My family tells me I’m not eating enough protein

My family thinks I don't eat enough protein, but I've been preventing kidney stones successfully. Let's talk about protein intake and how much we should actually be eating. Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet podcast, the show about reducing your kidney stone risk and living your best life.

I'm your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris.

And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse.

So, we have a great question today from Joe. So, I'm going to play that in one second. But if you're out there with a question, the number is 773-789-8764, and we'd love to feature you on a future episode.

Hi, Jill and Jeff. Good morning. This is Joe from New Jersey here, but now from Georgia, United States.

I have a question about protein. I'm 60 years old and I weigh 140 pounds, and I'm 6'3" tall. I have had one kidney stone about 25 years ago.

I follow all of your recommendations and guidance: 70 ounces or more of water a day, I exercise daily, annual 24-hour urine collection and blood work. I eat under 1500 mg of sodium a day and under 100 mg of oxalate a day. However, my wife, who is 59 years old—I'm 60—and my daughter, who is 30, both say I don't get enough protein, I'm always tired, and sometimes have brain fog.

They eat about 120 to 150 g of protein a day. My typic- my typical diet is about three or four nonfat, plain Greek yogurts a day with some flaxseed meal. I also have plain vegetables, mainly consisting of broccoli, cauliflower, red bell peppers, mushrooms, zucchini squash, and butterhead lettuce.

Sometimes I'll have egg whites, or chicken, or fish. Rarely do I have red meat, lamb, or pork. According to your protein calculator, I should be having about 60 millig- 60 g of protein a day.

I know your calculator says, this is only for animal protein, but I'm struggling here on how much protein I can—I should have each day. Can you add any insight if I should be doing anything different? Thanks so much!

So, that is a great question because we do talk about animal protein specifically. So, what does that mean? How does that, what can we infer from that alone?

Because total protein is actually a different number.

Yes. So, here is something I deal with in my private consults on the regular. We have a man who has really done a wonderful job preventing kidney stones.

For the last 25 years, guys, sounds like he hasn't made another one. And there is a point—this is a very common scenario. He said he is 6'3" and 140 pounds.

His wife and his daughter is on his butt saying, "Dad," and "Honey, you're not getting enough protein." They're getting a lot of protein, those two, I don't know how big they are, the women, but they are correct. He is not getting enough protein. And so, at kidneystonediet.com, we have a meat protein calculator, and it says this is strictly for meat because one of the goals of the Kidney Stone Diet is not to overeat meat, and that is because eating too much meat can lower your citrate, it can increase your urine calcium, it can lower your urine pH, and those things—and excuse me, it can also increase your uric acid.

Those things can increase your kidney stone risk. But so, Joe went to my, the meat protein calculator, but in that article, it says this is just a portion of your total protein. So, I'm going to be careful because Joe sounds like the kind of patient I talk to that is super stoked that they're not making kidney stones, really proud of themselves cuz they're doing such a great job, but there is a point as a kidney stone former that you take it a little bit overboard.

You suck all the joy out of living, and you, you know, he clearly listed the vegetables he's eating. So, because I'm so in tune with patients because I've done this work for so long, I'm pretty sure he's only eating those vegetables. He said they're plain, so he has that batch of vegetables that are his go-to.

And then he doesn't eat much meat, but he's eating a hell of a lot of yogurt, and that's where he's getting the majority of his protein. And the majority of his protein is like half of what Joe should be getting. And so, I see this very often for kidney stone formers, and forget about kidney stone formers, with senior citizens, a lot of people—younger people tend to be getting way more protein than they need, okay?

But older people, they don't think about protein too much. And what I'm reading on urine collection reports is your protein is too low. And what we worry about in kidney stone, first, senior citizens, is your bone health.

You need protein for your bone health. You need your strength so you can get out of chairs, carry groceries, do daily activities. So, you need muscle strength, you need bone health, you need overall functionality.

Is that the word, Jeff, functionality?

Functionality?

Yeah. Healthy function? Yeah.

You need to function, folks. That's what you need to do. And so, you don't want sarc- sarcopenia.

Sarco- I'm having a—it's Sunday. Sarco- sarcopenia.

Oh, no, yeah, sarcopenia.

Yes, thank you. That's why you're here. And that is a that is a losing your strength, okay?

Muscle wasting. We don't want that, and that's what seniors, a lot of you, a lot of us cuz I'm a senior, we have that. So, I'm I'm very proud of you on how well you've done with the diet, but even without seeing your urine collection, you have taken this too far because, again, at 6'3", 140 is much too light for you.

I would assume, because also you said—I'm not going to assume, you said that you're also eating under 1500 mg of sodium, and you're a big—you're a tall guy that probably needs a lot more weight on his body. I would I would assume that you lost a lot of weight at some point. Maybe you were always thin, I'm not sure, but did you lose a lot of weight once you changed doing the Kidney Stone Diet, taking it as far as you did?

So, number one, you're you're only getting half of your protein needs met. You should be getting, depending upon your weight and stuff—I wrote it down. If you were just starting to get your weight, y- your weight should be, the minimum, 165 pounds, 150 to 200 is where you could be.

140 is much too light. You should be closer to 180 at your height.

And this is looking at BMI specifically, so, typically. So it is a little under underweight, cuz again, like you've done a great job preventing stones, but we just want to be sure that you don't experience the muscle wasting, the things that happen as we age, but

And he said he's tired, and he said he's got, you know,

Yeah, but yeah, trying just to be sure that we're we're getting you sort of across that line to be sure you're getting enough on the way in. But, again, like Jill said, that's not to take away from You've done a phenomenal job! Like, 25 years to be stone-free is so commendable.

But you have room here to grow. So, I think, you know, number one, I would definitely bring more protein into your diet, and we have—you could be getting anywhere between, I would start you at this level because you can't go from 140 pounds and eating 200 g of protein tomorrow. You'll be so full!

So, I would at least start you, right now, what did he say, Jeff? He's at 60 g of protein a day? I think.

Yeah, so it sounds like about the 60 is the all-in total instead of purely animal-based.

Yes, the all total. Yes. So, I would start you at getting 90 g.

That would be the starting base, and to slowly get you up to maybe 120 g. I mean, your wife is eating 150, you could argue, or I could argue that's a little bit too much, I'd have to talk to her, too, but I mean, you definitely need to be having more protein. So, with the with the calculator, if we put your weight at 165, okay, instead of the 140 where you're at, you could have 75 g of meat protein just that.

And then the rest of the protein, the other 30 g or 40 g, you can get from your yogurt or lentils, or there's plenty of ways to get other protein. So, you're grossly undereating protein. It is most likely, and I'm not going to diagnose you, but from the things you told me, brain fog, that could be from the really low sodium you're e- having, probably the really low calories you're eating to maintain 140 pounds at 6'3", and also not eating enough protein, total protein.

So, it's very important that you start expanding some protein. So, in this case, the ladies in your life are absolutely correct, and we usually are, men. Sorry.

Hey, hey, hey! No.

Yeah, no, but they're right. And, you know, they're saying that because they're worried about you. You are not, and I would be panicked about y- muscle wasting for you.

I'd be panicked about the strength. It's great that you're working out and stuff, but dude, your workouts could be so much better if you ate enough protein! You could grow that muscle back, you could have vim and vigor, you could have energy, and my god, I'm I'm 62, and I'm typically a really energetic person, but I'm getting enough protein.

My total My total—yours is 60, I'm 5'2", 120 pounds, I'm getting 90, okay? And 50 of that is meat, and then the 40 is from dairy or plants. Like I said, lentils.

I'm on lentils lately, so good in fiber and protein. But, Joe, yes, the ladies in your life are correct. Jeff, what are we going to do for Joe?

Because I really want to help him.

Yeah, so we do offer the, urine analysis consultations and thankfully, like, you're doing the yearly 24-hour urine collection, which is so beneficial. So, Joe, if you can just go to kidneystonediet.com/support, go to the help desk, right in the menu, send me an email, like, I get the support emails, just tell me it's you, include the phone number, because, like, we have the phone number because you called in, just so we don't have, so we can confirm that it is you, you know, include your phone number, but, we want to set you up with a call with Jill to review your 24-hour urine collection so she can tell you exactly where you're at and where you can be.

Yeah, absolutely free.

Free. Right.

We just want to do that just to like, you sound like a wonderful person, and you've done such a great job, and we just want to make sure that we can help in every way that we can. So yeah, just look at the help desk, kidneystonediet.com, shoot me an email, include your phone number, and we will connect you I'll connect you with Jill and get a free consult on the books.

This way, yeah, I'd love to see his urine collections. Now, we know that I usually don't say you should have this much You I want to talk to him so I can really help him and make sure that, number one, he's not about to, you know, have no muscle and age really quickly because he'll lose all his strength. And also get a better a little bit better quality of life as far as energy, brain fog, and incorporating bring in some different foods, more foods, happier foods so he can enjoy quality, too, and just expand on the excellent job he is doing to include more joy into his life with his diet.

So, I would love to Again, Joe, free. Help you. Send Jeff the go to the help desk like Jeff said, do all the things, include your phone number so I know it's you, cuz we have your phone number cuz you called in, and Jeff will set you up with a free consult with me.

Yeah, so I think that's a great spot to wrap. And if you're out there, and whether you've done a 24-hour urine collection or not, it is so valuable, and the service where Jill reviews it with you is such a beneficial service that so many people have found vast improvements from understanding exactly what their results are.

And again, you can find that and everything else at kidneystonediet.com. So, with that, we'll wrap and we'll see you next week.

Thanks, Joe! I got excited. Thanks, Joe.

I'm super proud of you, and tell the women in your life they were spot on this one.