What You Really Need to Know About Protein: Part Two

Last week my husband bumped into a good friend he hadn’t seen for a little while.

They had a bit of a chat and then she commented that he appeared to have lost weight.

If anyone made a comment like that to me, I would probably take it as a compliment – “Oh you mean I’m not looking as portly or matronly at present. Thank you!”

After getting home, he shared he had caught up with our friend and their conversation.

I asked him what he thought about her comment on his weight loss.

“Hmm”, he replied, “I think she’s noticed I’ve lost weight from my arms and legs.”

Which he has.

He also reflected, (and this is the price he pays for living with a lifestyle medicine practitioner) that this was skinny muscle loss due to sarcopenia.

We can get away with a lot when we’re younger.

My husband is fit, healthy and very active. He spends his days fixing, repairing, building and generally doing all the things he knows he’s very capable of because he’s been doing it all his life.

He eats well (despite being deprived of steak) because we both enjoy following a mostly pescatarian diet with lots of fresh vegetables, fruit, legumes, olive oil, wholegrains and some dairy aka the mediterranean pattern of eating, and we cook from scratch every night.

He’s not protein-deprived.

The piece that’s missing is structured resistance training to build and maintain strength, function and performance.

But focusing on protein alone is missing the point of what keeps us healthy and strong.
Giving him a bigger serve of protein (or more steak) isn’t going to fix the problem of his ageing muscles.

He needs to work his muscles more.

Persuading him to join me at the gym hasn’t worked, yet, but the reality of a future if he doesn’t act could mean having to give up the things he loves the most, like hiking, kayaking and skiing.

I get it.

When you’re able to do something, it’s really hard to imagine a time when you might not be able to any longer.

Sometimes it takes a wake-up call to help us see that we’re no longer as strong as we were in our twenties and thirties.

Like when you trip over the dog lying in the wrong place.

Or notice your walking speed is just a little bit slower than it used to be. 

Or that your grip isn’t what it used to be. 

Or that your balance is a bit ‘off.’

Fighting sarcopenia requires two things.

Sufficient protein in the diet AND resistance training.

This is not necessarily about signing up to join a gym, especially of you hate those environments.

And it’s definitely not about “bulking up.”

Rather it’s looking for those daily opportunities to gradually challenge your muscles to work a bit harder, to build strength, balance and retain function.

 

 

Fighting Sarcopenia

Ageing is an adaptive process, not a giving up process.

To retain your independence this is the time to get real and get going, starting with…

 

1. Time for a reality check

Be honest,

How easily can you stand from sitting (without using your arms)?
Can you get up off the floor unaided?
Can you climb the stairs without getting puffed?
Can you ‘save yourself’ from falling, if you stumble?
Can you carry your shopping without relying on a trolley?
Do you walk at the same speed as your same age friends?

 

2. Are you eating protein with every meal?

Aim for 25-30 grams at each meal, not just dinner. Check with your doctor if you’re unsure you’re eating enough.

 

3. Commit to resistance training.

Note: This is for life, it’s your new healthy habit. Because we’ve probably all had that time when we’ve had to take a break from our normal activities because of injury or illness and note how quickly we lose condition. It’s infuriating but there it is.
Start low and build gradually. There are no brownie points for injuring yourself in the first week.
Choose where, what and when.

A gym is ideal if accessible, affordable and a trained physiotherapist or exercise physiologist can provide the appropriate advice suitable for your needs, and a program to get you started.

If not, an alternative is to  do some home-based exercises starting twice a week, such as,

• Practising sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit. This is about using leg muscle control to enable you to stand up from a chair, and to sit down slowly. Do this 8-10 times every day, starting twice a week.
• Try a wall push-up. Keep your body straight, lean your arms onto the wall and allow your elbows to bend before pushing back. Do this 8-10 times.
• Heel raise. Using the back of a chair for support, stand straight with your feet flat on the floor and then raise your heels as high as you can.
• Use some light weights (1-2 kgs to start with) to do some nice bicep and triceps curls.
• Got stairs at home? Great. Use them more than for just going to bed and getting up in the morning.
• Do the flamingo. Caution! If your balance is poor, be careful with this one. Here you stand on one leg and lift the other to a 90-degree angle and hold for 20-30 seconds, building to a minute. Dr Michael Mosley used to recommend doing this while brushing your teeth.
• Walk a little faster. Cadence matters. Our longevity has been associated with gait speed. You don’t want to be slowing down!
• Yup. Squat lots. The right way to squat is to fold your arms across your chest, (to stop you using them us a counter lever, which actually makes you more likely to fall over) and then sticking your bum out as if you were going to sit on an invisible chair then gradually bend those knees. How far you squat initially doesn’t matter. It’s about doing the squat itself. Practice gets you better.
• Get out of the house and go for a walk, jog, cycle, hop or whatever you like to do outside. That fresh air and exercise is invigorating, energising and strengthening. Start with 15-20 minutes and build from there

All of these are especially important if you spend a lot of time at your desk (like I do).
I aim to get up every 30-45 minutes, do some stretches and 10 squats.

 

In lifestyle medicine, physical activity is one of the six pillars we use to assist in building better health and well-being. Prevention is key and frailty is to be avoided!

What I find scary, is that researchers are finding frailty developing in forty-year-olds.

Flinders University found that almost 45% of 40-year-olds are showing signs of pre-frailty driven by mental exhaustion, poor muscle strength and social isolation. Yikes!

In other words, you’re never too young or too old to be thinking about how to age well and the best time to start is today.

Remember, protein alone is not the solution to protecting your muscle strength and mass. It’s using the protein to help your muscles get and stay stronger.

What do you do to prevent sarcopenia?