⁠Indian Diet Problem: Low Protein, High Calories & Muscle Loss | Prashant Desai | FO501 Raj Shamani

There is a problem with Indian food. If you look at an Indian thali, to get 10 grams of protein, you have to eat so many rotis. Nine rotis for 10 grams of protein. Think about how much protein will be in 100 grams of dal? 24 grams. But for these 24 grams, I have to eat this entire dal. Structurally, your calories from protein are less than 10%. Today, we have with us Prashant Desai, who is a health educator. If I increase protein in my body, my weight loss will happen. Robin Haimery took 360 cockroaches and basically put all these cockroaches into two buckets with different diets. One set of cockroaches was given high protein, low carb food, and one set of cockroaches was given high carb, low protein. The cockroaches that were given high carb, low protein ate more. These cockroaches became fat. These tests were also done in UNI. They also saw humans overeat till their minimum protein requirements are met. Interesting. In this episode, we will talk about the relevance of protein. The reality of Indian diet and how the right protein can transform both your health and weight. So, if you are one of those people who want to increase protein and decrease calories, then if you make soybeans your friend, you get 15 to 16 grams of protein between 150 to 200 calories. Low-fat paneer is available. You will get 23 grams of protein from it. In just 150 calories. If you want to improve your diet, fitness, and long-term health, then definitely watch this episode till the end. But how much protein is enough? WHO recommends 0.8 grams per kg of body weight. So, if your weight is 70 kg, then you should eat 84-85 grams of protein per day. Protein shakes? Tell me, is it healthy? Everyone thinks it causes kidney stones. Two things I want to say. Does eating excess protein result in damage to the kidney? There is no evidence whatsoever. Do people whose kidney is already damaged, should they have excess protein? The answer to that is absolutely. If you need to send something or get something delivered, many times it becomes difficult to find the right option. And for smaller items, it's always a struggle. That's why I suggest Porter. Their two-wheelers can easily handle up to 20 kg, and the best part is that the price shown on the app is the final price. You don't have to negotiate for rates, nor will their partners ever ask you for extra cash. When a reliable expert is carrying your goods, you can focus on your work tension-free. To know more about Porter, click the link in the description. Welcome back. Oh, thank you. I see you more than me, more importantly, man. I always wanted to thank you personally, man, that when we were talking about protein, you thought of discussing protein with me. So, a big thank you to you and your team. I am deeply honored that this subject is very close to my heart, which is why I am thanking you. So, I always say, even at home, I say, Amitabh Bachchan starts with "Chaliye khelte hain Kaun Banega Crorepati" (Let's play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire). So, whenever I go to any nutritional conference, I say, "Chaliye khelte hain Kaun Banega Proteinpati" (Let's play Who Wants to Be a Protein-aire). So, protein is that important to me. Raj, why is protein important to you? Structurally speaking, for me too, there are three reasons: one is patriotic, one is perspective, and one is personal. Patriotic: As much as I have read about protein in the last 10-11 years, it is my strong belief that the day India reaches adequacy and optimum levels of protein, our major health problems will automatically be solved. Whether you talk about obesity, whether you talk about diabetes. And both obesity and diabetes are accelerators for your top five killers in India: heart attack and stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's, organ failure. This combination of obesity and diabetes accelerates all these things. Right? So, if I solve obesity and diabetes, it is my personal belief that today we are living an average of 70-72 years in India. Okay? If you look at Singapore, Hong Kong, the top living countries, they are at 85 years. So, because you were born in India, you are already paying a tax of 12-15 years, meaning you are going to live less. And when you double-click on this, it is because our lifestyle habits have become such that if you are in India, there is a 50% probability of becoming diabetic as you grow up, a 70% probability of becoming obese. 70% chances that if you are born, you will be fat. Why is that statistic? An ICMR report came out in 2023 or 24. They did it with the Indian Diabetes Association. At that time, when they measured about 1200 people, and if you look at that category of people who are overweight and obese in India, they were more than 60 crore overweight and obese. But this is at a time when India's median age today is 29 years. We are at the median age of 29. If you have almost 60 crore overweight and obese people, as these people grow in life and our per capita grows, you have a 70% probability you will become obese. If you are diabetic and obese, your risk of heart attack goes up by almost 200%. Your risk of cancer goes up by 300%. You know, when we talk about cancer, establishing causality in our science becomes very difficult. You will find many correlations. Right? Causality was established with smoking, that people who smoke get lung cancer, meaning smoking causes lung cancer. The second thing for which causality was established in cancer was with obesity, that if you are obese, then there are 13 different types of cancers. Now, if you are overweight and obese, for example, meaning you have more fat inside your body. There is subcutaneous fat, which is on the skin, which is not harmful. But if you keep eating more and you keep getting fatter, all this fat starts leaking from your fat cells and it starts wrapping around your organs, which we call visceral fat or visceral adiposity. Meaning it is fatting all the organs. If it is in the liver, you will die from liver failure. If that fat is surrounding your kidneys, your kidney problems will start. If it goes to the heart, there will be heart problems. So, I just feel that if we just correct this particular part. So, my first reason is patriotic. Second, perspective. Okay. Today, everywhere, there is talk of protein, protein, protein, protein, protein, protein. And to some extent, it is correct. To some extent. Okay. It is not in your hands. Once. So, from a perspective, I just feel that protein is so, even today, misunderstood, and hopefully, through our podcast today, we will break so many protein-related myths by going so deep into protein, taking people through everything, through the nuances of protein, through the lens of science. We will not talk about conjecture anymore. I think hopefully, the more people listen to this podcast, the perspective will change around protein. Third, personal. And for this, I had also taken your help once. You know, my Vada Pav reel went very viral, where I said Vada Pav has 10 grams of protein. I received a lot of hate. So, this topic is personal to me. For me, it was like the Dr. Len Longer moment. You've heard of Dr. Len Longer? She was the first woman psychologist ever to be admitted to Harvard in 1979. I think no one in the world has done more work than her on mindfulness and the mind-body connection. And her whole life changed with an experiment when she was young. And she went to a horse event. So, her jockey told Dr. Longer, she wasn't a doctor then, she was a girl, "Can you hold my horse? I'll go get a hot dog for it." And she froze. She thought, this man is crazy. Horses are herbivores. They don't eat meat. He's feeding a hot dog to a horse. Like that horse ate six hot dogs. And that's where she said, my whole life changed. How much we are governed by our beliefs, which are shaped by society, which are shaped by wisdoms which we don't even know where they have come from, which we don't even question. I was in Manchester in December 2024. It's Europe's biggest conference, an international conference on science and exercise nutrition. Olympians' coaches come to this. The first keynote presentation was for three hours. Two people presented: Professor Luc van Loon and Professor Stu Phillips. When you research protein, you will realize these two are giants. Stu Phillips has been the most cited principal investigator in all protein-related and landmark studies. Both presented. And it's such a big conference. For me, it was like a big moment that they gave a three-hour presentation. Stu Phillips gave one presentation. In two slides, he presented a farmer from the Netherlands. And this farmer, Netherlands, I don't know if you know, but their country's food is potato. Right? They eat a lot of potatoes. And as much potato grows, they eat it, so a lot of potato gets wasted. Some potatoes, due to agriculture. This farmer took all this unwanted potato and through refining, made potato protein powder. And imagine, Prashant Desai, who is a chartered accountant, going into health. And for me, it was a novelty item, right? And I was like, man, we in Bombay eat so much Vada Pav. Vada Pav has potato, and besan too. So, as soon as I came back from Manchester, I took our Vada Pav and sent it to the lab for testing. Let's see what's in it. The lab results showed that Vada Pav from Kirti College has 10 grams of protein. For me, as an educator, I made it. When I used to do my podcast, I said, "Man, we are crying about protein, protein. Your Vada Pav also has 10 grams of protein." And when we cut the reel and put it on this, it gave people the impression that I am saying, "Eat Vada Pav for protein." Yes, my intent was different, but it went viral. But for me, it was that Dr. Dan Lengel moment. It changed me. It got me into thinking. And for the last year and a half, it's been about a year and a half. I have gone so deep into the subject. And the deeper you go, and you know more than me, when you go deeper into any topic, the insights that come before you, that's where you realize how weak our understanding is so far, or it hasn't reached that level yet, just to understand this remarkable thing called protein. So, I am very excited, Raj, to discuss this. We will discuss it from all three angles. But first, because you have already established obesity as a problem, let's start from that lens only: if I increase protein in my body or take the right type of protein, will my weight loss happen? Okay? It will happen. 100%. How will it happen? How can weight loss happen? Like that, because that's the biggest problem right now. In India, everyone wants to lose weight. The thin person wants to become thinner, and the fat person wants to become even thinner. And those who are very obese, they are the ones struggling because they have gone through a problem that nobody can, nobody can understand. And perhaps I won't even understand what they must be going through. Right? I have seen my mom personally go through it in my family. I have seen bariatric operations. I have seen people doing keto. I have seen people just starving to death to another level, and after seeing all that, no one's weight is reducing. We will discuss this in two parts. First, I will tell you a remarkable story of cockroaches. Okay? And I will tell you how, through cockroaches, I will prove to you. And these studies have been done. It's not Prashant Desai's story. But for this, we first need to understand protein a little. Why is protein a different macronutrient in itself? We, right? We generally understand protein from a macronutrient perspective. In 19, sorry, in 1838, you can say the discovery of protein happened. Right? A chemist named Mulder discovered protein. He was basically looking at the fact that every product has nitrogen. So, how much nitrogen is there? He was studying that, and when he saw the results that every single product we eat has nitrogen somewhere, he was very amazed. And what does this nitrogen do? So, he discussed all these studies with his scientist friend, Bezizer. They said, "Man, all these things are happening. Let's give it a name first." So, when they tried to understand its functionality, they named it protein. Okay? Protein comes from the Greek word "protos." Protos basically means primary. And look at the remarkable reason behind giving this name: their studies in 1838 indicated that life springs from protein. So, the name has to do justice to this remarkable macronutrient called protein. So, protein was born from there. Protein is a very different macronutrient when we talk about it compared to carbs and fat. And in this, when you talk about obesity, we will connect it later. I have something to show you. Can I show you? Please. So, I told you why protein is a very different macronutrient compared to carbs and fat. Now, if you look at the chemical structure of carbs and fat, you will largely find carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which we call the carboxyl group. When we talk about protein, what makes protein unique is this 'N'. Every protein has nitrogen, which we call the amino group or amines. Okay? That's why when we talk about protein, to say it, it is a macronutrient, Raj, but protein itself is made up of different macro, different amino acids. To give a simple example, like A, B, C, D, E, F, G, we have 26 alphabets, right? Protein is made from 20 alphabets or 20 letters. Okay? Among these, we call them 20 essential amino acids. Okay? Among these, there are nine essential ones that we need from food, and 11 are non-essential, which the body makes itself. Okay? Okay? Now, consider words. When you use words, some words will be five letters long, some words will be 20 letters long. Similarly, your proteins are. Because they are formed by joining different amino acids. When we talk about insulin, it is also a type of protein. So, insulin will have 54 amino acids. Okay? Right? If we take a larger amino acid, it will have at least 2000 amino acids joined together. So, depending on its function, Mother Nature joins these amino acids in your body, and from that, that protein is formed. Right? So, what you are seeing in this is one differentiation, the 'N' which is nitrogen. The second is in the profile of every amino acid, this 'R' you are seeing, this is its side chain. I call this the protein's secret sauce. Okay? Different, all these amino acids, this 'R' is different. This one doesn't change. This side chain attached to it is different. That makes it a different amino acid. Right? This is the entire secret of protein or amino acids. We talk about protein in very simple terms today, but essentially, we are talking about amino acids. Now, let's understand why we need protein. We, so if you look, why do we eat food? We eat food for three reasons. One, we eat food to stay alive, for energy. Okay? For energy, Mother Nature has given us two macronutrient sources. You get energy from carbs. You get energy from fat. You also use fat for structural reasons to some extent. But largely, you take these two for energy. Second, you eat for digestion. The job of that digestion is done by fiber, which is a type of carbohydrate. Third, we eat to maintain the structural integrity of our body. The entire responsibility for this lies with protein and amino acids. Okay? What does structural integrity mean? Whenever you think about protein, which word comes to your mind? Muscles come to mind. Right? Bodybuilding, first and foremost. So, one role of protein is in your muscle protein synthesis; it works to help build muscle. Okay? But this is not its only job. Okay? Second, all the enzymes in your body. Enzymes are useful for all digestion. Salivary enzymes, lipases, these are all proteins. Okay? Right? All the hormones in your body. You were talking about obesity. What is its latest invention? GLP-1. GLP-1 is naturally made by your gut. GLP-1 is a protein. Insulin is a protein. Thyroid is a protein. So, all the hormones in your body are also proteins. Another function of protein is transportation. We were talking about the heart, right? Heart attack begins when LDL particles start getting retained in your blood vessels. What is the last 'L' in LDL? Low-Density Lipoprotein. So, that is also a protein. Why? Because fats and cholesterol in the body are both lipids. They are hydrophobic. So, they cannot travel in blood vessels on their own. Right? So, they need a vehicle to travel in. I said we need fats for energy. So, to get into the cells, they have to reach through the bloodstream. So, protein does the job of transporting them. So, protein's job is transportation. When we talk about immunity, when we talk about antibodies, antibodies are proteins. So, if you think from a zoomed-out perspective, from muscles to enzymes to hormones, it protects the structural integrity of your entire body. And this can only be done by protein, not by anything else. You cannot protect structural integrity with carbs. There is an exception which we will talk about later. You cannot do it with fat. But you need protein. Okay? Now, let's blow our audience's mind a bit. Okay? A very interesting thing happens continuously in your body, which we call protein turnover. Turnover, turnover. What does this mean? Right now, you and I are talking. Inside you, muscle is continuously being built, and muscle is also being broken down. We call this protein turnover. The building up is what we discussed, muscle protein synthesis, and the breakdown is called muscle protein breakdown. Our audience will know this differently. Anabolism is muscle protein synthesis, which builds muscle. Catabolism is what breaks down muscle. Anabolism plus catabolism equals metabolism. So, this turnover is net turnover. How much muscle your body is building continuously and how much is breaking down. On average, according to studies, in an average individual, there is a turnover of 300 grams of protein every day. Okay? If I broadly ask you, Raj, how much protein do you eat in a day? Approximately, according to you. 50. 50 grams. So, you eat 50 grams, which means you have provided 50 grams to your body. Net muscle protein synthesis is 250 grams that your body has to synthesize itself, so it needs 300 grams. Okay? What is the reservoir of protein inside your body? The excess carbs you eat, the excess fat you eat, all of this gets converted into fat.

It is converted into glycogen. The reservoir for protein is your muscle. You will find protein, your amino acids, in only one place: muscle. Okay. Now, when you consume less protein, it means your body has to perform excess protein turnover. So, it extracts these excess amino acids from your muscle. Okay. So, when you give your body less protein, your muscle breaks down. And a very remarkable example of this is related to Hitler. Okay, explain.

Have you heard of concentration camps? Auschwitz. Have you seen pictures of it? Do you remember the images? The people who were in Auschwitz, if they stayed for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, however many days, if you looked at their bodies, they had no muscle mass. When they were admitted, they did. Because they were given very little food. Meaning, they had severe malnutrition. They would give them one piece of bread. So, they weren't getting any protein. In that one bread, maybe they would get one or two grams of protein. But the body needs everything for structural integrity, hormones, etc. So, it was being extracted from the muscle. Muscle breakdown was happening. In a matter of a few months, if you looked at them, they had shrunk completely. This happens when you eat less protein. You will start losing muscle mass. Take elderly people. Why do they appear so weak or frail? Because their muscle mass has decreased. You compare yourself with somebody else who is 65, 70, 75. You will naturally see that muscle breakdown has occurred. Muscle breakdown means your body has utilized the amino acids to make this.

Now, this turnover is very interesting. Do this. Your arm. This entire arm of yours is renewed every 90 days. How? Does your entire body create a new arm every 90 days? The entire arm, from here to here. What do you mean by that? So, every time you are talking, some cells in your arm have reached the end of their life, they are dying. So, a new cell is being formed. So, this protein turnover that we were talking about, throughout the year, your human body turns over four times. A completely new human body is formed. You look the same. Interesting. So, if protein cycles, like we talk about blood cycles, RBCs are recycled in 90 days. Your entire arm is renewed every 90 days. So, if I fix the protein cycle at 90 days, you will see a remarkable change. Not a remarkable change. But if you have consumed adequate protein, this arm will be renewed, and in 90 or 120 days, depending on whether you train, this arm will look different. Muscle will be gained. But the point is, the bigger point I was trying to make is that muscle protein synthesis, which happens inside your body, is not an on-off switch. It is a continuous process. If you are giving less protein, the body has to survive, so it starts pulling from your reservoir, from your muscle. So, why is this important to understand? Because we were talking about obesity. Right? Mother Nature has given protein another unique quality. What? Earlier, we came to nitrogen or the side chain. So, when you eat protein in your food, your body cannot use this protein directly. The body has to break it down. The different amino acids within it, the 20 amino acids that you have eaten, whatever amino acids are in it. So, when you eat this, it goes into your stomach. In the stomach, it breaks down a little through stomach acid and enzymes. Then it passes to your intestine. Some amino acids are retained by your intestine. Then it is passed to the portal vein. Through that, it goes to the liver. Then the liver transports it. It delivers it to whichever cell needs whichever amino acid. This breakdown process, because it involves nitrogen, is a very slow breakdown process. Okay? So, because it is a slow breakdown process, food that is high in protein takes time for gastric emptying. This means you feel fuller. You feel satiated. Satiety levels improve. Meaning, you don't feel hungry. What does GLP-1 do? It curbs hunger. Basically, it regulates your appetite. Right? So, when your food is naturally higher in protein, due to this mechanism, it signals the brain, "Hey, hold on a second, don't give me more food. Let this digest first." So, satiety has a very big role for protein from an obesity perspective.

Secondly, what happens when you eat excess carbs? You know about the previous podcast we did on weight loss. The law of thermodynamics. Excess energy can neither be stored nor destroyed. It has to be stored by the body. Where will it store it? Either in 500 grams of muscle and liver, or the rest in fat. The same thing happens with fat. Now, here comes the uniqueness of protein. Why? Excess protein cannot be stored by the body. Really? There is no mechanism for it. Where does excess protein go? It is excreted in urine. Is that the reason excess protein causes kidney dysfunction? No, that is the biggest myth being propagated. We will talk about a study on that too. Dr. Layne Norton has done two major studies on this. We will talk about that in two minutes. But let's wrap this up first. So, there is no natural place in the body to store protein. Okay? So, by mistake, if you eat 150 grams of protein instead of 50 grams, muscle protein synthesis is happening, but that extra 50 grams, your body will convert and excrete it. Isn't excess protein bad? We will talk about that. First, we have to define what excess is, right? Right now, we are just talking about protein. We are just talking about this piece.

There were two very remarkable scientists, Simpson and Raynor, if I am pronouncing their names correctly. They wrote a brilliant book, "Eat Like Animals." Okay. What do you mean by that? In it, they conducted an experiment with cockroaches and linked cockroaches and protein. Okay? Okay. So, they took American and German cockroaches. Why cockroaches first? For protein experiments. Yes. So, they observed that the most resilient insect, the one that can survive anywhere, in dirt, in drains, that can tolerate anything for survival, even in nuclear fallout after World War II, it will survive. Right? So, they took cockroaches. So, they took 360 cockroaches. Okay. For the first 10 days, they fed these cockroaches normal food. "Eat as much as you want, you are cockroaches in a laboratory, eat." So, in all normal laboratory experiments, every single thing is noted. How much this cockroach ate. They weigh the cockroaches. They take their blood markers. They take their semen. They take everything. Then, for seven days, they distributed these cockroaches into 24 different groups. And all these cockroaches were given different diet compositions. Basically, there were different diets in two buckets. One set of cockroaches was given high protein, low carb food, and one set of cockroaches was given high carb, low protein food. The remarkable thing that came out of this, which blew their minds and mine too, is that even at a cockroach level, when they were given a high protein, low carb diet, they ate less. They were given freedom to eat as much as they wanted. And the cockroaches that were given high carb, low protein ate more. These cockroaches became fat, and these did not. Interesting. So, you eat less if you eat more protein. Primarily, you spoke about protein meaning primary. If you take protein first. But they didn't stop there. They took other insects and experimented on them. Then they experimented on mice, dogs, elephants, cows. They conducted these experiments on animals for 30 years. Same design. Every single animal stopped eating when their protein requirements were met, across the animal kingdom. Not just that, the tests were also done on humans, you and I. They also saw humans overeat until their minimum protein requirements were met.

Now, if you eat a low-protein diet, your body naturally makes you hungry, saying, "Hey, eat another roti, another packet of chips, do something." When your body's protein requirement is met, you stop eating. It's a hypothesis, but this is true in my case. On days when I work out a lot, I feel like today I will eat a lot. And in the morning, my first half breakfast and pre-lunch, if it's heavy protein, that day, mostly dinner, I don't need to have anything because my protein levels are met by 6 PM only. And then I don't feel hungry. I don't crave sugar. I don't know why. When my protein intake is high, I don't crave sugar, and I don't feel more hungry. This is tried and tested. When protein is low, on that day, I feel like eating until 12 or 1 AM. It's like my mind is not satisfied. How do I explain that maybe my stomach is full, but my mind is not satisfied? I want to eat more. And for that, have a chocolate, eat whatever. But it doesn't matter. One chocolate is not going to... It is when you consistently overeat. It is when you get... We also talked about that in that episode, that it takes 10 years, 5 years for weight gain. No one becomes fat overnight. To go back to the days when I was not taking protein, what and that's why that's what the change I have made in my life after seeing this in my body. My first meal as soon as I wake up. And let's tell everyone through this podcast today, experiment. All the cockroach experiments were wrong. Prashant Desai is wrong. Raj Shani is wrong. Brother, eat more protein for two days and see if you are overindulging or not. You will know in a week. Just give one week and just have good protein as your first meal of the day, and you will see that overall, it will reduce a bit throughout the day.

Okay, one person has been convinced that protein is good for you. But the question arises, what is that gram of protein? Or what is that percentage of protein? Before that, just because I feel less hungry, does that mean I will become thin? Does protein do anything else in my body? See, it manages your structure and integrity. Okay. I am just talking purely about the relation between protein and obesity. If I have a protein-rich diet, I feel less hungry. I thought there was a problem with me. I didn't know there was science behind it. Okay? So, you are saying that everyone on a protein-rich diet feels less hungry. Because of this, that is one very big mechanism. Let me show you another mechanism. Give me another. Another mechanism. When you eat more protein, your muscle protein turnover will be in your favor. Your muscles will also grow. Now, what people don't understand is that muscle is an organ of longevity. Okay. Today, we are talking about everything. Ultimately, when we conclude, we have only spoken about one thing: muscle-centric nutrition. Right? For me, there is no organ more important than muscle. When your muscle grows, compared to fat, muscle is metabolically more active. Muscle will need more energy. Right? When you... When LaQuan Luon did muscle biopsies, type one fiber, type two fiber, you know, normally, every cell has one nucleus, one mitochondrion. In muscle fibers, you are forming multiple nuclei and multiple mitochondria. So, it is extending more energy. That is why muscle is metabolically more expensive. Right? Secondly, the more muscle you build, the greater your glucose storage capacity increases. Muscle is the largest place where you store glucose in the form of glycogen. Now, obviously, if you are eating less, giving less glucose, then whatever is left, because your muscle quantity is increasing, you are depositing more in it. So, across the board, it helps you. But when we talk about the Pareto principle, 80/20, the major role is appetite regulation in terms of weight loss.

Now, I will explain my 12 years of nutritional knowledge in five ways. From a nutritional perspective, for those listening to us. Explain how many calories you eat. We told you about that, right? Your energy is in calories. It's a way to measure energy. Calorie in, calorie out. What we spoke about. Right? So, calorie is nothing but a unit of measurement of energy. Right? How many calories you eat will decide how much Raj will weigh in terms of kgs. What macronutrient eats in this? How much protein, how much carb, how much fat will decide how Raj looks. Okay? Raj, grab five of your friends. You know one is eating a lot of carbs and fat, one is eating a lot of protein. You will see one will look fat, one will look muscular. So, your distribution of macronutrients decides how you look. Or your micronutrients decide how you feel. Your vitamins and your minerals and your hydration decide how you perform. Interesting. Nice, nice. A simple way. It's not rocket science. And if you see, if you eat more protein, more home-cooked food, then all these will fall into place. Right? But how much protein is not more important. What is the recommendation? And so, this also has a very unique story. Today, we will talk about many stories. Okay. We will also talk about home-cooked food. The attack you made. Yes. We will also talk about home-cooked food. Okay. But tell me, how important is protein now? Yes. So, if you look at the WHO recommendation, they recommend 0.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight. 0.8 grams. Grams, sorry. 0.8 grams per kg of body weight. From any perspective, this is very, very low. Okay? But where did this 0.8 come from? Right? This 0.8 came from nitrogen studies. So, there was a time in the 1900s when they wanted to see how important protein is for protecting muscle. But how much protein should one eat? So, because we talked about nitrogen in protein, you can measure the nitrogen in your food. Which is, when they say there are 22 grams of protein in a packet, how do they know there are 22 grams of protein? They put that protein in a lot of acid, nitrogen comes out, and they measure the nitrogen. And on average, food has 16% nitrogen. So, whatever nitrogen comes out, multiply it by 6.25, and you get the protein in it. Right? Everyone's calculation is N * 6.25. So, it's very easy to know how much nitrogen you are giving to the body from the output. And where is nitrogen coming out from? We talked about urine. So, they said it's also easy to measure nitrogen. So, looking at both, where do they average out? So, they took an average of 50%. But then they gave it two standard deviations. So that this applies to 97.5% of the population. And this number came to 0.8 grams per kg of body weight. But then why is this number misleading? First, not only excess protein is excreted in your urine. When you sweat, it also comes out in sweat. Your hair is growing, so it also has protein. Nails also have protein. So, they did not include this in any calculation. Because every single day, your hair grows a little, your nails grow a little, so protein is also going there. Right? So, they did not calculate that. Secondly, they did all these studies on younger people. So, when we talk about age-wise protein requirements later, their bodies' ability for muscle protein synthesis is much higher compared to an older person. Right? So, they made this. 0.8 is adequate for somebody who is very young. But because of this, it came out that this 0.8, and this has been a debate for many years, that it is inadequate. Recently, in January 2026, America released its new guidelines for 2025 to 2030. In this, they have increased this 0.8 to 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kg of weight, per kg of body weight. So, my belief is that 1.2 is the minimum. So, if Raj, your weight is 70 kg, then you should eat 84, 85 kgs, 85 grams of protein per day. Okay? That's minimum. That's minimum. Not for muscle growth. It will also result in muscle growth. But if I want to grow even better, I want to protect structurally. These people say your optimal protein is 1.6 grams per kg of body weight. Okay? Almost over 100 grams. Yes. And where did this 1.6 come from? Stu Phillips, whom we talked about, he did this entire experiment. I will show you a chart of his, where if you see, 0.8, those people who are saying it is very inadequate. The more protein you are taking above this 0.8, your muscle protein synthesis is increasing. Change, if you see FFM, fat-free mass, so your muscle is growing. When you reach 1.6, after that, this line becomes almost flat. So, whether you take 1.6 or 2 grams, it doesn't make much difference. It says the incremental difference is not that much. Okay? So, my point through your podcast is that at the bare minimum, come to 1.2 grams. If you are serious about obesity, or if you are serious about building muscle, then go to 1.6. Prashant Desai eats 2 grams. Why? After 1.6, there is no... I have a study too. Still, I take 2 to 2.2. Why? My point is that Raj, I travel like you. When I am at home, it is very easy for me to measure everything and get an approximation. When I travel outside, the constituency of all meals is not in my favor. Which also includes when I am in Bombay. Sometimes, due to work, you have to go out and eat. So, when I am in Bombay, I target 2 grams because I know that in 7 days, I will come below 2 grams for one or two days. Even below 1.6, so that on average, I reach 1.6. Hmm. I am very clear for the rest of my life. To the extent possible, I don't want to consume protein below 1.6 grams on average. Which means I have to target two, so I will reach somewhere around 1.6. So, 1.2 is the bare minimum for adequacy. 1.6 is for a realistic lifestyle. If you want to manage at 1.6, then you have to go to 2 grams. Okay. Why is this 1.6 for everyone? 1.6 is not the right number. Some people need more. Who needs more? If you are an athlete. Or if you are growing as a child, you need more than this. Okay? Zero to 20, 20 to 60, and after 60, we will decode the protein requirements. Right? Okay? Zero to 20 is one. Yes. Okay? Why? Because up to 20 years of age, you are growing. After 20, you will stop growing. Right? Your bone growth, muscle growth, everything, that first 20 is a peak period. So, in that, if you your body.

If you give too much protein, you have increased your peak. The interesting thing is that parents don't need to worry about it. Why? Because if you look at the age of zero to 20, when I was 20 years old, my weight was probably 52-55 kg. For us, 1.2 or 1.6 grams of protein for 52-55 kg means the absolute quantity of protein is less. You might feel it's 1.6, but if your child weighs 40 kg, then they only need 50-60 grams of protein. Right? You don't need to give them any protein shake. If they eat adequate food normally, they will get their protein requirement. So, zero to 20 year olds are reasonably covered. Okay? Those from zero to 20 also get another benefit that Mother Nature has given. Up to 20 years of age. Even if you eat too many carbs, you will still grow. Why? Because when you eat a lot of carbs, there is an insulin response. So, up to the age of 20, insulin and IGF-1, which is Insulin-like Growth Factor, both your body uses to build muscle. Interesting. So, if you, suppose, ate less protein between zero and 20. But if your diet is adequate, you might have eaten more carbs, yet your child will get growth. For you as a parent, the goal is to ensure they eat adequately. Home-cooked food. When you come out of 20, insulin and IGF stop working. Then you need protein for muscle protein synthesis. So, after 20 years, home-cooked food becomes useless? It becomes very important. Is it important or useless? Because if you eat outside, you will only eat carbs and fat. Protein is just that. No, you won't decode that. Even in home-cooked food, because whatever you do, you have that control in your home-cooked food. Suppose you realize you are eating less protein, then you can eat that food extra. But the majority in India, potato curry, roti, rice, lentils, that's a separate problem I will come to. And why I will come to it, let's tackle that first. And you are absolutely correct, Raj. Why did I say that I want my country to eat more protein? My first perspective was patriotic. Because India is significantly, you are 100% right, massively protein deficient. Okay? Some studies in India are not even good, but what I had read, they say in India today, on average, we are eating 0.5 to 0.6 grams of protein. If I compare this to 1.2, I am eating 50% less protein. If I compare it to 1.6, then it's 70%. So you are absolutely correct. We Indians are anyway deficient in protein. And notice, you travel abroad so much. Look at Europe, look at Africa, look at the people there, compare them to Indians. Because another interesting reason for India is our height and health. We don't look solid. We are not. Because we eat less protein. We are weak and look weak compared to Europeans. Right? Even compared to Arabs, we look a little weak. Generally, on average, Chinese and Indians, they both look weak. So there are two-three reasons for this. One, when you go vegetarian, overall, and we will try to decode all vegetarian foods today, then generally, you are not getting adequate protein. The second reason is our upbringing, our culture, Indian wisdom. India has always been about the cerebral. We have never been about the physical. Chanakya, Birbal, you will never hear about remarkable stories of strength. You will worry about India's remarkable stories about the brain. When you were growing up, did anyone in your family say, Raj, become strong? Raj, become intelligent? So, this is also one reason. Because our perspective is different, therefore, we have never given that much importance to strength. Although there was a time when India had so many invasions, wars, etc. So, if you look at our warriors, strength was important. But over a period of time, strength took a backseat, and cerebral took a bigger center stage. Which is why we are. I have a very interesting. So, which is why we are what we are. And I describe Indians in an interesting way. I call it Indians. Indians have sarcobesity. Sarcobesity. What do you mean by that? It's made of two words: sarcopenia and obesity. Okay? Sarcopenia means loss of muscle mass, and obesity. So, on one hand, if you look, Indian muscle mass is losing. As Indians, Indians are growing. And on the other hand, it's there. Look at it in flights. You see this sarcobesity everywhere. Yes, yes. It's just sticking out. What do you see in flights? Look on the road. So, when you walk, anywhere you look, right? Fat is also a very big thing in us. It's one of those only bigger pieces. So, you are right. Because we are largely ignorant in India, which is what we are trying to change through this podcast today, people's perspectives on protein. Now, you have to eat. If you are going to eat roti, dal, sabzi, potato, the same things, then by the law of thermodynamics, you will become fat. As soon as you replace it with protein, your answer is slowly coming out. Right? So, after 20, it is your responsibility. After 20 and 25, sarcopenia in some form will start. You will start losing muscle mass at 1% every year and get fatter. So, muscle mass is declining. If you want to preserve both quantity of life and quality of life later in life, then this is the period when you have to over-index on protein. Okay? This is also the period when you have money. So, if you require, you have a lot of ways to supplement it also. Right? When we talk about sarcopenia, this decline, which I mentioned, is an average decline for everyone, but it's an average, not individualistic. Individualistically, you can be above it, you can be below it also. So, it's up to you. If in this period, after 20, you give protein the primary importance in your food, then your life after 60 will be remarkable. I'll give an example. And today, this has happened to me in the last three to six months. Two people have died, and two people have had very bad falls. All four connected with falls. My own aunt, on January 26th, she fell. She was 87. Nobody knows how she fell, but after that fall, she didn't last more than one month. She died. My maternal uncle, severely diabetic, he fell. After that, some complication happened. In three months, he died. I lost both my own aunt and uncle in the last three months. My cousin's aunt, she fell in the shower. She is 72, not even that old. Her ankle was fractured. The doctor said she is not going to be able to walk for the rest of her life on her own. If she is lucky, she may need a stick. If she is unlucky, a wheelchair. And all this, the biggest muscle is gone, bones break in a second. That. Fourth, my cousin's uncle, he fell, but he fell straight. Luckily, his face was saved. His entire rib cage broke. He will not be mobile for the rest of his life. He is 73. Later in life, the only protection. So, when we talk about top killers, heart attack, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's, organ failure, after 65, a big new killer comes among all these killers, which is falls. Falls, bathroom falls. It's a big. Any fall, any fall, to avoid it, your weapon is your grip. You are falling, from the bathroom, the natural tendency is to protect your hands, any bone. What protects it? Muscle. So, if your muscle mass has completely declined, then when you fall, your chances of fracture increase. And once you get this fracture at that age, recovery is very difficult. Right? I have also said many times on my podcast that osteoporosis, which is a decline in bone, is a disease of childhood. Meaning, your entire bone growth happens up to the age of 20. After that, your bone will not grow. After that, if you don't eat adequate calcium, calcium deposits in your bones. Every time your heart beats or contracts, it needs calcium. If you don't provide it from your food, it takes it from your bones. Your bone mineral density is becoming weaker. It is protecting it. If you have done adequate training and eaten adequate protein, then your muscle mass will be protected. Remember, a slightly deviated question because you spoke about grip. Why is grip important? So, grip. I have seen this. I have seen this recently. As much as I am getting tested, all around the world, advanced medical care, wherever I go, just to test and see, they all test grip. Grip strength. Grip strength is a predictor of longevity. From your grip strength, I can tell how long you will live. Why? Because grip strength is a predictor of your muscle mass, muscle strength, and muscle power. Which we have been discussing from the beginning, that if you preserve muscle, then your quantity of life will also increase. Your quality of life will also increase. Right? So, when I talk about grip strength, you will see this entire muscle mass, muscle strength coming in. But one more very important thing is coming. It has a neuro-connection. For any muscle to contract, the very first signal goes from your brain. So, your grip strength decides this entire circuitry. So, grip strength. Now, there is enough literature that your grip strength is a predictor of your longevity. Got it. Right? Now, the elderly have another problem. Elderly have another problem. Something which in science we call as anabolic resistance. Anabolism. We explained muscle protein synthesis. After 60-65, two things happen. One, your hormone functioning decreases, due to which this muscle protein synthesis, and we will talk about a very important amino acid later, leucine. Its problem starts. Second, to kick-start muscle protein synthesis, you need this amino acid called leucine. Until it is more than 2 grams in your bloodstream, muscle protein synthesis cannot be kick-started. That's why later we will talk about the minimum protein required in a meal to kick-start muscle protein synthesis. Right? So, their leucine receptors also become weak. Okay? Due to which, if suppose there is an elderly person in your home, and you feed them even 0.8 grams, their absorption is very poor, so they won't get it. Many studies have been done. Below 20 and above 65, I think this was Professor Luc Van Loon's study. Their muscle protein synthesis is 100% more than people who are here. Okay? Professor Luc did a study. There, he put a cast. So, when you put a cast, you don't use the muscle. Right? If you have a fracture and your arm is in a cast, then here, they saw that the muscle mass decline was 4x of this. Right? But the converse is also true. So, old people don't need to be afraid of this. Okay? Your response is going down, but your body still has the capacity to respond. Your capacity to respond doesn't go down. Meaning, if elderly people are fed adequate or optimal protein, their muscle mass will be protected. They won't need a walking stick. Their quality of life will increase. Their dependency on you will decrease. That's why I say so much on my social media, "Hey, if your grandmother has taken that vegetable bag, let her carry it, don't take it." We have a habit, our value system is to help the elderly. I'll take it. No, brother, you are doing a disservice to the person. Let them climb the stairs. Brother, nothing will happen to your grandfather, grandmother, father by climbing stairs. Suddenly. Now, when you train the muscle and give it adequate protein, your muscle protein synthesis goes up by 27%. So, if you do both these things in older age, it's icing on the cake for you. Now, one more remarkable story. Extreme burn patients, those who have been severely burned. How much protein do they give? Three to four grams per kg of body weight. Because of fast recovery and repair. Skin also gets better. Everything. Structural integrity, and your skin is nothing but protein. Tell me, what about our food right now at home? Before that, shall we talk about the kidney part? Yes, tell me. Right, that was left. So, a very big myth started that eating too much protein damages the kidneys. Okay. To some extent, when you read the study, you will say the study is absolutely perfect. Yes. Even on bed. Okay. Why is it perfect? And rightfully perfect. Because all the subjects they took had kidney problems. So, they asked Raj, does he have a kidney problem? How much protein does he eat? He eats this much protein. So, they established reverse causality. After this, Dr. Len Norton and two others did a very big study. They took a set of bodybuilders. To whom they fed 4 grams or 4.4 grams per kg of body weight. We are talking about 0.8, 1.2 here. They got 4.4 grams. Kidney functioning was perfectly well. Then they said, normal people. They fed normal people 2.5, 2.8 grams per kg of body weight. Kidneys were working perfectly. In fact, kidneys were working better because the kidney's efficiency increased because it had to. Two things I want to say. Does eating excess protein result in damage to the kidney? There is no evidence whatsoever. No evidence. Zero evidence. Should people whose kidneys are already damaged have excess protein? The answer to that is absolutely no. These are two different problems. If somebody already has a kidney problem, they should not eat high protein, or they should be low on protein because it will accelerate it. But if your kidney is working perfectly, like mine is at this age of 54, I have no problem. I eat 2 grams of protein. I get my kidney function tested every six months. So, these are two different problems. You will also hear, now a new trend has started, eating too much protein causes cancer. What is this trend? This hasn't reached me. Why? Because when we were talking about muscle protein synthesis, I said we will come to leucine. Okay? So, when leucine increases in your body, it has pathways, which we call the mTOR pathway, through which muscle protein synthesis is kick-started. mTOR is Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin. This is its pathway. So, when you eat protein or amino acids, leucine comes. It triggers the mTOR pathway. It goes into DNA. Through DNA transcription factors, it goes into mRNA. Through transcription factors, ribosomes make protein or amino acids. This is its entire pathway. If you look, this growth pathway also includes IGF-1. So, when you talk about cancer, cancer cells grow. So, they have started associating these growth factors with it, saying that because you eat protein, your mTOR activity increases, your IGF-1 activity increases. Therefore, protein causes cancer. I have never heard of this. Maybe. Maybe if you do more work. So, this is also a big myth. But a lot of work has been done on kidneys. There are 32-33 peer-reviewed studies. Do them. They are openly available around the world. The way I look at it is, take out which are the RCT studies. Right? Observational studies, epidemiological studies. You are asked, what did you eat? You told them verbally, and based on that, perhaps something comes out. But if you look at RCTs, which are gold standard studies, and if there is any, or you can even put it on ChatGPT these days, that from this, the relevant studies, which you mentioned, are real clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, where two patients are taken, you don't know, they don't know, you assign them randomly, then you study them. So, you will really get to know. Okay, take two people. You don't know. Both their kidneys are working well. Give one more, one less. Then see the kidney. The same way Len Norton did studies. So, in all the RCT studies that have been done, this connection has never been established anywhere. And you can ask your team to even do it, "Rebuttal and scientific evidence behind protein causing kidney damage." Real studies will come forward. Interesting. Now, because this is one of the biggest questions, everyone thinks it causes kidney stones, kidney damage, problems. Everyone drinks alcohol. They don't see any kidney stones then. Everyone is scared of drinking protein shakes because it's confirmation bias. Right? And this will happen. Wherever nutrition comes, biases will come. Today, when we talk in detail about food, we will talk about these biases. Because I always say, I am a realist, not an idealist. I am not like those influencers who say GLP-1 is bad, lifestyle is the cause of obesity. I am a realist. You are fat. Do a cost-benefit analysis. Cost of obesity versus. Oh, then if he stops GLP, he will gain weight back. Okay, fine. He is getting one chance, right? To make a lifestyle change. But do you want to give them? I am not an idealist. I am a complete realist. Interesting. Tell me, do you want to do protein first, or do you want to do food first? Because there is one direction that we can take right now, which is, is plant protein better, or whey protein better, or animal protein better? All that zone, food versus protein shake versus all of that. Do you want to do that first, or do you want to do food first? Both. I think we will have to go through the entire motion for people to understand. The direction you pick up now, otherwise, let's go to food. But before food, again, we need to explain a little theory for people to understand when we talk about different foods. Right? When you talk about protein, the big picture, why are you eating protein? To protect structural integrity, muscle mass, transportation, whatever, right? Now, to understand this, as I told you, 20 amino acids, nine essential, 11 non-essential. Nine you must get from your food. When we talk about essential amino acids, three of them are very important for your body. First is leucine. Second is lysine. And third is methionine. Okay? Okay? We will come to this when we talk about food. Leucine is the most important. Why? Because until leucine increases to more than 2 grams in your bloodstream, your muscle protein synthesis cannot be kick-started. Where does it come from? From food. In all your food, there are all amino acids. Some less, some more. Before that, I will present Stu Phillips' leucine hypothesis. This is McMaster University, Stu Phillips.

He did this. We say that when you, Lucene, have this, people call it the Lucene Trigger Hypothesis. This that you are seeing, to make this happen, you need 2.5 grams of protein. 2.5 to 3 grams minimum in the bloodstream. Otherwise, you are eating protein, but muscle protein synthesis is not kicking in. Right? That's why at the very beginning, we talked about it. Right? Remember Raj, that protein is not protein in itself. It consists of different amino acids. We say it for the sake of speaking. And I'll show you one more thing that will help you understand the first big picture difference. So, okay, one second. Before that, when we talk about protein, one thing the audience needs to understand is that every food, whether you talk about plants, dairy, or animals, all have all nine amino acids because they all come from plants. We'll explain that in a second. What is unique about this? So, if you look at the atmosphere, it's almost 71% nitrogen. 28% is oxygen. The rest are other gases. We humans, animals, don't have the ability to do anything with nitrogen. This ability is given by nature to trees, to plants. When this atmospheric nitrogen goes into the soil, the bacteria in the soil can use this nitrogen to create amines, which go into the plant through the plant's roots. And when you eat, when these amines combine with carbohydrates, you get what we call protein in plants. So, I want to tell everyone: protein was born in plants. So, thinking that protein is only in animal foods is fundamentally wrong. Okay? Animals also get all their protein from plants. Yes. Those who eat plants. So, there are two types of animals: those that only eat plants, and those that eat animals. Yes. Animals that eat plants are eaten by other animals. Okay? So, thinking that plants don't have protein is wrong. They have all the essential amino acids. But there's a very interesting thing: when we talk about essential amino acids. Here is Professor Lucene, from whom I learned a lot, whom I also met in Manchester. Now, look at the concentration of amino acids in vegetarians versus non-vegetarians and dairy. So, both have all nine essential amino acids. EA means Essential Amino Acids. In plants, their proportion is less compared to animals. So, you'll find all nine in both, but the percentage of these nine is higher in animals. Okay? What's the simplest meaning of this? If I need to fulfill my amino acid requirements and I am vegetarian, like Prashant Desai and Ashish Sharma, and I am a complete vegetarian, then I will have to eat more compared to this. Even with less meat, it would be equal, but with more plants, I might have to eat more rajma, more chole. That is the first principle that people kind of need to understand. But I'll tell you a remarkable story about where this capacity of plants came from. So, when we talk about plant-based animals, why do animals have this? Why is it more in animals? Yes. So, when we talk about plants, they can only use organic nitrogen, not inorganic nitrogen. When we talk about cows, goats, sheep, these are all called ruminant animals. Ruminant means their stomach is called the rumen. Nature has given them a very unique ruminant stomach. The bacteria in this stomach are also very unique, given by nature. So, when they eat grass and fodder, they use the organic nitrogen in that fodder, and their bacteria can also use the inorganic nitrogen present in their bodies. This means if a cow eats 60 grams of fodder, you will get 100 grams of protein as output. So, you can take any animal product. That's why when we talk about milk, or milk concentrate, your entire whey, etc., is all made from milk. High in essential amino acids. All meat is high in essential amino acids. Eggs are high in amino acids, and fish too. So, due to the rumen of cows and all grass-eating animals, essential amino acids are higher in them. Now, let's go to food. Before this, one more small thing. When we talk about plant-based food compared to animal food. So, food, up until now, everything we've discussed is focused on just one thing: ingestion and quantity. But with protein, we also need to pay attention to quality. The quality of protein comes from its essential amino acid composition. Within this composition, how much leucine is there? How much lysine? How much methionine? Its third quality comes from its digestion and digestibility. Not all proteins are digested in the same way. And its fourth quality comes from its absorbability. So, when we talk about food, we will go through all these things to see, okay, now let's build your plate. Ready? First, should we take vegetarian food or non-vegetarian? Vegetarian. So, according to you, how much protein will be in 100 grams of rice? Rice also has protein. It has 2.5 grams of protein in 100 grams of rice. That much. Okay? But it's there. Okay? Wheat has 10 grams of protein. Why am I telling you this? Because sometimes, when we talk about the thali, and today we will talk about the thali, the good and bad about it. When I count this 1.2 grams, etc. In the overall composition. In the composition, how much protein is in your gram flour? 15 grams of protein. 2.5 grams, 10 grams, 15 grams. And all this is taken per 100 grams. We are talking about 100 grams for all of them now. Khapli flour has 15 grams. When you talk about jowar and bajra, it's 9 to 10 grams. So, first, we are talking about grains. Okay? The good thing is that it has protein. When we are talking about weight loss and obesity, there is much more carb than protein. Because today's episode is entirely about protein. When I talk about protein, I try to focus on one thing: how many calories from protein are in any food? That is more important to me. Because if you, when we talked about gram flour, gram flour has 15 grams of protein, 73 grams of carbs. Okay? And it also has 3 grams of fat. So, when you look at its calories, it's 380 calories per 100 grams of gram flour. Very high. Now, if we talk about calories from protein, only 16% of calories are from protein. Right? Why is this important? When we demonstrate the thali live later. A problem with the Indian thali. Shall we do it? Live demonstration. Let's do it. Let's do it. Come on, let's talk about the thali. The Indian thali. So, more than the Indian thali, Raj, I want to say that structurally, when we talk about protein, and I'll give an example. Recently, I was watching an interview of Akshay Kumar. Right? Akshay Kumar has two great gifts. One is genetics, and the second is that he is very active. So, when we were talking about protein, we talked about digestion, absorbability, training. Because of that, if he is eating adequate food and providing adequate protein from food, he will have far better muscle protein synthesis. You saw that very big documentary or movie like thing on Netflix called Game Changers, right? All about vegetarianism. Now, Virat Kohli, who is vegetarian, there's a big difference between him and us. You and I are also vegetarian. His activity level is so high that even if they eat a little more for more protein, that excess, if they eat it in vegetarian food, the big problem with vegetarian food, which we will decode now, is that there is protein, but along with it, you inherit carbs. But their activity level is so high that all those carbs get used up. Okay? If you also eat only vegetarian food like Virat Kohli, I'm not saying don't eat it. But if you are not as active as him, then that excess carb converts into fat. So, I am trying to demonstrate that. This is 100 grams of rice. Right? It looks like this much. When it cooks, it becomes this much. This is 100 grams of wheat flour. Today, I made roti at home. For 10 grams of protein, you have to eat this much roti. How many rotis are there? Nine or ten. I didn't even count. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Nine rotis. For 10 grams. For 10 grams. Let's talk about lentils. How much protein will be in this 100 grams of lentils? Think about it. 24 grams. Great. Now, I'm getting 24 grams of protein from lentils, but for these 24 grams, I have to eat this entire bowl of lentils. It's not possible. No one eats it. Normally, they can't eat it. How many calories will be in it? In your lentils, there are 128 calories. Which is not bad. But we are coming to that. One second, we'll get to that. You are right. It's not bad at all. But I have to eat this much. Let's talk about rajma. When we talk about any lentils, except soybeans, which have a lot of protein, all others have 8 to 9 grams of protein. 100 grams of rajma. This 100 grams of rajma looks like this. Now, to eat it, this is a lot. This is not a lot. It's still less. Why? Because I told them at home to just boil it. Now, oil or ghee will be added to this. Masala will be added. Water is there because some water will also come, but it's less, even then, like gravy vegetables. If you eat all of this, you get 8 grams of protein. If you eat all of this, you get 10 grams of protein. Sorry, 24 grams of protein. If you eat nine rotis, then for 10 grams, it's 2.5 grams. Now, zoom out and visualize an Indian thali that I've also made. Visualize the average Indian's thali. So, when you see that Indian thali, they will eat four rotis, right? They'll eat a little dal, or rajma, or vegetable. With this, if they eat 100 grams of yogurt, even then, if they are on a roti-based diet, they get about 20 to 24 grams of protein. If it's rice-based, they get 18 to 20 grams of protein. Now, the challenge is, if you tally this, right? If I ate 50 grams of roti, or 100 grams of roti, 50 grams of dal, 50 grams of rajma, or I ate a little vegetable instead of rajma, and yogurt. Yes, you got it. If you took roti, you got 19 grams, 20 grams of protein. If you took rice as an option, because half the country eats rice, then you have only 12 grams of protein. For this food, and I have counted that your food will be made with three to four spoons of oil. In the rice one, you got 1300 calories, and sorry, in the roti one, you got 1300 calories. In the rice one, you got 1100 calories. Now, structurally, see, your calories from protein are less than 10%. So, I can't lose weight then. I'm just getting fat by eating all this. Because that, now, I said it just sounds like 24 grams of protein, but then to get that, I have to eat 1300 calories for 20 grams of protein. 20 grams of protein is 80 calories. 80 calories divided by 1300 is 5-6 grams. 6% calories from protein in this meal. So, you'll say, Prashant, then I'll have to eat paneer. You're right. Eat paneer. Let me tell you about paneer. So, if you eat full-fat paneer, give this whole chart, we'll put it up? We'll put it up. The whole thing is with us. Okay? Done. Full-fat paneer has 18 grams of protein in 100 grams. Calories? 265. Because if it has 18 grams of protein, it has 20 grams of fat. So, if you replace something with paneer, protein will increase, but calories will also increase. Fats will increase a lot because milk has good fats. There's no problem. So, if your meal has 1300-1350 calories when you are taking it from a whole thali food, one thali in one lunch. If your dinner is equally to this, you have consumed 2500 to 2700 calories here. Then again, small snacks. No, no. Oh, not yet. I haven't even talked about your favorite meal. What is your favorite meal? Or you made a reel about your favorite meal. Which is your favorite? If you don't eat it, then every day you feel breakfast. Every day. You eat breakfast every day, right? Yes, yes, you're right. We haven't even talked about breakfast yet. You're talking about the time when I eat my meal. Breakfast. Then I, I don't skip breakfast. Rarely do I. So, I'm coming to breakfast too. Let's talk about vegetarian breakfast. My breakfast is very heavy. But on the day you count it, you'll know how heavy it is in reality. I'm not saying don't eat breakfast. Our job here is not to tell people what to do or what not to do. I am only trying to present information from a protein lens so that they become careful or aware of it. If you ate poha, I took 100 grams of poha, a little less than this. Added peanuts because you generally add them to poha. 25 grams of peas, 25 grams of potatoes, and sev too. I didn't add it. You can add it, but you get 11 grams of protein. But your calories become 300 calories in this. But you won't just eat poha, you'll drink tea with it, so another 100 calories are added. It's all carbs. Many people also have toast and butter with poha, so if you add that, it becomes 550 calories. If you're going to eat idli and chutney, then 100 grams of idli, 50 grams of chutney, 75 grams of sambar, filter coffee instead of tea, even then it's 500 calories. 450 to 500 calories. South Indian breakfast is not good. Then take paneer paratha. Again, wheat flour, paneer. Aloo paratha, paneer paratha. So, you are getting protein in this. Paneer paratha. 30 grams. Paneer paratha. I took 100 grams of wheat flour, 100 grams of paneer. And if you eat paneer paratha with yogurt, then 100 grams of yogurt. Very good breakfast. And if you drink it with tea, you get 32 grams of protein. Calories become 750. Okay? The point, Raj, what I am trying to make, and I will come to some very interesting products also, is that as a vegetarian, that is your challenge. Your challenge is to get that protein. You will have to eat more. Which we also talked about EA. The moment you start eating more, your problem happens that your calories will go up. So, now you have two options. Option number one is reduce the calories. Yes. Your protein will also decrease. The second option is to eat this, but start exercising and working out more. So, my energy will be distributed here. Second, when you work out, you get a dual impact on this as well. Third option you have is to start getting intelligent about your protein needs. I will come to 1 minute on very good swaps for vegetarians which are low in calories, high in protein. From these products themselves, I am not going to change the products. Okay? Fourth, make supplements, protein shakes your friend. We will discuss that fully today. Right? Like I take three scoops of protein shake a day. Because I don't want to get fat. So, if I have to eat less of this, I need something for my protein. And any product, vegetarian or non-vegetarian, when you compare protein shakes from a calories from protein perspective, there is no better product than this. Tell me, can I not put this in food? Like the powder of a protein shake, protein powder. So, you can add protein powder to cold food, not to hot food, because the protein will break down. Okay? So, if for example, 100% it's a very stupid question, but it is not stupid, and I will tell you why also. Please. So, if it's unflavored protein. Yes, my mom is making dal at home, and she's making some vegetable. You can't put a scoop on top of it while it's hot, it will start to clot. But if the dal is made, you can eat it by adding whey powder on top. You can add a little whey powder to this flour. You can mix it a little. If you add whey powder to this flour, then when it heats up on the tawa, then no. But when the flour is being made, it's cold. Then you mix it. It's mixed. Then you can add flavor to the flour. That's a good hack. Yes, it's good. Yes, you don't even need to add it to the market. Many flours are already available. Why are you doing all this? Just drink a protein shake, man. Yes, keep it like food. I think, but in unflavored flour, protein is added. I have tried it. But that's protein flour's own mixing. It comes as a mixer. And it's good. It's not. Take it. We're talking about swaps. There are intelligent ways to swap. Okay? But even if you look at that flour, your calorie value doesn't change much. Yes, yes, because their challenge is to add just enough flour so that you still want the texture and taste of roti. So, beyond that point, what will you add? Yes, they'll put it in marketing. It has 10 grams of protein. Structurally, it can become a great friend for you. If you talk about soybeans, tofu, then these are slightly lower in calories compared to paneer. Slightly higher in protein. So, if you can incorporate soybeans. But there's a caveat for me. If you have a thyroid problem, you cannot eat soybeans. I have thyroid, so for me, I can eat it sometimes. I love my tofu, but sometimes, but I can't have it in this. And one more thing, everyone thinks nuts have a lot of protein. It's true. If you talk about normal nuts, you'll get 15 to 20 grams of protein per 100 grams. The problem with nuts is that they have much more fat than protein. Almonds have 20 grams of protein, 50 grams of fat. A lot. 100 grams of protein means 650 calories or 625 calories. So, you can only eat a handful of them. Who is the king of nuts? From a protein perspective, you wouldn't even think. Walnuts, pistachios. We, the poor people, are eating peanuts. 26 grams of protein. Brazil nuts, etc., have the most. They have more selenium. But our peanuts have 26 grams of protein in 100 grams. But fats and calories. Fats. If you talk about peanuts, they have 50 grams of fat.

The calories are 618, as much as your almonds. Let's talk about chickpeas. Roasted chickpeas have 20 grams of protein. How much fat? Only 6 grams, which is good, correct? Calories get halved. So when you see how much it is, 382, not bad. So if you feel hungry in the evening, it's a very favorite snack in India, right? Take a few peanuts, a few roasted chickpeas, a little salt, if you have spices, add some chili, etc., take lemon and eat it. You get your 10-15 grams of protein. No need to eat those wafers. But the fats in this, the carbs in this, these are natural, meaning these are nature's carbs, nature's fat. It has MUFA, PUFA. They haven't used refined oil to make it. It's something better. Alternative. But what I am trying to tell people is, again, there is a very big TV actress. She recently made a reel. My protein shake, cashew, almond, pistachio, decided, mixed in milk. This is my protein shake. I don't need to take it.

Man, I saw that if I want a protein shake with 25-27 grams, if I want it from this, it gives you 25-30 grams in 525 calories. This becomes 600 calories, man, what a joke. But what happens is, it keeps influencing people. So Raj will think after listening to this podcast, I am deficient in protein. If you mistakenly saw that reel, you might think, oh, almonds etc. have a lot of protein. Brother, more than protein, it's fat. If you eat more almonds, you can become fat. So if you are someone who wants to increase protein and reduce calories, I will tell you intelligent swaps. So if you make soybeans your friend, in soybeans, between 150 to 200 calories, you get 15 to 16 grams of protein. Good. So low calorie. This, if you want to eat paneer, but you are on a fat loss journey, then you get low-fat paneer. It is made from skim milk. It is made from skim milk. You will get 23 grams of protein in just 150 calories. Okay? I use an interesting product. Skyr's Milky Mix, a 100 ml yogurt. In that 100 ml yogurt, I get 12 grams of protein. Okay? In 150 calories. Let's talk about tofu. So all tofu except tempeh, which they use in soy chaap, remove that. So all are less than 150 calories. Especially if you take silken tofu or soft tofu, you get 6-7 grams of protein. But this is less than 50 calories. In the 50-60 calorie zone. If you take firm tofu, like paneer, you will get 15 grams of protein in just 150 calories. Nice. Right? So these are interesting proteins. My absolute favorite is, if you are vegetarian, don't get into so much complication. I sat down with an Excel sheet, you won't be able to do that. So, generally, eat normal home food, eat a little less, and start looking at protein powder or protein shake as a viable alternative. I think it has the opportunity to change your entire nutritional system without giving you additional calories, without complicating things. We come to protein shakes and the things around them. First, tell me about non-veg. No, before that, we have to talk about two more things about plant protein. Why are plant proteins also relatively weaker compared to animal proteins from a digestion point of view? Right? When we eat plants, you get a lot of fiber in plants. We get right? Fiber has a role in digestion. You won't eat protein separately, right? When you eat rajma, you will get fiber in rajma. If you eat vegetables, there is some protein in them, but a lot of fiber. So when this goes with fiber in your stomach, its gastric emptying is delayed. Now, gastric emptying is delayed, meaning its rate of digestion or digestibility is slow. If digestibility is slow, then its absorbability is also slow. Okay? You can also find out the digestibility and absorbability of which product. Hmm. If you look at many incremental new products, you will see PDCAAS score, or the latest technology is called DIAAS score. Okay? Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score. Meaning, if you ate 100 grams of protein, how many amino acids did you get absorbed from it? Right? So if you talk generally, plants, whether we talked about grains, the absorbability of grains is about 40%. So, to say, it was 10 grams, but you will get 4 grams. So technically, for 4 grams, how many calories are you eating? When you go to rajma etc., lentils etc., their absorbability is 60-70%, but milk has 100% absorbability. So when we talk about digestion and absorption, this is also a challenge with vegetarian food, that structurally, whatever food you are eating, understand, if you calculated vegetarian, you gave me a number, I am eating 50 grams, you are not getting more than 35 grams. From an absorption point of view. Very interesting studies have also been done. I am eating from cooking. I will cover the rest with shakes. Yes. So I didn't know that. Fair. So if you are eating 50 from food, you are only getting 35 out of that 50. Right? Now, there are some nuances in this too. How boiled is your food? So Professor Looku did a very interesting experiment. Minced meat versus steak. We cut meat into small pieces. In Indian language, you are eating raw vegetables, cooked vegetables. Right? No, minced meat means meat cut into small pieces. And steak means a large piece. You are cutting a large piece of steak and eating it, you have to chew. When our vegetables are properly boiled, you don't have to chew that much. I am giving an example, comparatively. So I am saying, if your, will it be a fair example? No, I don't think boiled cooked will be very different because how the steak is made will depend on whether it is boiled, medium, but still, compared to, I am saying in vegetarian food, that is the comparison you can come to, boiled versus you are eating raw, for example, or raw versus cooked example. But the point I am trying to make is that how your food is prepared also affects your absorbability. When they talked about minced meat versus steak, the digestibility and absorbability of minced meat was higher than this. Right? Did you see that movie of Sylvester Stallone, Rocky? In the first Rocky movie, you see Sylvester Stallone eating raw eggs, gulping them down. A very big trend started when we were growing up, all our friends were eating raw eggs, raw eggs, raw eggs. So Luke Man Loon wanted to prove Rocky wrong. So they did raw egg versus boiled egg. Same, no difference. Same digestibility, same absorbability. Where the difference was found, that was also very interesting. The product that you chew more, its digestibility and absorbability from a protein standpoint is higher. The same thing that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used to say, chew your food while eating. Right? So even if you are eating less protein, at least chew it properly, as your mom used to say.

They found something unique. We were talking about the elderly, that after 65, people who preserve the strength in their teeth have more muscle mass compared to people who don't preserve their teeth because they are chewing better. So I am just saying, there are many levers you have to pull. Now comes non-vegetarian food. Now, compared to vegetarian food, non-vegetarian food has more incremental amino acids. We talked about ruminants. Now let's talk about different products. Like we talked about these. Right? Major four or five, because non-veg is a 500 thing. I saw it. No, let's talk about three or four things. So, the biggest friend of non-veg is that they get more protein in lower calories. For example, let's talk about eggs. One egg is about 50 grams, two eggs 100 grams, you get 12 grams of protein for 150 calories, which is good, very good. Right? If you saw Virat Kohli recently on Gaurav Kumar's podcast, Breakfast with Champions or something, he was asked what he eats for breakfast. He said, three egg whites and one egg omelet. When you go for egg whites, you get 11 grams of protein in just 50 calories. In 100 grams of eggs, he eats three egg whites, meaning 150. So he got 15 grams of protein in three egg whites, and six in one small egg. So in just four eggs, he got at least 15 and 20 grams of protein, but he only got 150 calories. Nice. Right? When you talk about chicken, again, the calories differ depending on which portion of chicken you eat. So if you talk about chicken breast, in 100 grams, there are 30 grams of protein, but 150 calories. But structurally, the calories are less. When you talk about chicken thigh, you get 25 grams, but it takes 200 calories. When you talk about chicken liver, any animal's liver, it is high protein. It will give you 25 to 30 grams of protein. Low calorie. If you talk about boiled chicken, which Virat Kohli talks so much about, if you are in that, correct. Yes. Now, when he talks about eggs, we get 28 to 30 grams of protein for 150 calories. You will get the same thing in mutton too, anywhere between 25 to 30 grams for 200 to 525 calories. So when you look at their calories from protein, in vegetarian food, it is very difficult to cross the 35-40% threshold. In all non-vegetarian foods, you easily cross the 50-55%, 70% threshold. What is their loss then? I eat because we are talking about non-vegetarian. Fish is a very, very good source of protein. You will get 20 to 25 grams of protein in fish, and its calories remain only 100 to 125. If you relatively remove fish, whether we talk about eggs, chicken, or mutton. If the problem with vegetarian food was high in carbs, these guys are all very high in saturated fat. So it's not like that. After hearing this, someone will think that this is a problem in vegetarian food. It's not a problem with vegetarian food. Non-veg has another problem. Non-veg has another problem. Their problem is this. If you see people eating non-vegetarian, you won't see fiber in their food. Because if they are eating chicken, they will eat chicken curry with rice and roti, there will be gravy. They will eat eggs or mutton. Very rarely will you see them eating rajma, vegetables, or greens with it. This is a big problem in the US because they are very over-indexed on beef. So from their perspective, their protein, average protein consumption in the US is 0.9 grams compared to India's 0.6. But the biggest problem there is fiber. That's why 2026 is the year of fiber in the US. Yes. That trend will also come to India. We Indian donkeys don't know, we eat a lot of fiber. We don't need fiber. But when it comes there, everything will come. Products will come. My water has fiber, and my everything will have fiber. I think it will come in the US in 2026. In 2027, this fiber craze will be there. And Indians don't need to worry about fiber. So the non-vegetarian problem, talk about swaps. I only say one thing, if you are on weight loss, instead of a whole egg, eat egg whites. But take one egg yolk because that yolk has multivitamins. If you only go for that, then there is a problem. The idea is, a vegetarian cannot eat non-vegetarian. So for them, they will have to rely on protein powder or any protein supplement or exercise more. Non-vegetarians can eat vegetarian. So I can tell them, hey, take your protein, just add fiber with it. Because that will help you overcome that problem. What will not help them overcome is if you are a very large non-vegetarian. Non-veg is often, whoever eats it, then they just have the problem of saturated fat. Got it. Now coming to protein shakes. Yes. You said you should take protein shakes. Which protein shake is good? Let's first understand why I am taking a protein shake. So you can take a protein shake for two reasons. One reason is, I am very deficient in protein. So I need to take protein to improve my protein synthesis. The answer will be different. If I want to kick-start muscle protein synthesis, for which I take it, like, I have to take it, then I might as well get leucine, then my muscle, the answer will be different. To build a body, to preserve muscle. It is very wrong that protein is not needed for building a body. I take three, I take three scoops, man. Can you see anywhere a body is being built? It cannot be built. If I want to protect my decline, I am taking it for that. Yes, in this, my muscle will break down a little less, so it will be visible. Right? So I am saying, if you want to maintain muscle protein synthesis, the anabolism we talked about, then my answer will be different. Raj, if you purely want that my protein should be met, I don't care about that. As long as I get protein, then the answer is different. All this comes under what we talked about later, regarding leucine. Now, if you go to the market, you will find three types of protein shakes. We get right. First, you will get whey protein. Okay? In whey protein, you will either get whey protein concentrate, which is called whey isolate, or you will get hydrolyzed. The difference between these two is the same. Its digestibility and absorbability is faster for hydrolyzed. That's why it is more expensive. You will also find casein ones in the market. When you talk about milk, it has 80% casein protein and 20% whey. So if you want very cheap protein, then take casein. If you want a protein shake, casein's digestibility and absorbability takes time. Now, because of that, it cannot cross the leucine threshold. Despite having leucine. So if you are taking a protein shake for muscle protection or muscle preservation, then ideally casein is not for you. When you come to plant protein, you will get soy protein or pea protein. In India, largely these people have more pea protein brands compared to soy protein. I don't know why. Because soy has better characteristics compared to pea. Okay. Its biggest problem is that its leucine threshold is very low because it is made from plants. So if you take one scoop, which is the standard nowadays, that my protein, my scoop has 25 grams of protein. If it is plant-based, then for that 25 grams, they will give you a 35 gram scoop or a 37 gram scoop. If it is whey, then in a 30 gram scoop, you get 25 grams. When you take this, and it has less than 2 grams of leucine, then you are taking it to fulfill your protein need. This will not kick-start your protein muscle synthesis, unless you take two scoops instead of one. The problem is, if you take two scoops, my calories double, or even if you take one and a half scoops, my calories are extra. Plant protein, when you take it, its texture is different. So many people don't like it. I always say that if you are lactose intolerant or you have ethically become vegan, then it's okay, take your plant protein. My suggestion to them is, if you are taking plant protein, don't take one scoop, take one and a half scoops. Okay? Or two scoops, because this will activate your muscle protein synthesis, kick-start it. A third protein has recently come into the market, made by a very big person. Okay? They have marketed fermentable yeast protein in India. What is this? So you can also make protein in labs through yeast. We go through the fermentation process, they make protein. So you extract that protein, make its powder, and sell it. So it is tractor's protein. Right? It is fermentable yeast protein. It also has a big problem. Its problem is that when we talk about calories from protein. So, in a good, decent whey protein isolate, you will get almost 88% calories from protein. When we talked about soy or pea protein, this drops to 78%. When we talk about this fermented yeast protein, it drops to 64%. You are getting less protein. Right? Another problem is, it also has less than 2 grams of leucine. So if you are taking this too, and taking one scoop, then muscle protein synthesis will not happen. It looks very muscular. I can tell you, he himself might not take it, or if he takes it, he takes two scoops instead of one. Because if your leucine threshold is not crossed, as the study by Stuflipps has told us, then it will not work for your muscle preservation, muscle growth. Interesting. What is the benefit of fermented? No benefit. It's marketing. Benefit, what is the benefit? Benefit, maybe it's light on the stomach, better for digestion, something must be there. That's why somebody has made it. No, somebody made it because it can be made in the labs. We are making it through yeast. Protein, you can also find in insects. If you want to talk about that, we will. For example. Right? So in everything that has protein, I have told you, that farmer in the Netherlands is making protein from potatoes. So everybody is trying their way to. In my opinion, this is entirely a marketing game, that now a new protein has come, fermented yeast. Suddenly you only heard of whey and soy or plant, and suddenly fermented yeast has arrived. A very big actor started talking about it, so you are intrigued by it, you will try it, whatever you call it. Right? But when I look at it through the lens of science, through the lens of, as I said, if your goal is that I want protein synthesis, I want it for muscle preservation, I don't want protein, then you can take whichever you like from the three, it doesn't matter, your protein is increasing. But if you want to increase or preserve muscle protein synthesis, then first of all, whey protein, there is no comparison, because in that you get two and a half to three grams. But that's not light on the stomach, like you. Okay, fair point. Digestion problems, gas, you get a lot of things. In that, okay, fair. So it's your call. Right? I am not saying. Structurally, when we talk about gas, digestion, bloating, everyone's gut is different. Right? So if you want very good protein, muscle protein synthesis, and you want to take only one scoop, then take hydrolyzed, right? You won't have that either. But the point is.

I have completed the entire course on the gut from Stanford. Right? If you understand the gut, there is nothing more modifiable in your body than the gut. You started taking protein shakes over a period of time. Your gut will adjust to it. You will not have any bloating. You will not have any digestion issues. But again, this is personal. I am not telling anyone to do the same. But I believe that if I need to cross the leucine threshold in one scoop from a muscle protein point of view, then I will go for it. What message am I giving? I am also trying to give another message that today you will find protein stuck to every product. You will find it in cookies, you will find it in ice cream. Right? It's a protein mania. If any entrepreneur is serious about protein, they must mention its amino acid profile. Because as we discussed in the beginning, we eat protein for amino acids. But what about this? Tell me, is it healthy? Protein has come into everything. Is it healthy in everything? People have added protein to biscuits. You know, protein is coming into flour. You pick up any product, and some protein is being added. In fact, what I saw is that there are some brands that I used to see before. Okay, it's very interesting. Brands of chips, bhujia, etc. Purely just food. Okay? Because every product has protein by nature. We just discussed it. Right? Those people have now written "7 grams protein," "2.8 grams protein," "9 grams protein" prominently on their new packaging. It's still fried chips, but they've added it. So now it's the halo effect of health. When I see it, I feel like this one has protein. I picked up the same packet of chips. I give a very simple answer to this. I try to give a slightly intelligent answer. I always say, and I also said in your first podcast, that when we talk about nutrition, the first thing is personal. Eating or not eating is a personal choice. Secondly, I always say, context is key, and the dose makes the poison. Thankfully, you and I have this platform to discuss all these things. We can explain to people that before protein, understand amino acids. In amino acids, understand leucine, understand lysine, understand methionine. These three are the most critical. Leucine is the most critical. You are taking protein shakes for muscle protein. But if leucine is less than 2 grams, then you haven't got the effect. It's very complicated for a common man. Tell me, for a common man who is watching this and has understood everything today, but every time they go to buy a product, or buy online. What will they do in the supermarket? How will they figure out that I need leucine too, I need this too? It's that difficult to find out. You are 1000% right. Mathematically, it's an impossibility. Even then, you are right. Why? I said health is personal, choice is personal. How simplified you want to keep it is up to you. You and I have decoded everything today. Eat what you want for breakfast, lunch, dinner, homemade food, but know what you are eating. Or reduce it, because we have demonstrated that if you have a decent breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you are reaching 3000 calories. You will get fat. Okay? I am saying reduce 500, 700, 800 calories from this. It's not very difficult. Right? Reduce a little bit from everything. Right? So I have reduced my calories. Now I need to increase protein. I don't want any product that just says protein on it. Just drink a protein shake. And even then, which is a good protein shake? Because half of them are fake. There was a research that came out. They tested 1000 protein shakes in India. And almost 70% did not have as much protein as they claimed. Will they add leucine, leucine? They are not even providing what they are claiming. Right? And all of that is approved by our regulatory bodies. So, let's first talk about simplifying things. I have simplified my life a lot. For example, I am not saying people have to follow me. I wake up in the morning, whether I exercise or not, which I try to do. I will have two scoops of protein. First thing. I break my fast with that. Right? There's a big reason for this. We will come to the timing of protein later. But I am just stating my own practice. I get 50 grams to 52 grams of protein. 4 to 5 grams of leucine. 6 grams, meaning the muscle protein kickstart has begun. Why is it important? All night when I hadn't eaten, catabolism was going on. Breakdown was going on. There was no food. So muscle protein couldn't increase. So when I gave 50 grams of protein in the first meal, I kickstarted muscle protein synthesis. It's very difficult. If you break your fast with two scoops of protein, you will feel hungry for two and a half hours. It's very difficult. So I saved breakfast calories. Where breakfast was 500-700 calories, two protein scoops gave me 50-52 grams of protein in 250 calories. Which means now I am waiting for my lunch. My lunch is not complicated at all. What is served in front of you. My lunch usually has rice or roti, some dal or rajma, my vegetable. After that, I ate the 12-gram yogurt from Skyr. I always eat yogurt. So I took that product. So I got 12 grams. Before leaving the office, I take another scoop of protein shake. Your biggest mistake starts after 4 PM. Everything is fine until here. As soon as we wind down, and then you go out in the evening for bhel, puchka, this and that, okay. After leaving the office, when I have taken the protein shake, it's very difficult for me to then go and indulge. Then when I go for dinner, I eat a normal dinner. I generally try to have paneer or some form of better protein in my dinner. That's it. I haven't incorporated any new product, not taken protein-added flour. What I have done is incorporated three scoops of protein shake into my life. I get 75 to 80 grams of protein from here, and 12 grams of protein from my small Skyr. So I get 90 grams of protein from here. The remaining 30 to 40 grams of protein I will get from my food. So I am 70 kg. I target approximately 140 grams. I haven't brought any complication into my life. I have only made one thing my friend: protein shake. Protein shake. Why? Because I will get 80 to 88% of my calories from protein in a single product. Take any non-vegetarian product. Take any vegetarian product. It doesn't have that quality. Now, your real question is, how do I know? Which one is good? I am not going to assume that Raj Shaman or whoever is listening to this podcast cannot identify a brand they can trust. I can. There are many brands that you all can trust. You can all trust them. But there are many brands you trust. I will tell you, the brands you truly trust. Right? You trust Reva. Take its protein. You trust Wellbeing. Take that. You trust Whole Truth Bar. Take that. All are good. You will trust the brand. There will be a reason for trust. You will look at the background. But we don't even know what's good. For example, fermented yeast is a good protein. Right? But for someone who goes to the gym, or wants to preserve muscle, or synthesize muscle, it's not suitable for that person. We didn't even know this. Correct. And that's where the country needs to be grateful to you, Raj. Until now, there was no such platform. Whom to educate? Let's assume, for example, if you had called Prashant Desai or someone else, and if they had done this level of research, maybe they would have also told us. But if they hadn't, we would still be ignorant. But all this, but whose responsibility is this? How do we... But that will take time, the education. So just trust the good brand and go blindly, or keep trusting. MS Dhoni has launched a protein brand. Now you trust Dhoni. From an educational perspective, let's talk about one more thing. Right? I talked about whey protein, plant protein, fermented yeast protein. Let's talk about the raw material cost of all of them. Whey protein is the most expensive to make. Because its raw material cost is the cheapest. It's the cheapest among all of them. Plant protein is expensive. Fermented yeast is even more expensive. The wholesale price of whey protein concentrate is 1000 to 12000 rupees per kg. Do you know the cost of 100 grams of pea? 300 to 400. Most plant proteins in the market will be more expensive. Or whose is less? Do you know? Fermented yeast. And it's cheaper, but that will also be more expensive. I take plant protein. Brother, you are so big, so you will charge for it, right? That whole philosophy of marketing cost in the bottle, through all the education, Reva's protein, they have just launched their plant protein. He has priced it right. He has made it cheaper. Nice. He will break this market. And I think it was a huge opportunity, man. Launch plant protein at half the price of whey protein. Now if Raj has to take two scoops of plant protein. Raj has no problem. I am solving my leucine problem. I am getting my protein. I am getting a little more calories, which is okay. Yes. It's still better than no protein. Nice. So now people listening to this. Today they got a whole lecture on protein. What should they do? What one change should people make right now, at this point? Before we actually go there, tell me about timing. I'll tell you a simple trick. If you are eating protein-added ice cream, protein-added cookies, protein-added chips, any product with added protein, you should ask the first question: why are you having protein? Why are you eating this product? Right? Are you eating this product for protein? Or are you eating this product because its comparable product that you are eating, you feel it's much worse? Okay? Like I talked about KitKat and its comparison. If you are eating it from a contextual perspective, then please eat it. Because contextually, it's very simple. You will know by looking at the label. Yes, mind you, it will also be expensive compared to that. Right? If you are eating it for protein. For example, to meet my protein deficiency. Then I am very clear, you must calculate the calories from protein ratio. If the calories from protein ratio is less than 50%, I will not recommend that product. I would rather say, instead of this, then you should eat normal ice cream. More than 50%? Sorry, if your calories from protein is more than 50%, then eat it. If it is less than 50%, for me, it doesn't stand. So, because I have become a bit famous on Instagram, many people send me products, asking me to promote them. New protein, protein, protein. The first thing I calculate is calories from protein. No need to even send it to them. I tell them, send the nutritional label before sending the product. Now, it's important that fat has nine calories, protein has four calories, carbs have four calories. Multiply whatever protein is by four and divide it by the total calories they have written. You will get it. If this number is less than 50%, it's not a protein for me. You don't even need to do this much effort. Take a photo, upload it to your AI, and it will tell you. It's simple. You will know. So from my perspective, I... Now you were asking about timing of protein, right? Eating after the gym, or eating before the gym? Right? Isn't it better to take it before? Okay, I'll tell you. And this is not my study. Again, it's Professor Luke Wollen's study. He was getting the same questions that you and I are getting. Now, let's break this down. If you are doing a good workout, 20 minutes of good intensity workout, and you have taken a scoop of protein shake before it, it doesn't kickstart your muscle protein synthesis. Okay? Because when you are working out, your catabolism, muscle protein breakdown is happening a lot. So this protein shake, a lot of people feel that I ate this, and if you have taken a good whey protein shake, hydrolyzed, then it will digest and absorb immediately. If you work out in the morning, your stomach is empty, the belief was that doing this will kickstart my muscle protein synthesis, because of which my repair process was already starting. So my performance, when this was measured, it was not there. Wrong. But after exercise, when you take a protein shake, it has a very, very big impact. But there are two nuances to this as well. If someone is not exercising regularly or is untrained, for them, if they take a protein shake after exercise, it has a big advantage compared to someone who is very well-trained. Okay? If you exercise regularly, like I go to the gym three times a week and have been going regularly for the last 8-10 years, except when I travel, for me, it doesn't make a difference whether I take it immediately after the gym or 2 hours later or 4 hours later. I will get the anabolic effect for the next 48 hours. So, untrained people, please take it within 2 hours. If you are normally trained, regular consistent training, you don't need to worry. Got it? That's the first point. The most important thing is your first meal and your last meal from a protein standpoint. And both these things come down to the basics of muscle protein synthesis and muscle protein breakdown. We talked about how you had your last dinner, say at 9 PM or 10 PM. And then you woke up at 7:30, 8:00 AM, whatever that is. So there's a 12-hour breakdown in your eating. 10 to 12 hours. Breakdown is going on in the body for those 10 to 12 hours. So when you wake up, if you haven't eaten a meal with at least 30 to 40 grams of protein, your leucine threshold will not be met. You will not kickstart muscle protein business. That's why if you are serious about protecting and preserving muscle mass, or growing it, if you are a younger person, your first breaking of your fast should be with anything, either a protein shake or a high-protein meal. Especially after a workout, have 30 to 40 grams of protein. This will happen. The second, the last meal is also very important because I know that I will have a 10-hour fast or a 12-hour fast. This will happen. If I make my last meal protein-rich, then my catabolism reduces. Relevance of first and last meal is more important. In between, you are okay. I try to follow as much as possible that part of that piece. I was talking about one thing. Tell me one specific thing that all the people watching should take away from this. Simply put, when it comes to protein, more is less for me. If you are Indian, make a note, you are protein deficient. Once in your first podcast, I talked about sleep, right? I said no one in India sleeps well, no matter what they say. I say pick anyone on the street, they are protein deficient. If they argue with you, then do what we have practiced today. So the clear thing is that you are protein deficient. Start putting more protein in your daily life. And the easiest way is the best way: protein shake. I am saying it's your choice. Either you complicate it a lot, or the whole food, or you can do it very easily. That's also there. There's another thing. I have to be honest, protein shakes have a downside. So far, no studies have shown it. A lot of people will say it has this preservative, that preservative. I don't know its long-term impact. So ideally, we all say, if all your requirements can be met through whole foods, then nothing like it. Vegetarians have disadvantages compared to non-vegetarians. If you are a vegetarian, and if you eat 100 to 125 grams of protein, then you don't need to worry about leucine threshold or anything. But to eat that 100 grams to 125 grams of vegetarian food, your calories will increase. So you will have to do more strength training. What I am talking about, and ultimately everything comes down to work. My philosophy has moved over the last four to five years. It's now what I follow, something called muscle-centric nutrition. I have done research, met many scientists, and realized that ultimately, why are we doing all this? So that in later life, we can do things that we like to do, right? I don't want to be dependent on anyone. I want to enjoy the activities that I do. That is only possible if we have preserved and protected our muscle mass. So if that goes, your movement, muscle has only two functions: one is mobility, the other is metabolism. So, if mobility is gone, what's the use of that life? Right? So if you focus on muscle-centric nutrition, it becomes very interesting. We started this thing with obesity, with weight loss. You will forget about thinking about loss. You will think about gain. I don't want fat loss. I want muscle gain. True, fat loss doesn't mean muscle gain will happen. But muscle gain has a 100% impact, fat loss will happen. So start thinking in a different way. Okay? One last question, because we ask this to everyone these days. Fill in the blank. Okay? India will only grow when ____. India will only grow. Okay. India will only grow when Indians become capitalists. Interesting. I thought you would say something about nutrition and protein. But interesting. The growth, Indian growth, for me, growth is always GDP growth, right? The finance bro inside you doesn't die. Someone asked me before, when I went to a podcast, if you had to choose between becoming a full-time content creator or giving up stock markets. It's very tough for me, but if you put a gun to my head, I would say maybe not stock markets. At least that's my belief today. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hope it was worth it. It was absolutely worth it. It was a long masterclass. Thank you so much for watching this episode till the end. Now you know what you have to do. First, subscribe to this channel so that we can bring more valuable guests like this. Number two, tell me in the comments what you liked about this episode and who else you would like to see as a guest on this podcast. And definitely share this episode with at least one person who can get an opportunity to make a better change in their life from this. Because one conversation can change someone's life. I will see you next time. Until then, keep figuring out.