In a recent email with a coaching client, I found myself more clearly articulating than ever before why eating sufficient protein is really crucial to optimizing your body composition, so I thought I’d share my “moment of clarity” here. ;)

For the sake of this example / explanation, we’re looking at two scenarios, with the total calorie intake in both cases being the same, with that amount theoretically being exactly right for “maintenance” (I.E. neither gaining nor losing weight), but in one scenario the diet contains insufficient protein to support tissue turnover and repairing the micro-damage that occurs in our muscles when we participate in moderate to intense training, especially resistance / strength training.

Here’s the deal…