There’s so much on social media and in the press now about protein and how we should be eating plenty of it.
Adverts for various foods scream out about the protein content – whether that’s a ‘high protein yoghurt’ (yoghurt has always been high in protein), snack bars or shakes.
In reality, we should be getting enough protein in our usual daily diet and, despite marketing people explaining that their products will help build muscle, you’ll only see the real benefits if you are exercising too.
Consuming grab and go protein bars might be useful if you are doing heavy exercise but if you’re working at a desk job and not really doing a lot of physical activity, it could mean consuming lots of extra calories that are not needed. (As well as these bars often being highly processed).
As we get older (and for women entering menopause), our muscle mass does begin to decrease naturally so it’s important we are eating enough protein – but it’s also important to be doing resistance training too to preserve our muscle mass and strength.
How does exercise ‘grow’ our muscles?
When we exercise, particularly during resistance training, tiny microscopic tears occur in our muscle fibres. The body then uses amino acids from protein-rich foods to rebuild and grow more muscle fibres making the overall muscle itself stronger.
As we get stronger, then by increasing the resistance (lifting heavier weights) or boosting the intensity of our workout, our muscles increase in growth too.
Protein supplements and powders can be helpful but it’s important to source natural products. Good sources of protein from food are eggs, meat, fish, pulses, tofu, nuts and dairy.
As a guide, most adults need around 0.75g of protein per kilo of body weight per day but we may find we need more than that as we get older.
If you’re aiming to grow muscle mass (hypertrophy) then research suggests consuming 1.2-1.7g of protein per kg of body weight.
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