Leucine: Shedding Light on Protein

How much protein do I need to eat in a day? It’s a common question that I get when working with athletes. We all know that protein is essential but what’s the optimal amount and can too much be harmful?

You might have heard the fear stories that eating too much protein can cause kidney problems, but this isn’t likely in the healthy athlete. {Of course, check with your doctor before changing your diet drastically.} While you might be more dehydrated if you are pounding the protein, the bigger problem is your body might be missing out on important nutrients.

Hello, vitamins and minerals?! We need more than amino acids to perform optimally, stay healthy, and prevent disease.

I’ve seen athletes on 50% calories coming from protein diets and they’re missing the mark on many vital nutrients because there simply isn’t enough room in the diet to eat a variety of fruits and veggies when you’re overloading on one food group.

So when looking at how much protein someone needs, goals must be considered—are you trying to gain, maintain or lose? Since many athletes that I work with are trying to preserve or gain muscle mass and lose body fat, I’ll speak to this. With this scenario, protein timing & quality is more important than the answer to that question “how much protein do I need in a day”. Here’s why.

Leucine. It’s a branched chain amino acid that is shedding light in the fitness world as a secret to building muscle and losing body fat. While more research is need as to how much leucine the athlete needs, much has been discovered that it’s somewhere between 2-3g per meal, with bigger and aging athletes on the higher end. Let me explain.

We know that as we age our metabolism slows, as a result of losing muscle mass… good news is this is largely preventable! Research is showing that nutrition can affect the quality of our muscle mass. After age thirty something {and earlier for some}, high quality proteins that are rich in leucine become even more important to the body and are needed in larger quantities.

All this talk about grams of leucine, you might be wondering how you’re going to figure out how much is in food. Well you can thank me for doing that work for you in the examples below J But in general, 3-5 ounces of protein in the context of a meal does the trick!

But the even bigger secret for muscle building and incinerating fat: protein is needed every 4 hours!

It’s easy to eat 4 ounces of protein at dinner, but most athletes aren’t getting enough at breakfast and snacks. Remember that you can find protein in MANY foods—whole grains, beans, some veggies and nut butters too. So it’s not all that challenging to hit the 25 to 35 grams of protein range at meals if you make it a priority.

Bottom line, aim to eat about 4 ounces of protein {25-35 grams} every 4 hours if you are trying to build muscle and/or lose body fat.

What does 2.5 grams of leucine look like?

• 1 cup cottage cheese (25g protein)
• 1 cup plain 0% Greek yogurt (21g protein)
• 3.7 ounces cheddar cheese (26g protein)
• 7.5 egg whites (27g protein)
• 4.6 large eggs (29g protein)
• 3.8 ounces cooked chicken breast (27g protein)
• 4.6 ounces white canned tuna (31g protein)
• 4.2 ounces Canadian bacon (25g protein)
• 10 tablespoons peanut butter (41g protein)
• 11.7 ounces extra firm tofu (33g protein)
• 3 cups edamame (38g protein)
• 6 slices whole wheat English muffins (36g protein)

*FYI: These are not recommended portion sizes, it’s just for leucine comparisons sake—take note that dairy proteins are richest in leucine and veggie proteins are weakest. So if you’re veggie, eat more protein to get enough leucine for muscle building and shedding body fat.

Want more posts like this? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you!!

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