💪Healthy aging vs muscle loss - How many days of immobility = normal muscle loss?

Pryvit! (Hello in Ukrainian),

In my email two weeks ago, I shared the link for a free webinar called Eating for Resilience: Why Protein Matters More as We Get Older and was hosted by my alma mater, the University of Guelph.

I watched the whole thing live and I have a few key takeaways to share in case you didn't get a chance to watch it yourself.

You can still watch the replay of the webinar on their YouTube channel here.

A lot of the information was reiterating and providing newer research and data, further supporting what we already know, but one thing kinda blew my mind 🤯.

Here are the most important notes (IMHO):

• ✅Protein intake is important for muscles, skin, enzymes, hormones, immunity, etc.
• ✅Most people need to consume between 1.2-1.6 g/kg/day (this means ~25-40 g protein at each meal)
• ✅We should get all nine essential amino acids (which, if plant-based, means eating both grains and legumes)
• ✅Protein quality is measured three ways, by: (i) the density of essential amino acids, (ii) how digestible the protein is, and (iii) how much leucine is present (leucine is key for muscle synthesis)
• ✅Muscles (as with other tissues and organs) are constantly in the process of breaking down and rebuilding, so ideally we want more rebuilding than breaking down, but that balance changes as we get older, which is why muscle loss naturally occurs as we get older
• ✅Muscle mass and function naturally decline with age (starting at 30-40 years of age), so prioritizing protein intake and weight-bearing exercise becomes even more important to maintain as much as possible
• 🤯For older adults (65-75+ years old), one bout of immobility that lasts for six days (e.g., a COVID-19 infection, injury, minor surgery) can amplify muscle loss so that over those six days of disuse, we can lose the same amount of muscle as 2-3 years of regular muscle loss (this slide is below and is explained from 55:00-57:30 in the replay linked above)

The main practical takeaways for healthy aging (with respect to protein and muscle) are:

1 - Consume at least 1.2-1.6 g/kg/day of protein and do resistance exercises at least 2x/week - If you do these two things, you're 90% of your way there! Focus on these two key foundational pillars first.

2 - Eat protein throughout the day. This looks like 25-40 g protein per meal, 3 times a day.

3 - Get higher quality protein (this is not as important if you're already getting at least 1.2 g/kg/day of protein).

I hope this was interesting health research for you!

(I just dug out my weighted vest and added it to my walks, as well as wearing around the house this week. Plus, I dusted off my weights to do little 4-5 minute weight lifting snacks throughout the day.)

Leesa

P.S. Did you see the free 15-minute web page review that you can book with me here:

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