‘I need an app’ and 5 other protein myths moms can stop believing
Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash
Protein is everywhere right now, and the advice aimed at women is a mess. A nutritionist sorts the hype from what actually matters.
Table of Contents
Over the past year or so I’ve thought more about protein than in my previous 43 combined. Where women used to count calories, we’re now tracking macros. We’re stirring protein powder into our coffee, blending it into smoothies and slipping cottage cheese into as many meals as possible. (At this point it’s fair to wonder whether Big Cottage Cheese is behind the whole protein craze, because seriously, this is ridiculous). Even Starbucks now sells protein lattes and protein cold foam with protein-boosted milk you can add to nearly any drink on the menu.
Somehow I still have more questions than answers. How much do you really need, where should it come from and does any of this apply to women if we’re not trying to bulk up? The information we get is confusing, contradictory and usually attached to something for sale.
Cassy Joy Garcia has spent years cutting through all of the noise. The holistic nutritionist and New York Times bestselling author behind Fed + Fit built her latest book, The Protein Meal Prep Plan, around the unglamorous mechanics of getting enough, with recipes designed to actually get eaten on a busy weeknight. Here are the myths she runs into most, and what she tells women to do instead.
Protein Myth 1: “I eat fine, so I’m getting enough”
Women typically need protein the most at the moments we arefeeding oursevles last. “Pregnancy, postpartum recovery, breastfeeding, and perimenopause/menopause all increase protein needs, sometimes substantially, right at the moments when women are also the most exhausted and least likely to be cooking for themselves first,” Garcia says.
There’s a physiological shift that occurs between the ages of 35 and 50, too, when muscle gets harder to build and hold, a process called anabolic resistance. During this time, women need more protein per meal to do what a smaller amount used to do in their 20s. Most women are still eating the way they did a decade earlier, Garcia notes, so “eating fine” by an old standard may no longer cut it.
Protein Myth 2: “The RDA is my target”
The official recommended dietary allowance (RDA), 0.8 grams per kilogram of bodyweight, is a floor, not a goal. (For reference, an egg has about 6 grams of protein, a serving of chicken breast has 38 grams.) Garcia calls the recommendation, based on nitrogen-balance studies, “a helpful minimum to help a person avoid deficiency, not to be confused with a target intake that will help a person optimize their health.”
The federal guidance has since moved in her direction. The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025-2030, recommend modestly raising protein intake to 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram a day, which sits right inside the 1.2 to 2 grams per kilogram range Garcia points women toward. Roughly half of Americans already hit that range, and the half that falls short skews female. Treat the RDA as the line you don’t want to fall below, Garcia says, not the number you’re aiming for.
Protein Myth 3: “I need an app and a powder to do this right”
“You don’t need an app or a powder to start,” Garcia says. The whole apparatus of tracking and supplements exists partly because complexity sells, and the actual practice of consuming more protein is simpler than the industry around it wants you to believe.
Garcia’s go-to trick: put a protein source on your plate before you add anything else. Tracking for a few days can be a useful diagnostic to see where you’re starting from, she says, but it isn’t a permanent requirement. No one needs more math or to-do lists. Leaning on recipes that already have protein built in does most of the work for you. And no, you do not have to eat plain chicken breast on repeat from now until forever.
Protein Myth 4: “Protein means meat”
“Protein isn’t synonymous with meat,” Garcia says. “Eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, tofu, edamame, lentils, and protein powder can all get you there.” The trick is treating them as the main event, not a side dish. A few ways to build a meal around each:
- Eggs. They’re not just a breakfast food. A vegetable frittata or a pan of egg-fried rice makes them the center of dinner.
- Greek yogurt and cottage cheese. Build a savory lunch bowl on a base of cottage cheese, or use thick Greek yogurt as the protein in a grain bowl. Both also stand in for sour cream or mayo.
- Tofu and edamame. Press and sear cubed tofu until crisp and let it anchor a stir-fry, and keep frozen shelled edamame on hand to bulk up noodles, salads and fried rice.
- Lentils and beans. A pot of lentil chili or a bean curry is a full dinner on its own, no meat required, and half a can folded into whatever’s already cooking adds a fast boost.
- Protein powder. This is a great backup for days a meal has to be drinkable, stirred into a smoothie or overnight oats.
“The question isn’t, ‘What protein source do I eat?’ so much as, ‘Am I building every meal around a protein anchor first?’” She offers. Build that habit and the protein becomes a flexible base, which is what makes this workable for vegetarians, picky households and anyone tired of the same three dinners.
Protein Myth 5: “Breakfast should start with carbs”
Most breakfasts open with a carbohydrate and try to fit protein in around it. Garcia flips the order. Instead of starting with a bagel and trying to round it up to 30-plus grams of protein on top, she starts with the dense protein first–the Greek yogurt, the chicken sausage, the smoked salmon and cottage cheese–-then adds the toast, half a bagel, the fruit and a fiber-dense food like avocado.
When there’s no time for a spread, she keeps Greek yogurt, granola and fruit or a protein shake she likes on hand. Fix breakfast first, she says. It’s the meal most likely to be an afterthought, but it sets your blood sugar for the day and it’s the easiest one to make routine.
Protein Myth 6: “The weight lost on a GLP-1 is all fat”
GLP-1 medications suppress appetite, so total food intake can drop fast, and without deliberate attention a meaningful share of the weight lost isn’t fat. “Studies on these medications have found lean mass can account for up to a quarter to nearly 40% of total weight lost,” Garcia says, “which is a real problem because muscle is metabolically protective.”
Her guidance for anyone on one, or considering it: Prioritize protein at every meal even when appetite is minimal, pair it with resistance training, and if you can, get a DEXA scan or something similar so you’re actually monitoring muscle mass rather than guessing at what the scale is telling you.
Easy ways to get more protein
Once the myths are out of the way, adding protein is less of a project than it sounds. “Cook once, eat protein all week,” Garcia says. A batch of hard-boiled eggs, shredded rotisserie chicken or a tray of baked salmon gets folded into whatever’s already on the menu, so you’re not starting from zero at every meal. Greek yogurt and cottage cheese work as a dollop on bowls of all kinds, and plenty of protein can be stirred into food that doesn’t obviously call for it, such as oatmeal, pancake batter, scrambled eggs, pasta sauce. When she’s cooking grains, she reaches for bone broth instead of water.
Beans also do a lot of gap-filling in her regular rotation. A half can of beans adds roughly 22 grams of protein and nearly 18 grams of fiber to a meal, which is why she wishes more people leaned on them.
If all of this feels like a lot, Garcia suggests starting with a single meal: “Breakfast, hands down,” she says. “Fix breakfast and the rest of the day tends to follow.”
Related articles
