10 mistakes you might be making on a protein boost
There’s a huge amount of interest and advice around increasing your protein – but plenty of misinformation too. We asked nutritionists and fitness professionals what’s helpful and sensible when it comes to this important macronutrient.
Protein helps us to repair our muscles and regenerate every cell from our toenails to the hairs on our heads.
It can also help us to recover from exercise, suppress hunger or build muscle. For these reasons, many people are looking to up their protein intake. But getting the best out of protein isn’t as simple as adding another egg to your breakfast scramble, or supping a protein shake after your workout.
We interviewed fitness and nutrition experts to identify 10 common mistakes you might be making while you’re on a protein boost – and how to fix them.
1. Neglecting other nutrients
Boosting your protein intake has its uses. Topping up on this macronutrient can help you develop a leaner and more muscular body composition, stay healthy during pregnancy and recover from injuries – especially if you weren’t eating enough of it previously.
However, increasing your protein intake should not come at the expense of other important nutrients in your diet.
“Everybody seems obsessed with protein and I’m curious as to why, because the majority in the UK meet their requirements without concern,” says Renee McGregor, a sports dietician and author.
“If you eat any food to excess it has implications, and that includes protein. It has a satiating effect, so eating a lot of protein might displace intake of other nutrients that are needed in relatively large quantities such as carbs, fats and micronutrients. This applies particularly to people with high energy requirements.”
Failing to eat a balanced diet because you’ve filled up on protein can have negative consequences, according to McGregor.
“In the short term, it might mean you might feel tired and struggle to concentrate, while long-term it can affect endocrine function, bone health and nerve health,” she says.
“Over time, fixating on protein can cause an aspect of malnutrition.”
2. Not factoring in your weight and lifestyle
The amount of protein needed for ideal health and fitness varies from person to person. How much you weigh is one factor: the recommended amount is 0.75g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day for adults.
But body weight isn’t the whole story. Other factors such as the type and intensity of exercise you do, your age, whether you’re pregnant, and your overall health also affect your ideal protein intake.
“I work with a lot of very active individuals, and they often try to use public health information that’s put out for sedentary or overweight people,” says McGregor.
“It’s quite a concern in the sense that we seem to have lost the ability to look at information and be nuanced, and decide if it is personally relevant to us.”
If you’ve consumed lots of advice on how much protein you need and you’re struggling to arrive at a daily figure, McGregor advises that it might be best to simply listen to your stomach.
“Our bodies are clever and know what we need,” she says.
“Toddlers go through phases of demanding high-protein food, and phases of demanding a high-carb diet. These young children are guided by their hunger, because that’s what the human body is designed to do.”
3. Over-relying on protein powder drinks
There’s no doubt that protein powder drinks are a convenient and manageable vehicle for getting protein into our bodies, but McGregor warns that over-relying on them can have an adverse effect on overall nutrition.
“Protein shakes often don’t have any carbohydrate content, and carbs are the key nutrient for energy and the hormonal cascade required for adaptation post-training,” she says.
“I tell athletes that they need to add milk to these shakes to get carbs, rather than just mixing it with water. It’s useless to take on the protein if you’re not getting energy too.”
Research suggests that around 1.2 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight per hour should be taken on for the first few hours after exercise, as this will facilitate optimal recovery. We’re not saying protein shakes are bad – they’re just not sufficient on their own.
4. Using just a few foods to boost your overall protein
Changing your diet can be challenging, and if you’re aiming for a protein boost then you might feel tempted to simply add a few high-protein foods to your daily diet. The worrying trend of bodybuilders gulping down raw eggs springs to mind.
Rather than obsessing over certain foods, McGregor advises that getting protein from a variety of sources is key, as this will increase the variety of nutrients in your diet.
“I’d encourage people to be as varied as they can within their dietary approach,” she says.
“If you’re plant-based, you have to be mindful about getting grains and pulses across the day to meet your amino acid intake. If you’re vegetarian, foods like Greek yoghurt, milk and eggs are good.”
5. Neglecting your gut health
In order to use the amino acids from protein, we need to be able to metabolise the sources we eat or drink. To some extent, it seems that the rate of absorption can be affected by gut health.
“Your system needs to be able to digest protein, so I ask clients to open up to me about their digestion,” says Atif Rehman, a personal trainer and owner of Atif Fitness, based at Graft Häus gym in Leeds.
“When you eat a high-protein meal, think about whether you feel energetic or bloated. If you don’t feel good, consider making changes to improve your gut health, like taking on more organic sources of probiotics such as fermented beetroot juice.
“Protein is very good for us, but digestion is key to getting the benefits.”
6. Jumping on the latest social media trend
Social media platforms are awash with content presenting ideas on exercise and nutrition.
A quick Instagram search for ‘protein tips’ brings up some dubious advice. Apparently, quinoa is not a protein source (not true!). Another post claims that the human body can’t use protein, so you should find alternative sources of amino acids instead (but of course, the body can and does use protein).
Extreme or unusual advice is often rewarded by social media algorithms, as seems to have been the case with mouth taping, a sleep trend with little scientific evidence to support it. Some dietary advice published on these platforms might even prove harmful.
“I see people at the gym looking at posts on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, where bodybuilders are talking about a very high-protein diet, with lots of foods like steak,” says Rehman.
“Maybe they have their own goals and it gives them a boost, but I worry over whether their hearts and kidneys are healthy. There are so many deaths in bodybuilding.”
7. Prioritising quantity over quality
Whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, keto or omnivorously in-between, Rehman stresses the importance of getting your protein from high-quality foods.
“With any source of protein we’ve got to be careful, as many items go through so much processing and modification with sugar and salt,” he says.
“One of my vegan clients’ weight wasn’t going down, so I looked into her diet. She was eating a lot of beans and tofu – which can be healthy protein sources – but they were in highly processed forms.”
“Another client who eats meat was buying cheaper options for foods like steak, marked down at the supermarket. I directed him to go to local butchers instead, where the meat is often fresher.”
The price of high-quality protein sources – especially meat – is sometimes off-putting, but provided you’re getting enough protein to meet your needs, there’s a strong argument that quality beats quantity.
8. Cramming your protein intake into the hours after exercise
Danny Webber, a sports nutritionist and owner of Webber Nutrition, has noticed that some of his clients hold misconceptions over the best timing for protein intake.
“For recovery, it’s widely believed that you need to have a protein-rich meal straight after training, but that’s not always the case,” he says.
“It’s better to have your daily protein distributed evenly throughout the day. If you were an athlete who needs 150g per day, distributing that into five meals with 30 grams in each can be more effective than going for long periods without and then taking on a load of protein after training.”
9. Eating nutritionally imbalanced ‘fortified foods’
According to Webber, a fixation on protein can sometimes lead people to reach for protein-packed products that might do more harm than good for their overall nutrition.
“There are lots of fortified foods out there like ‘protein pasta’ and ‘protein bread’, but the quality often isn’t great,” he says.
“They’re sometimes highly processed, and the people who eat them might end up increasing their overall calories, sugar and salt intake, despite thinking they’re eating something that’s good for them.”
“If the goal is to lose body weight and you’re choosing these protein-and-carb-rich foods, especially those with added sauces, then you’re taking on more calories than you need.”
10. Overcomplicating your relationship with protein
Protein has several crucial functions in our diet, from regenerating our bodies after exercise to staving off hunger. There are certainly situations in which you might benefit from boosting your protein intake – but the clear message from nutritionists and fitness experts is that you don’t need to overthink how you consume it.
Webber works as a performance nutritionist with sportspeople such as the Newcastle Falcons rugby union team and Bury F.C..
“These professional athletes recognise the importance of protein and try to eat it regularly throughout the day, including having some around their training,” he says.
“They just do the basics very well, every day, and that’s where a lot of things aren’t done as well for the average Joe. It’s about meeting your needs based on your activity levels, choosing quality protein sources and being consistent.”
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