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

Protein is a Fat Loss HACK

30 Oct 2025 · 1 min

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1:25

In this interview excerpt, JJ Virgin discusses her "protein first" nutrition strategy, especially for older adults. She explains that aging brings "anabolic resistance," which makes it harder to build muscle from protein and resistance training. As people age, they often eat less, which further reduces nutrient intake and muscle maintenance. Virgin recommends consuming 0.7–1 gram of protein per pound of target body weight and suggests eating protein at the start of a meal. She cites a study showing that eating protein first leads to better overall food choices, greater satiety, a higher thermic effect, and increased satisfaction. The conversation highlights the particular challenge for women who have historically pursued very low‑calorie diets.

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In terms of nutrition, I know you are a big advocate for protein first. Can you explain what you mean by that?
Yes. So when you look at what happens as we age, we get this, this thing called anabolic resistance where we're having trouble making muscle from the protein resistance training. Those, those are our two stimuluses really for making muscle as we age. And so the challenge that happens, I see, as we age is we're starting to eat less, like we do less. And I would say the less you do, the less you can do, then we're eating less, our nutrients go down. And for so many women, and I think this is women in particular, like women in particular have been trying to get smaller their whole life. Yeah, eat less, get smaller. They would literally, like, you know, it was like the cocaine diet. They would literally eat very little. Wow. But this is, I feel like, a pretty endemic situation, is that we've always thought that we need to just eat less. And what I find with people is I start to talk about how much protein you need as you age which I put it at somewhere in the 0.7 to 1 gram per pound of target body weight. If you sit down, so if you eat your protein first, a couple things happen. There's a great study that showed that people who eat protein first actually make better food choices overall. You make sure you get your protein in, so if you get full, you're fine. And protein, of course, we know is more satiating. It's got a better thermic effect. It also is more satisfying.