have seen me at all, you know I am a huge fan of lavash bread, Joseph's lavash bread. You can get on Amazon, Walmart. I get mine at my local Sprouts. It is a great source of protein. It has a higher number of protein than I've seen a lot of tortillas or even bagels, things like that. It has a decent amount of carbs.
And another thing that I wanted to mention was Joseph's flat bread. If you guys have followed me for a while, or if you've seen my newest addiction, which is the marshmallow, chocolatey, peanut butter fluff deliciousness, I use lavash spread and you can also use lavash bread for so many different things. You can cut it up and use it as tortilla chips. You can use it as wraps for breakfast burritos or lunches or even dinners. I mean, there's so many different things that you can use with these, but the beautiful thing about this is it's a green source right?
It's almost like bread, and it has 1.5 grams of fat, around eight grams of carbs, and around six to seven grams of protein for half. If you eat a whole one, I mean, that's like 12 to 13 grams of protein, about 16 grams of carbs, and three grams of fat. So looking at food sources that might not be protein dominant, but that would be secondary. This would be considered to be a carb source, so carb dominant food, but the secondary macronutrient that's the highest is protein. So looking at that nutritional label.
And that's why I love macro counting, honestly, you guys, because you're just educating yourself on food. You're educating yourself on what's in the food, how much of it. Because so often if you're just going by like what the magazines tell you or what society tells you, they say like, "Eat protein," or they say something like, "Eat enough protein. You can get that in peanut butter." And while yes, peanut butter can have anywhere from five to seven grams of protein per two tablespoons, it is still a fat dominant food source.
People don't understand that. And as a result, if they're looking at peanut butter as a protein source, they're going to end up eating way more fat than their body needs on a daily basis and still coming up short on protein and likely going over their carbs. What I found with working with so many women over the past eight or nine years is that carbs and fats are the easiest. 100% they're the easiest macro to hit.
And if you're not planning out your day accordingly, you're going to get to the end of your day and you're going to have like 40 to 50 grams of protein left to hit your protein goal and zero grams of carbs and fats. That's why just kind of planning out your day and making sure that you're having balanced meals throughout the day can be super, super helpful. The last thing that I want to talk about when it comes to protein is how much you should be eating daily. This is totally going to vary depending on where you're at and what your goals are.
There is not a one size fits all number that I can share with you. It's so important to not take a random number that you find off Google without any sort of backstory or how they got there, or consume the same amount as your favorite nutrition or fitness influencer. How much protein that you need is going to depend on several factors, such as your weight, your goal, whether you're in maintenance, muscle gain or fat loss, you're being physically active or not, or whether you're pregnant or not.
There are so many different variables that factor into where you're at and what your goal is. It's important to figure out exactly what your body needs to see optimal results. If you're interested in figuring that out, I do have our Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy. I talked about this earlier last week about how important it is to just educate yourself and empower yourself around food, and this is exactly what we do inside this Academy. We show you step-by-step how we did it so that you can feel empowered to properly fuel your body.
I will leave a link in the show notes below, or you can go to macrocountingmadesimple.com and you can actually read all about what our Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy is about, what you get, what it entails. Everything that you need to know is on that page. Inside this program, like I said, we give you all the tools that you need to successfully count macros and build the body that you want while eating the foods that you love. So again, I will link that in the show notes below. I hope that you found this episode helpful.
If you have any questions on getting more protein, you can actually send a DM to the podcast Instagram, which is @embraceyourreal, and I'll be sure to answer any questions that you have. We are so happy to help you in any way. If you have somebody in your life that you feel like would really benefit from all of this education and talk on protein, I would love for you to share this out with them, and you can copy the link. Post it up on your story. Tag me, @juliealedbetter. Tag @embraceyourreal. We love seeing your aha moments.
We love you sharing this out with your community and your circle of influence. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I will talk to you guys in the next episode. All right, sister. That's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, @juliealedbetter, yes it's with A in the middle, for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check.
The second thing, be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real, because you're worth it.