5 'Must-Know' Facts About Protein for Over-50 Athletes

Written by Dan Taylor, MS, CSCS, 50+ Fitness and Nutrition Expert

Dan's exercise Physiology/Sports Nutrition education, NSCA Strength and Conditioning background, and work with a wide variety of active older adults since 1998 make him the ideal guide to help navigate the muddy waters of optimal eating and training strategies for the over-50 athlete and fitness seeker.

Are you confused about how much protein you should eat, when you should eat it, and what the best sources are for optimal strength, athletic performance, and general health? There are a number of factors in the equation and some conflicting guidance (although not among the most reliable sports nutrition authorities) that can muddy up the water pretty badly. Below is a simple roadmap that clears it all up for you. These five points are the most important variables in the “best practices” equation.

1. Use the right base to calculate it

While it’s a well-known ratio among most fitness-minded people for protein (PRO) intake, the figure of grams per kilogram of bodyweight per day is often converted broadly to grams per pound per day. The conversion is 1 kg = 2.2 lbs, or for practical purposes, half the recommended figure expressed using kg for bodyweight. So if a 160 lb person is shooting for 1.6g/kg/day, he/she is aiming for 0.8g/lb/day, or 128g PRO daily. What’s less well-known and is especially important is that the base of current body weight is not necessarily ideal to use as a driver. Here are two examples of when it is not:

You are currently moderately, or more, overweight

Let’s say that the 160 lb person is 5’3” tall and below average in strength/muscle volume, with a body fat percentage of 40%. Trying to accumulate 128g of PRO daily would probably be overkill and could contribute to daily over-eating in order to hit that goal, when the primary focus is creating a sustainable daily calorie (kcal) shortfall to get leaner.

You are currently very tall with low body fat, looking to add 30 pounds of muscle

A 6’4” person who wants to get significantly stronger and more muscular over the next 18 months is most likely going to need to eat up to 500 calories (kcals) more each day than their maintenance level and the 128g of PRO each day is unlikely to be adequate for the planned and hard-earned muscle growth targeted.

So, what is the better metric?

More recent useful guidance takes these disparate body compositions into account (even before considering fitness profile as explored below) and uses ideal or target healthy body weight as the base for applying the appropriate profile-specific PROg/lb/day multiplier. Therefore, a good middle range for each of the example individuals above, using 0.8g/lb/day might be closer to 100g and 150g, respectively.

2. Determine your profile classification

Profile classification is especially important for the over-50 athlete, as it takes into account age, training volume, and intensity, and intended change in body composition in both direction and degree. Your placement will determine the range of PRO g/day to multiply by your ideal achievable bodyweight to calculate your daily target intake range. Here are the daily recommendation ranges for generally recognized classifications for 50+ people of varying fitness levels and types:

• Inactive: 0.5 to 0.6g/lb (ideal BW)

• Recreationally active: 0.6 to 0.8g/lb

• Endurance athletes: 0.7 to 0.9g/lb

• Strength or hybrid athletes: 0.8 to 1.1g/lb

As you can see, there is some overlap between the ranges, and your profile may straddle classifications. And, of course, there are several additional factors that can affect dose/response for strength/hypertrophy (muscle volume growth), but no substantial evidence supports much more than 1g/lb bodyweight/day, although up to 2x that amount daily has not been indicated as a significant risk for people with normal kidney function.

3. Vary your protein sources

The easiest (and most enjoyable) way to increase the volume of a particular food type is to get as many different sources of foods containing that element as possible. Why? Because we crave variety and are more likely to ingest more in total if the sources have different taste and texture qualities. It’s the same idea with varying preparation methods.

You’re less likely to get bored or burned out on a combination that includes yogurt, fish, eggs, cottage cheese, pea protein shakes, beans and rice, beef, whey PRO bars, nuts, and seeds than you would be eating mostly grilled chicken day after day. Another huge benefit of practicing this habit for protein sources is that varying your sources allows you to accumulate a broader spectrum of vital micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well, such as iron and creatine with meat and fish, calcium and vitamin D with dairy, and many more, including legumes, soy, and grains.

4. Spread your daily intake evenly

There has long been an assumption in sports nutrition circles that the effect of distributing protein sources uniformly throughout the day is a critical factor in optimizing muscle protein synthesis. In fact, there are anecdotes in bodybuilding circles that suggest some competitors would even set their alarms to wake up at least once during the night to ensure they ate PRO-rich foods during this thought-to-be critical period of muscle turnover and repair.

But the most recent research casts doubt on timing as significant as a stand-alone factor. So why would I advocate it here? For the same reason as I promote variety in the guidance provided in 3 above: more disciplined action to include PRO-rich foods throughout the day, like variety, can be a powerful tool to help you achieve your goal range for that day. Another plus is that it may create more decision points for you to consider the PRO gram/kcal ratio consistently as well, helping you to reach and maintain your lean, strong, and muscular ideal body composition.

5. Choose the right pre-event source

One important practical consideration that is not discussed often is the physical characteristics and volume adjustments you can make to your PRO sources to increase digestibility as you get closer to your workout (WO). The textural qualities, the mix of other macros in the source, and other aspects of the source, combined with the proximity to the WO (as well as the relative intensity of that WO), all interact to make your choice a good or a bad fit.

The closer you get to the WO, the sooner a good portion of your blood supply will be diverted to the major muscles and away from the digestive system. That can trigger indigestion, light-headedness, and/or poor performance when there’s just not enough to go around for both exertion and digestion.

But you can counter that easily by adjusting the variables mentioned above. For instance, a big steak and egg breakfast 45 minutes before your heavy lifting, large muscle compound + HIIT WO would be a disaster for most people. But a small portion of Greek yogurt topped with raspberries 90 minutes before a gentle yoga class would be fine for most.

The toughness and higher fat in the steak, and the fat in the eggs, could easily jam up blood flow for the WO so soon before a very demanding WO, while the softer, higher water content and lower fat composition in the yogurt/fruit combo, especially in a conservative portion size, will create a much lighter load on systemic circulation. Chewing very thoroughly and eating slowly can also help you avoid pitting these two competing processes against each other.

Since responses to this phenomenon vary by individual, you can experiment and find what works best for you. For instance, I can sip a PRO shake alternatively with water or tea, literally, during my most demanding WO of the week with no ill effects. In fact, if my blood sugar is a little low or I feel a bit hungry before starting, this will bridge the gap nicely and boost my performance. My clients have had similar responses to the practice.

Re-vamp your PRO intake and optimal performance eating plan today

Optimizing your variety, volume, timing, and combination of protein-rich food sources is an individual art based on broadly applied scientific principles. Most older athletes would benefit from the expertise and objectivity of a guide well-versed in the needs, preferences, and priorities for their particular profile, both for eating and training. So if fueling for performance consistently with precision, maintaining your athleticism, and avoiding injury are priorities, choose the right mentor. The 50+ Hybrid Athlete subscription program is built around the fundamentals covered in this and my other articles in this six-part series. You can unsubscribe at any time, but you won’t want to miss the ongoing helpful guidance and the time-released, astoundingly valuable bonus products that you get as a subscriber.

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Read more from Dan Taylor, MS, CSCS

Dan Taylor, MS, CSCS, 50+ Fitness and Nutrition Expert

Dan left a career in high-tech corporate finance in 1998 to pursue his mission of leading others in elevating and simplifying the art of physical aging through the best fitness and eating practices for the mature athlete (and the aspiring athlete). His online subscription program provides a clear and simple pathway to achieve peak performance while lowering disease and injury risk, adopting powerful and principled eating practices that effectively support the training framework, and developing an individualized, manageable, and adaptable template for both.