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5 Reasons You May Need More Protein—Even on a Paleo Diet

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Finding good sources of protein is important on a Paleo diet. iStock.com/PiotrKrzeslak

Most people naturally eat the right amount of protein for their needs. Protein is such a crucial nutrient that the brain has specific mechanisms that increase your desire for it if you need more and decrease your desire for it if you’re getting too much; these mechanisms are difficult to override through willpower alone. For this reason, my general recommendation is to simply eat as much protein as you crave.

In the U.S., this typically averages about 15 percent of the total calories consumed each day (roughly 113 grams for an active male eating 3,000 calories, or 83 grams for an active female consuming 2,200 calories).

However, there are certain situations where it may be advantageous to increase protein intake to 20 to 30 percent of calories, or even as high as 35 percent of total calories—at least temporarily.

Find out if eating more protein makes sense for you, even if you eat a Paleo diet.

“Wait a second,” you might say. “Don’t high-protein diets cause kidney disease and cancer?” This is yet another urban myth. Studies have shown that protein intakes up to 35 percent of calories (or even higher) are safe for people without pre-existing kidney problems—especially if you make sure to get enough glycine in your diet. And there’s no evidence that high protein diets increase the risk of cancer, as long as you’re eating a balanced, nutrient-dense diet. For more information, read this recent article I wrote on the topic.

Now let’s take a closer look at five groups of people that often benefit from a higher protein intake.

Five Groups of People That May Benefit from a Higher Protein Intake

1. People Trying to Lose Weight

A large body of evidence suggests that high protein diets are effective for fat loss. (1) Protein is more satiating than fat and carbohydrate, which means we feel more satisfied when we eat it. (2) When we feel more satisfied, we naturally eat less—and lose weight without trying.

For example, researchers put a group of overweight volunteers into an environment where food intake could be controlled precisely. After increasing their protein intake from 15 percent of calories to 30 percent, study participants consumed about 440 fewer calories per day, and lost an average of 11 pounds over 12 weeks. They did this without counting calories or intentionally eating less. (3; Hat tip to Dr. Stephan Guyenet for this study.)

In fact, some recent research suggests that the reason low-carb diets are effective for weight loss is not because they are low in carbohydrate, but because they are high in protein. (4)

2. People with Blood Sugar and Metabolic Problems

High-protein diets have also been shown to have a stabilizing effect on blood sugar, and lead to beneficial changes in a wide range of metabolic, cardiovascular and inflammatory markers, from insulin sensitivity to cholesterol and triglycerides to C-reactive protein. (5, 6)

3. Athletes and People Who Train Hard

Protein is the nutrient required to build and rebuild muscle. If you want to add or maintain muscle mass (i.e. if you’re an endurance athlete, weightlifter, CrossFitter, or you train hard in other activities or sports), you should consume more protein.

Extra protein can be especially beneficial after a hard workout or training session, as most of you who are training hard already know.

4. The Elderly and the Chronically Ill

Both the elderly and the chronically ill frequently suffer from muscle wasting. A higher protein diet can help to prevent further tissue breakdown and reduce the adverse effects of both aging and chronic illness.

5. People Who Are under a Lot of Stress

As I mentioned above, protein has a stabilizing effect on blood sugar. High stress levels can lead to hypoglycemia or other blood sugar imbalances. Increasing protein intake—especially in the morning—can boost energy levels, reduce jitteriness, agitation and mood swings, improve sleep, and sharpen brain function. I’ve seen this repeatedly in my work with patients.

If you’re chronically stressed, the tissues in your body literally start to break down. Stress researchers call this “wear and tear” on the body allostatic load. (7) The tissue breakdown is caused in part by collagen proteins being used up faster than they are replaced.

So, if you’re under a lot of stress, it’s especially important to eat proteins that contain collagen.

How Much Protein Do You Need?

If you’re in one of the groups above, I recommend consuming between 20 and 35 percent of calories from protein each day. The higher end of that scale (30–35 percent) would be for aggressive weight loss, metabolic problems,and people doing extreme training; the middle end (25–30 percent) for athletes and people training at moderate to vigorous intensity, and the lower end (20–25 percent) for the elderly, chronically ill, and people under a lot of stress. That said, these are just general guidelines and I suggest you experiment through the entire range to see what works best for you.

This is quite possibly much more protein than you’re eating now, even if you’re following a Paleo-type diet based on ancestral health. Let’s look at some examples using the ranges below:

% of calories as protein     2,200 calorie diet (g)     3,000 calorie diet (g)
35%193263
30%165225
25%138188
20%110150

Now, let’s look at a typical day’s worth of protein on a Paleo diet.

  • Breakfast: two eggs, sauerkraut, steamed vegetables. Approximately 15 grams.
  • Lunch: salad with 3–6 ounces of sliced chicken breast. Approximately 30–60 grams.
  • Snack: one ounce of almonds (about 23 almonds). Approximately 6 grams.
  • Dinner: 1/4–1/2 pound of beef sirloin, sweet potato, steamed broccoli. Approximately 35–70 grams.

This adds up to between 86 and 151 grams of protein, or 16–27 percent of calories on a 2,200 calorie diet and 11–20 percent of calories on a 3,000 calorie diet.

As you can see, this falls short of the protein targets for most categories in the table above, especially if you’re eating closer to 3,000 calories and/or trying to get more than 25 percent of calories from protein.

When Protein Powder Makes Sense

Obviously one option is to simply increase your intake of whole-food proteins, such as meat, fish, eggs, and nuts (though it’s worth pointing out that the protein in nuts is not as readily absorbed as animal proteins). For example, you could start your day with 1/2 fillet of salmon (about 40 grams of protein) instead of two eggs, and/or you could eat closer to a pound of protein for lunch and dinner. If you feel good eating this much animal protein, this is what I’d recommend; it’s always best to meet nutrient needs from whole food.

But let’s face it: not everyone wants to eat over two pounds of fish, meat and poultry each day. I love animal protein myself, and I feel better with a higher protein intake, but even I get tired of eating so much of it so frequently. I have a lot of patients—both male and female—that feel the same way.

And it’s not just a matter of preference. I have a lot of patients with low stomach acid, bile insufficiency, or other digestive problems that have trouble digesting large amounts of meat and fish. I also have patients that are intolerant of eggs (or other animal proteins). Ultimately, the goal is to heal their gut so they can eat as much of these foods as they’d like.

These are the situations where protein powder can be a useful addition.

You can add a protein shake in between your meals (or in place of breakfast, perhaps) to boost your overall protein intake.

Depending on how you make the shake (i.e. simply mixed with water, or mixed with fruit, avocados, egg yolks, etc.), it can either be a source of additional calories if you’re trying to put on weight or aid recovery, or a means of boosting protein without adding calories if you’re trying to maximize weight loss or metabolic function.

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My (New) Favorite Protein Powder—and the One I Recommend to My Patients

There are three important factors in choosing a protein powder: tolerability, quality, and bioavailability.

Tolerability refers to how likely the protein is to cause an adverse reaction. Whey protein is a great choice for many people, but I’ve noticed that quite a few of my patients don’t tolerate it well. I don’t either, despite the fact that I don’t have an issue with dairy products in general. I tend to feel somewhat bloated after consuming whey protein.

Quality refers to the quality of the protein source, how it is processed, and how it is manufactured. There’s obviously a ton of junk out there, especially in the bodybuilding community. If you’re going to use a protein powder, you should choose the highest quality product you can get.

Bioavailability refers to how completely absorbed the protein is. In general, plant proteins like pea and rice are much less bioavailable than animal proteins like whey, egg and beef.

With all of this in mind, I was excited to learn about a new product that has recently become available called PurePaleo. It’s a protein powder with several unique characteristics:

  • It’s dairy-free, gluten-free, and legume-free. In other words, it’s the first true Paleo protein powder.
  • It’s made from hydrolyzed beef protein. Hydrolyzed means that it is “pre-digested” and broken down into smaller peptides that are easier to absorb, and thus more bioavailable than most other proteins.
  • It’s sourced from hormone-free, antibiotic-free, non-GMO cows in Sweden that are raised on pasture, and it’s tested to be free of hormones, antibiotics, and allergens.
  • It features the power of beef to build muscle, cartilage, and ligaments, which is ideal for athletes, people training hard, those suffering from chronic illness, and the elderly.
  • It contains both complete and collagen proteins that are naturally found in beef. As I said earlier in the article, collagen is essential for tissue regeneration and repair and protective for anyone under stress.
  • It is sweetened with stevia and is very low in carbohydrate.

PurePaleo comes in both vanilla and chocolate flavors. I like both, but usually prefer the chocolate. I like it mixed with almond or coconut milk on its own, but sometimes I’ll add some spinach or other greens, vegetable juice, or berries. Since it’s already somewhat sweet, I don’t like it mixed with banana or other sweet fruits as much.

And in case you’re wondering, it doesn’t taste like beef at all. In fact, I did some “blinded” taste tests with friends and family members, and they had no idea it was a beef protein powder.

The best part for me, and many of my patients, is how good I feel after I take some. I don’t have the bloating I get after consuming whey, I feel more energized, and I’m seeing better gains in the gym and recovery after workouts.

If you’d like to give it a try, you can order it from my store in either chocolate or vanilla.

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168 Comments

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    • i wonder if this is dairy free and gluten free ? And if it’s $65- for 16 oz?

    • There’s a website I often use that has a beef protein that looks good. I use the site for my other suppliments. In fact I found something very similar to what Chris reccomended in Organic milk based why protein on there. Well worth checking out. bulkpowders.co.uk

  1. I wonder if concentrated whey protein powder like vital whey (grasfeed beef, undenatured) is a solution for me. I got a somewhat all-milk intolerance (cow, sheep, goat) tested via blood-test. It’s likly the casein causing the problem, right?

    I’m not sure to try because I tend to oversee bad reactions until my joints start with heavy inflamation.
    (As a child I got a bright red flag for eggs from an allergy test – the day after winning the easter egg eating contest … the Doc smiled and said my overall health is to good to last or something like that 😉

    I have good memories of whey protein concentrat wich was my go-to after sports drink when training for a marathon and recovery from that. (mostly whey protein, sometime full whey).
    But I can’t tolerate protein powders like e.g. AM Sport which is hydrolized milk protein.

    I am now on no-grains, no-milk (except lots of ghee and some butter), no-nuts, no-eggs (missing the yolks) with lots of fresh food, beef and sports for fun. And of course to much coffee 😉

    History:
    – undestructable in eating and training untill just around the competition time (running 800/1500m) unexplainable sports injuries happened. I tried to taper with the then super-healthy pasta, bread+cheese and “müsli”-Diet mainly (16-19 y)
    – Changed to High-Protein later with something like 200-500gr of “Quark” for breakfast (curd cheese + berries, cinemon, flaxseedoil), lowfat-cheese (cottage mostly), and canned tuna. Lots of vegetables, too.
    -> That worked for some time
    -> Then came the dry mouth, the constipation and the hot knees (32-36y)
    – At some point the orthopedist said my knees had worn quite some degree within 3 month. If I started doing parcour?No, didn’t move at all ?!
    – I changed to no-grains, no-milk -> some beef or fish, lots veggies sunk in fat and just 10cl red wine od 4 cl of some spirit every other day. After 4 weeks the orthopedist wanted to know the name of the secret drug I was clearly using … 😉

  2. Chris, I read your article a couple weeks ago and started eating lots of low-fat cottage cheese and low-carb whey protein shakes, thinking that might help me lose weight. I wasn’t really aware at that time of how much dairy spikes insulin (i thought it was just dairy with a higher carb content). I kept wondering why I suddenly was having attacks of hypoglycemia type symptoms (alleviated only by eating) and losing zero weight despite plenty of exercise and otherwise 80/20 Paleo diet (I did get a lot of muscle growth though, which I really didn’t want). Now I realize I missed one of the most important points of your article–beef protein powder! Wish there were less pricey alternatives, but if this works better for me then it’s definitely worth the extra cash. Because, as you implied, meat is great, but not two pounds of it every day. Thanks for another great article!

    • I have cottage cheese on a regular basis, and once I started to have some fresh Minas cheese (I live in Brazil)
      and my weight slightly went up. Minas cheese is
      considered a diet food but in fact it’s semi-fat and not low-fat. Low-fat is only cottage cheese and my weight keeps down with it no doubt. It turns out, though, that some brands are not that low-fat. Sometimes they have more than 1g of fat in a given portion. One brand here contains 4,3g fat in 50g cheese. My brand has 0,3g fat in 30g.

  3. Hello, I am pregnancy with mo/di twins (two sacs/one placenta). There are many recommendations for me to boost my protein intake. I would love to do this with whole foods, but there is just not that much room in my belly for all that meat! Most twin websites promote drinking 3 Boosts a day, which doesn’t sound healthy to me at all. Do you think Pure Paleo is suitable for pregnancy, or would Land of Lakes Gelatin boost my protein just as well?
    Thank you for any input.

  4. I would add breastfeeding mothers to the list of people needing more protein. During both pregnancies I had an aversion to protein rich foods a lot of the time, but now that I am the full meal ticket for my two month old, I can’t get enough protein. I can’t get by with fewer than 3 eggs at breakfast, and 2 palm sized pieces of meat at lunch and supper. I crave hard boiled eggs more than desserts most days!

  5. If you think more protein is good, could you comment the following issues.
    1. Dr. Broda Barnes in his book “Hypothyroidism: the unsuspected illness” stated, that high protein diet is no good for thyroid.
    2. Is it not true that access protein can trigger high level of insulin?
    3. Are there any evidence that high-protein diet helps not only loose weight, but keep it for a long time?

  6. Natural caramel flavor and natural vanilla flavor (caramel flavor causes cancer and “natural” flavors can be disguised as 300 chemicals. No thanks. I love you Chris but this protein powder is whey better = Beyond Whey by Natura. I don’t see that your product is non-denatured. I used to manage a health food store and a hidden secret to whey products are that they are heated to 600 degrees. Yikes. You always want a non-denatured product.

  7. Hi Chris!
    I love your stuff – all of it!
    In doing research for the naturopath I work for, I have learned that people that have genetic polymorphisms that affect BH4 or ammonia levels are apparently better off limiting protein. What is your take on this?

  8. Chris, this will at the end be a question for you.

    I recently fractured my wrist (very complicated double fracture with shards in all directions) and both my wrist and the rest of my body reacted extremely badly to wearing a cast (tried twice with equally as bad a reaction).

    So I set to work on relying on the body’s own ability to repair, along with the craniosacral therapy I could give it myself, since I’m a therapist.

    To give it as much support as I could, I did a lot of research online for best results to healing fractures apart from what the wrist could let me know itself, such as lots of sunshine, keeping the whole arm and shoulder in good blood and energy circulation by releasing fascia and getting meridians happy and flowing and more.

    High quality nutrition + supplementing where there were things I was deficient in features highly on that fracture healing list. Turns out fracture healing requires 3 times more calory intake than normal. And I can tell you my body agrees with that.

    Once the inflammation phase and the fallout from the bad reaction to the cast attempts was out of the system, I got ravenously hungry – especially of protein. Dreaming of eggs and meat, and I don’t have a big inside of the tummy, so difficult to put in as much as the body now wants. And I have a compromised gut, so probably am not as good at taking up the nutrients of everything I’m now having to put in.

    So I rushed over to the organics shop some suburbs away to see what I could find in terms of protein powder. They had shelves and shelves of powders. I have a very expressive body and field and so it is enough to just look at each container without reading what’s in them to know what my reaction will be if I were to eat them. So I looked at each one (about 80 different ones) without reading what they contained. Only one was deemed ok by my body. And that one was even more than ok, it was deemed yummooo! The yummoooo one was made from goats milk protein and all the others were made from either pea protein, a couple of other legumes or whey. The pea and othe legume ones didn’t provoke so much reaction, but just didn’t do anything either. The whey one provoked a number of gut and CNS reactions.

    There was one other container that my body really liked, but that one was on those shelves by mistake. It contained MSM.

    The goat protein powder was called Goatein. After I had my first shake of it mixed with coconut water and a few other things my body was purring and smiling like the chesire cat.

    Chris, what makes goat milk protein so different from the others mentioned above, do you know? Thanks in advance for any response from you or anyone else.

  9. I’m a lab researcher and avid athlete and have had a great deal of difficulty adding in additional protein, especially in snacks that I try to implement while running from meeting to meeting and back into the lab. Just wanted to share a tool that has helped me. They are Radbars. They contain egg protein powder and are a clean and somewhat balanced protein bar. They’re worth a glance if any of you on the go and value a quality diet. Not to mention, they are quite tasty. Here’s a link. http://www.radbar.me

  10. Chris, have you seen anything in the scientific literature indicating that hydrolized beef protein may help to boost Glutathione levels like non-denatured Whey protein?

    • I haven’t seen any studies on that directly, but pastured beef is one of the highest sources of glutathione in the diet, surpassed only be fresh veggies like asparagus.

  11. I don’t have a gallbladder anymore and coconut milk or oil causes what feels like a blockage for hrs..then like indigestion for the entire day. I would love to consume something healthy but it does not like me. Any ideas? I am older overactive immune system and hoshimotos.
    thank you
    advice appreciated

    • I had my gallbladder removed too, before I learned about naturopathic liver flush protocols solving the problem. I now take ox bile with every meal that has fats and I don’t have any issues with digestion.

  12. Chris,

    do you have any idea if this product is available in Europe (since the beef protein comes form Sweden)?

    Failing that, can you let me know who the supplier is?

    Thanks…

  13. Have a new fav for protein dense breakfast: pastured eggs soft poached in grass-fed bone broth. I’ve been making very large batches of grass fed bone broth once or twice a week. (adding dulce, full head of garlic, fresh rosemary, celery, carrots, jerusalem artichokes. Recent batches include lamb bones, bison ribs, and beef marrow bones.) Poaching the eggs in the soup stock just takes a few minutes and that breakfast holds me about 7 hours! Don’t even think about food for most of the day.

  14. I am 66 yo woman. Small boned and supposedly have osteopenia. (10 years of Bulimia between 18 and 31 but I am a normal eater now) Normal weight. Paleo for 2 1/2 yr. Mostly LC/VLC until recently. My doc has always been concerned about my bone health, but does not prescribe those horrible drugs for bones–she actually said she was sorry she had in the past. She checked my vit. D level (100) and then had me step on something that measured my muscle mass. She said I need about 56 g minimum per day of protein to maintain the correct muscle mass for strength as I age. I have always exercised, but now joined a gym and do strength work on body areas twice a week plus intermittent speed walking and one day I do sprints (sort of!). I am in pretty good shape for my age.

    I have fallen into a pattern of IF, with a light lunch (2 eggs and maybe bacon or a resistant starch item) and then a larger dinner with a safe starch, veg, large salad with an egg plus with vinegar and olive oil and butter on the veg. That is where I try and make up my protein. I think this is working, but at my age and body type, does this make sense with the 56 grams? It’s hard for me to eat much more. I am really kind of confused, so if you can give me an answer, I would much appreciate it.

  15. I’m not sure I want to jump the gun and say that low-carb diets are only effective because of the higher protein. If your specific weight problem has to do with hyperinsulinism, obviously lowering your carbs enough to do away with the hyperinsulinism will make a big difference in your body’s fat-storage habits and fatty-acid usage for energy. And low-carb, high-fat keto has been effective for many people if they don’t let themselves slide back into old habits–at least a few classes of carb foods are addictive to a degree.

    You also need to be careful depending on how your body uses protein because it may not damage your kidneys or cause cancer, but your body *can* turn it into sugar. This does not happen with everyone, but there are low-carbers who have stalled because their protein intake was too high.

    I do not know if glycine intake vs muscle protein intake plays a role here–you never know, it might. I know most of us don’t get enough glycine. Even though it’s conditionally essential it’s still very useful to eat. Glutamine is another example of a useful conditionally-essential amino acid. I was interested to learn that it buffers protein in the kidneys. It may also help with carb withdrawal. That one’s easy to get from muscle protein, though.

    • How low-carb to go is really the issue for me (along with being unsure of just how much protein is ideal for me). Chris seems to be more or less in agreement with the Perfect Health Diet premise of “safe starches,” but then there is the other side, the much lower carb/everything turns to an insulin spike side. It’s hard to make these decisions, but fun to be at least trying.

      • As like to say, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Whenever we talk about studies, we’re talking about averages. Same for general guidelines. There will always be people on either side of the bell curve.

    • Nothing is ever true for everyone, but I think the research does support the idea that *on average* protein is more important than fat as a macronutrient when it comes to weight loss.

      That said, there’s no doubt that low-carb diets are very effective for some people, especially those with significant blood sugar issues.

      • Thanks for the responses. The other issue, is what is one’s optimal weight? We women want to be skinny even when it seems our body type, not to mention metabolic derangement and AGE seem to screaming NO! I feel fat, even after losing a huge amount of weight years ago. I’m fairly certain I’m at a good weight for optimal health, but in my heart keep wanting to be thinner. The energy is better when I’m even heavier than I am. I’m 58 and just about 5 feet and weigh about 135. Five pounds more and I can walk and walk for miles with a zip in my step as opposed to a slight drag. Just putting this out there for any women having similar issues. All my life I wanted to be skinny.

      • Chris, would you recommend using the product as a substitute for one meal a day? Say, lunch?

  16. I have been reading the posts and my issue has not come up. i have been following a paleo-type diet–lots of coconut oil and grass fed butter in my drinks, home made kefir from grass fed cows, fresh fruits, vegs, and grass fed beef, when i can afford it. i rarely cheat. when i do it is NOT cookies and ice cream but chips. (potato,sweet potatoes, etc). i am on biogest (80% prog, 1.5% est [reduced from 3% last month]), and adrenal support supplements like non dgl-licorice, dhea. And i have put on 15-20 pounds. I cannot get it off. i thought reducing my estrogen would do it. i thought upping my protein would do it. i thought upping my fats would do it. i am at wits end. i joined a gym and go about 3x a week for about 35 min a session and have a desk job. ideas anyone? thanks

    • Wendy, calories do count ultimately. I gained 8 pounds and was shocked, because I thought I wasn’t overdoing any macronutrients. The bottom line is, even though this way of eating is very satiating and not impossible to stay on long term, unlike the horrible low-fat/high-carb diet, food will make you fat if you eat enough of it, especially if you’re prone to fatness (which I am). So, you need to cut somewhere. If you’re not overeating on protein, then the carbs or the fat have to be cut. Unless you have some other unusual problem.

      By the way, I’ve read that coconut oil helps in weight loss, that one should eat a few tablespoons a day, etc. Malarky. Maybe if you’re a 20 year-old athletic male. Not the average metabolically deranged woman.

      For those of us who love to eat, who are even addicted to it, there are no diets that work by themselves. There is a psychological component. We have to put some effort into this every day, sometimes more, sometimes less. We can’t eat as much as we want with the exception maybe of lettuce.

      • Calories count if you’re storing them more than you are burning them. In the end it’s not really the calories but what the overall food comp is doing to your metabolic response, which goes back to the endocrine system. Usually insulin’s involved, and often leptin’s deranged in some way too, and sometimes the sex hormones are involved as well, primarily estrogen. Nothing for it but to tweak the diet and see what works; addressing the endocrine system via tackling one hormone at a time is usually a mistake, with the exception of lowering carbs if your insulin is high because both high blood sugar and chronically high insulin are incredibly damaging and need something like an emergency response.

      • I agree with Debbie. I have many patients that gained weight on a high-fat, low-carb Paleo diet. In those cases I recommend minimizing added fat (the coconut oil and butter drinks, for example). You can eat fat as it naturally occurs in food, but don’t add a lot to food. Decrease the calorie density of meals, i.e. emphasize non-starchy vegetables, starchy veggies like sweet potatoes without much added fat, and proteins.

        • When you say to minimize added fat, it’s hard to know how much is still reasonable. I put about a half tablespoon of butter on a serving of cooked broccoli, for example. Should I cut that out? If I use avocado on a salad I will skip the oil in my dressing, but otherwise I use about a tablespoon of EVOO or avocado oil, but that will be the only fat in my entire lunch. If I roast veggies I will use a small amount (maybe half a tablespoon per serving). of ghee or avocado oil. So is two tablespoons of added fat from quality sources going to stall weightloss in your opinion?

    • Chips will stall you or make you gain if you eat enough of them–“safe starch” or not, starches are sugars and no one needs to eat tons of them. Also, if it’s a cheat to the degree you’re getting mainstream brands, you have vegetable oils to contend with as well.

      Another possibility is casein may be playing a role. You’re getting that from kefir and from the butter, if it’s regular butter and not ghee. Sounds weird but I imposed an elimination diet on myself a couple years ago and was losing weight nicely including excess water but as soon as I reintroduced heavy cream my fingers started getting puffy again (water retention). And I wasn’t using much at the time; I’m using more lately and my weight has stalled hard.

      The supplements are a possibility too. It’s the endocrine system that governs energy storage and you’ve been tinkering with yours.

  17. Chris, I eat 2 eggs and 2 slices of bacon, avocado, olives and sometimes a green drink around 11:00. And that’s after a bulletproof coffee around 7. Around 3, I’m hungry again and dinner is not until 6 when family gets home. I never know what to eat around 3. Sometimes I blow it for that reason. So I just ordered collagen protein from the Bulletproof. I’m still waiting for it as it was back ordered. What do you think of that product?
    Sometimes I think that I eat too much protein, I’d like to drop 5 pounds, but having a hard time with it. I’m a 59 year old woman, who has always lifted weights and done cardio. Past 6 months, I’ve had plantar fasciitis on both feet, so I’m not on them as much. Do you think adding a protein smoothie in the middle of the day will be too much?

    • I think it’s worth a try. As I said in the article, increasing protein intake has been shown to promote weight loss in several studies. Collagen protein is a good choice, but depending on your goals the full spectrum beef or whey proteins might be better as standalone protein sources (especially the beef protein, which has some collagen).

  18. Hi Chris,

    I’m a recovering anorexic with some fear of protein and I think that I’ve eaten too little protein for a couple of years.
    I’m trying to regain weight and I was thinking what percentage of calories I should aim for given my situation of anorexia and underweight?

      • Thanks Chris. I’ve been eating better and more lately. I weigh 143lbs currently and aim for 3000kcal/day – do you still think its safe for me to eat 188g of protein/day?