A great number of people over 40 who are struggling to shift weight may be making a subtle but significant error with their protein – not eating too little of it, but eating it at the wrong times, according to a leading doctor.
Chief medical officer at Choose Health, Dr Alan Farrell, said the most common pattern he sees is people front-loading their day with carbohydrates and leaving the protein until dinner.
“A very typical pattern is a small amount of protein at breakfast and lunch with most protein consumed at dinner,” he told GB News.
This uneven distribution works against people’s bodies more than they realise, he explained, adding: “Research indicates that muscle protein synthesis is likely more beneficial if the protein is spread throughout the day rather than consumed in one meal.
Maintaining muscle is as important as losing fat when it comes to changing the body’s composition
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“An uneven intake increases the difficulty of losing weight while retaining muscle, since muscle drives a significant portion of resting energy expenditure.”
Maintaining muscle, he noted, is just as important as losing fat when it comes to changing the body’s composition, yet is often overlooked in favour of chasing weight loss.
Protein needs shift during midlife, owing largely to a phenomenon known as anabolic resistance, Dr Farrell explained – referring to the age-related decline in how responsive muscles are to dietary protein.
“This requires focusing on the overall process rather than simply the total daily protein intake, whereby quality and distribution become more influential,” he noted.
Hormonal changes, coupled with reduced activity levels and gradual muscle loss, tend to work in tandem in midlife, making protein more important as it becomes easier to get wrong.
“To me, protein ranks a distant second or third among priorities in most diets, and the missing pieces are usually timing and consistency, rather than dramatic increases in protein intake,” he said.
What is the blind spot stalling progress?
For anyone who feels they’re doing everything right on the diet and exercise front, but still gaining weight, Dr Farrell says the thing he’d investigate is muscle mass.
“The number on the scale says nothing about fat and muscle, so slow losses in muscle mass can lead to lower daily energy expenditure even if the diet hasn’t changed.”
A second but less obvious factor is fluctuating appetite and food intake across the day, which can quietly distort how much protein and calories someone is actually consuming.
Uneven protein intake increases the difficulty of losing weight
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“Appetitie and energy intake naturally vary over the day, resulting in an underestimation of total caloric intake while leaving mammoth gaps in protein intake at critical meals.”
But when body composition and eating patterns are taken into account together, one gains far more insight than focusing on protein totals alone.