Nutrition Coaching

Hot topic of the month: Protein!

It’s been made so much more apparent in Nutrition programs, forums, discussion, social media etc as to the importance of PROTEIN in our diet.

Especially in terms of the timing of when we eat it to help fuel our body and how much we need (especially women) for it to be processed and be used effectively for our training.

Getting lean and fit nowadays is more about feeling strong (physically and mentally) and having more energy. It goes hand in hand. It also goes without saying, it’s all good if we sweat it up like crazy at the gym or going for a run, but if we aren’t focusing on good nutrition at the same time we aren’t helping our bodies feel energised and feel good in recovery, or in the long term.

In order to optimise health and fitness (and losing weight effectively if that is your goal) we need to have the following focus/ commitment balance:

80% Nutrition (Good Nutrient Dense foods)

20% Physical activity

Whilst trying to consume a colourful plate of nutrient-dense foods we need to ensure the protein levels are being met throughout the day. PROTEIN is critical to your body in order to fuel the working muscles and sustain them during both cardiovascular and strength workouts. In a nutshell, your body will breakdown carbohydrates too fast and sugars will drop and the body will produce more insulin in the long term and store this as fat/ glycogen. By eating more protein you allow hypertrophy of muscle fibres (growing of muscle) and tissue and burning of fat. Busy women (in particular mums rushing around the kids in the morning doing school drop offs) tend to struggle to consume adequate levels of protein in their daily food intake, as usually breakfast is either missed completely or has no element of protein/fat to start the day.

Proteins can be sourced from all meats and seafood, eggs, legumes, cheeses, nuts and seeds, collagens and bone broths to name a few.

So, if you are WOMAN wanting to lean down, lose weight and gain muscle, think about filling your plate (at every meal) with about 33% PROTEIN-rich foods (Or one solid fist of YOUR hand). This INCLUDES Breakfast and snacks in between where possible.

OR: Consume in grams 2- 2.5g of PROTEIN per kilo of bodyweight.

Eg. If I weigh 62kg - I aim to consume ~2.2x my BW = 136g PROTEIN/ day. or atleast 30g per meal on average.

The best way to identify how much you need to eat is to use a calorie/ macro tracker app to help guide you based on your size, weight and activity levels…Or you should REACH OUT to people like me to help! 🙂