JJ Virgin4x NYTimes Best Selling Author, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Fitness Hall of Famer

Importance of Protein

1 May 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief interview, JJ Virgin explains what happens in the body when daily protein intake is insufficient. She notes that the body will break down muscle to obtain needed amino acids, which impairs the ability to trigger muscle protein synthesis. She references the Protein Leverage Hypothesis, which posits that a lack of essential amino acids drives people to overeat in an attempt to meet their protein needs. Consequently, she recommends prioritizing protein or essential amino acid supplementation at the start of a meal to curb overeating caused by protein deficiency.

Chapters

What is happening in the body when you don't have enough protein?
So if you're not getting protein each day, which you need to do, you are then breaking down muscle to get to it, which you don't want to do. You are going to have trouble triggering muscle protein synthesis. There's this theory called the Protein Leverage Hypothesis, and now they've shown it over and over again, that we will tend to overeat to get enough of those amino acids. And so that's why if you just started with getting your amino acids through protein, or a boost of essential amino acids first, you can stop a lot of that overeating that might happen because you're not getting what you need.