Requirements#

Following the table and recommendations, a person that does not exercise could aim for at least about 11.2% of calories from protein to reach the 0.8g/kg goal, if one is at risk, they should aim for 14% for 1 g/kg.

For more active people, the additional calorie requirements will reach 1.2 with 14.6% at low intensity (+300 kcal) or 12.9% at a high intensity (+600 kcal). For context, 10 minutes of jumping rope or 30 minutes of walking could consume 100–150 calories for a 70kg person // TODO: source. If you mainly weight training, 1.2 g/kg would give you most of the gains. However, you could also go up to 1.6 g/kg which is the upper limit for benefits shown in scientific literature. The easiest way would be to introduce protein powders. You could reach that consumption with a +300 kcal addition from activity and a 30g protein scoop (150 kcal) with 15.2% of protein for the extra 2150k cal. If you attempt to increase you weight, you will need to increase you calorie consumption which also contains protein. However, most of these estimations are relative to the final weight, so speaking in terms of % calories from protein is useful.

In summary, for most people and activity levels, the great majority of the benefits can be achieved with food requirements of around 14-15% of calories from protein in normal foods. This percentage is in line with what most people naturally do, and it is usually surpassed in developed countries (16-17%). If you really want to optimize, a protein powder could be used to reach the 1.6 g/kg mark without much change to your diet.

However, keep in mind that it will only work if there is a stimulus. The difference between 1 g/kg and 1.6 g/kg without exercise would be practically cero for most people, specially when compared to what you gain with just 20 minutes of exercise a week. Introducing additional protein from a very low amount (not usual in most varied diets) helps you at maintaining more bone density, muscle mass and strength, not gaining as you would with exercise.

Sarcopenia#

Incidence of sarcopenia in the elderly is 10-16%, these are some of the main risk factors:

• Physical inactivity
• Obesity, visceral fat and diabetes
• Malnutrition
• Smoking
• Shorter and Longer Sleep duration

Protein Quality and Healthfulness#

Leucine, Methionine and Glycine#

Main risk factors and All Cause Mortality#

Foods are not just grams of protein, they have additional impact independent of the protein amount

Exercise#

For most people, the increase in calories due to increased activity will cover the increased protein requirement. However, you may also try to include these higher protein foods, like legumes and their derivatives, since they are one of the healthiest things you can eat anyway. In general, one has to compare foods with their alternatives and legumes do not have a clear competitor, plant-based or not. For some people, worrying about protein insufficiency could be valid, specially important for people that do weight training multiple times per week without doing high calorie consuming activities such as cardio, since they could use that 1.2-1.6 g/kg, but don't consume many more calories unless you want to "Bulk". If you want to increase your weight, you will probably need to increase you calorie consumption which naturally brings some protein (10-20% of those calories).

Exercise is probably more important for most people, food is much more than the small, in practical terms for most people, benefit of protein for maintaining muscle, strength and bone. These are not the main risk factor for common diseases, however, it could be important for if one's family has a history of sarcopenia or osteoporosis, if you have low appetite or are not consuming enough calories, or your diet is not varied enough (which will probably present other problems based on micronutrient deficiencies).

On the other hand, a sure way to reduce the risk of these negative consequences is by doing resistance/weight training. Even if you have a history of sarcopenia or osteoporosis, protein alone might not do it, there are also important micronutrients which should be covered by a balanced diet, and your time could be more efficiently spent doing exercise. Those could be jut 20 minutes of exercise per week for building, and actually increasing instead of maintaining, your muscle, strength, bone density and improving your risk of falling, plus many other important issues.

Foods#

The most popular and versatile are chickpeas, soy, peas and beans. Between 20-30% for most legumes beans and around 35-55 for soybeans, 8-15% for grains (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916522040916) (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11241136)

Tips#

• Use legume flours
  • Pancakes, Waffles & Crepes with chickpea flour
  • Scrambled Chickpeas
• Hummus
  • You may use any legume, chickpea is popular but soy or beans are great too
• Use legume pastas
• Use Soy milk
• Tofu has higher protein, and lower fiber than other popular legume products
  • Could be good when you are eating a lot of calories/volume
• Use processed foods like Seytan, Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) or Mycoprotein-based foods

Marketing#