In this 30‑day Healthy Habits Challenge video, Cheryl McColgan introduces the habit of eating protein first at a single meal each day. She explains that starting a meal with protein is highly satiating, helps ensure adequate protein intake, and can improve overall diet quality without requiring perfection. McColgan discusses age‑related anabolic resistance, the protein‑leverage hypothesis, and the importance of leucine for stimulating muscle protein synthesis. She provides concrete targets – roughly 30‑40 g of protein (or 2‑3 g leucine) per meal, about 1 g per pound of ideal body weight, typically 100‑150 g per day for most adults. Practical tips include weighing protein portions, adding an afternoon protein snack, considering a bedtime protein shake, and prioritizing whole‑food protein sources over shakes. She argues that eating protein first naturally regulates carbohydrate and fat intake, reduces the risk of overeating, and supports muscle maintenance and body‑composition goals, especially as we age.
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Hi everyone, I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow, and welcome to day 9 of the 30-day Healthy Habits Challenge. So today we're gonna talk about one of my favorite things, one of my favorite hacks, if you wanna call it a hack, and that is today's habit, and that is to eat protein first at one meal. So you don't have to do it every meal, just one meal today. It's not about perfection. This is just about sequencing. So doing this one meal That totally counts. If all you do is that, you win today. The reason that you wanna start with protein is because it really highly satiating, it increases fullness. And one of the things, so I've been working on my protein intake. I've been tracking it for about the last 5 or 6 years now, where I've really been more focused on intentionally getting more protein each day. And even after all of that time, if I am not very focused on it, I will tend to not get enough protein on any given day. So one of the things that eating protein first does for you is if you're, if you're one of those people that say, they'll say when they learn what their optimal amount of protein is, people like, oh my gosh, how would I eat that much protein? It's so difficult. Well, it's probably difficult because you're eating other things first that take up this. I always say when I'm talking about a salad or bread before meals, I'm like, no, that's just going to take up the space where the meat should be. Right. So I always keep that in my mind. That's how really I approach every meal is I know how much protein I'm supposed to get each meal. I get that outta the way. I put that on my plate, I weigh it out. And then I know that I've gotten that. And then I use carbohydrates and fats to fill in, you know, the energy calories after that. So that's really the main reason to do it is 'cause protein is very satiating. Most people don't get enough of it and eating it first really allows you to make sure that you get it in. This is important for a few reasons. First of all, as we age, there's this thing called anabolic resistance. So basically it means that the protein that we eat is not absorbed properly or might not be broken down effectively. I don't know if they really know what the exact mechanism is, why that happens, but basically it's like if I eat 30 grams of protein as an 18-year-old person, that's almost getting 100% utilized in the body. Whereas if I eat 30 grams of protein as a 45, 55, 65-year-old person, maybe only 80% of that gets broken down into amino acids. And so, especially as you get older, that getting the proper amount of protein is really important. But unfortunately, what tends to happen, people's appetites sometimes get lesser over time, or they just don't eat as well as they get older, and they just get less and less protein. And that just creates a number of health problems. Uh, sarcopenia is low muscle mass that can happen as you age without strength training and without the proper amount of protein. There's also this other idea called the protein leverage hypothesis, which is basically that your body will keep seeking out to eat until your protein needs are met. So if you are eating a lot of either processed foods or a lot of foods that might be good for you, but don't contain a lot of protein, it tends to make you overeat cuz your body will still be telling you, no, I still need protein. I still need those amino acids. And so you just keep eating and eating until you get to that point. So that's some of the reasons that it's very important. And since we're on the topic, I'll just go ahead and talk about that. Uh, you know, you heard me mention 30 grams. 30 grams of protein is basically what's required to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. And again, if you're an older person, you might need more like 35 to 40 grams per meal. Uh, but that's the real key there is not necessarily the grams of protein, it's the amount of leucine in the protein that stimulates muscle protein synthesis. And they say that that's 2 to 3 grams of leucine required to start that process. So again, as we get older, it might not be broken down as efficiently. So you really wanna get like 35 to 40 every time you eat a meal, every time you you eat is an opportunity to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. And for most people, even the smallest women, you need about 100 grams of protein a day. An easy way to figure this out and kind of what's been going around in the health space and people that are focused on this work, people like Dr. Don Layman that do this kind of literature about protein, um, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, is that, uh, so the minimum is about 1 gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. So say you are a woman, you might have a few— maybe you're 10 or 20 pounds overweight, you have a little weight to lose. And so whatever you weigh now, you feel like your ideal weight for your height is 150. Well, that's the amount of protein you'd be trying to get in a day is 150 grams of protein. So for me, what that has meant is I've had to add a fourth meal into my day, basically like an afternoon protein hit, because I find it challenging to Number 1, wake up and get something like 50 or 60 grams of protein. I mean, that would be ideal, but I just don't have the appetite for that. So I always go for like 35 to 40, my first meal of the day. And then lunch, again, it's kind of hard to eat something that's gonna be that amount of protein. So it's usually lands around 40 to 50. And you can see how that still by the end of the day, if I'm shooting for 150 grams of protein, I've still got like 60 or 70 to eat. And you don't wanna be eating ideally a giant meal before dinner. So having that little afternoon protein and then the evening meal is kind of how it's worked out for me. I've also had people talk or heard interviews where they talk about having, you know, a protein snack in the evening before bed is very muscle stimulating. Uh, and just kind of, if you're a person that's working on your body composition, working on building muscle, working out a lot, maybe having, you know, that 8 o'clock protein shake or something before you go to bed might be a good way to get that extra amount in. I did just mention protein shake. Ideally, that's not what we're leading with in this challenge. You're eating a real food protein for your first part of your meal, and then you're filling in with carbs and fats. Anyway, that is all the reasons why you want to start working on eating protein first. And you'll see that if you do that, it really changes, uh, the way you eat pretty naturally. So instead of having to restrict a lot of things or change a lot of what you eat, if you really just eat the protein first, you'll find that the things the rest of it kind of balances itself out pretty easily. And it also becomes very hard to overeat on protein because, say you're eating a chicken breast, you're not really going to, you know, magically overeat chicken breast. It's pretty hard to do. But we quite often magically overeat other things like that have that carb and fat combination. If you just start eating some chips or, you know, those kinds of foods, bread or whatever it is, those are much easier to overeat for that reason. And also, I think going back to the protein leverage thing, that's probably why as well. So that was probably more than you wanted to know about protein, but I really wanted to make a good case for why eating protein first is a habit that you really should take on in your life. And hopefully you'll maintain this one. I think doing it one meal a day at first is pretty dang easy. Uh, so maybe you carry that out for the rest of the challenge, or again, this is, maybe this is just one of those you try, you're not sure it works for you, or maybe come back to it later. But for today, it's just eat protein first at one meal. So that is it for now, and I will see you again tomorrow.
