Hard Work, Wrong Advice: 2,500 Facebook Comments Later

The Facebook Post that had me Stunned But first - Protein Scavenging ...  What is protein scavenging? In certain birds, researchers have shown they eat and eat and search for food until they hit the optimal protein they need for that day. Once they hit it, they stop eating. The hypothesis is that we do the same thing. We keep eating until we hit the right amount of protein for the day. If we do not hit it, we just keep eating all day. This has not been proven in humans, but Joanne says over three decades of coaching, she has seen exactly this pattern. When people finally eat enough protein, the frustrations greatly diminish. The snacking goes away. The meals get smaller. The food noise goes away. All of a sudden, they look disciplined. They look like they have self-control. Protein does that. Yet so many people fight it, because protein does not taste as good as carbohydrates and fat. Doing what is necessary, not what you want As we get older, protein is not absorbed as well, and we need more of it per meal to trigger muscle protein synthesis. A 20-year-old may manage it with 20 grams. Over 45, Joanne talks about 35 to 40 grams per meal. Protein has to be deliberate. Logging alone will not fix it. Logging and finding you only reached 70 or 80 grams tells you the problem. It does not solve it. Planning the protein first, then building the rest of the day around it, does. A protein shake, tuna, and some ground turkey can get you there. Joanne also uses ready-made protein drinks, 30 grams each, two a day, before she eats a thing. Try it for two weeks. People who say they cannot eat enough protein are often not valuing themselves enough to make it non-negotiable. If you knew it would guarantee a long, healthy life for your pets, or your grandkids, you would make it happen. Apply that same value to yourself. Anyone with kidney disease should stay within their doctor's protocols. That exception sits beside every protein recommendation. The Facebook post that blew her mind In an over-50s group, a woman posted that she had trained for nine months, eats 1,400 calories a day, weight trains four days a week, and has not lost a pound. She said she gets about 80 grams of protein a day. The post drew around 2,500 comments. Most of the advice was nonsense, Joanne says. "You are not eating enough, you are in starvation mode." "It must be your hormones, you need oestrogen." "Lift lighter weights for your body type." Joanne's reading of the same post. If she is not tracking, she is almost certainly eating about 30% more than she thinks, so probably closer to 1,700 calories, not 1,400. 80 grams of protein is only 320 calories. On 1,400 calories, that leaves close to 1,100 calories from something that is not protein, likely over 200 grams of carbohydrate a day. With a waist that suggests an insulin load, that carbohydrate load blocks access to stored fat. Lipolysis is inhibited. The fix is not more calories and not a new hormone. It is flipping the macros: keep the calories, get the protein grams right up, which in itself brings the carbohydrates down. And get bloodwork done. One commenter, a woman in her seventies, got it exactly right: eat unprocessed food, stay in a deficit, exercise every day, and you will get results. Joanne's own 5-Amino experience, from YouTube to audio Joanne shares only her own experience here, for information, not as a recommendation for anyone else. Right after Christmas 2023, she was 147.5 pounds. She started taking 5-Amino-1MQ in th