Nutrition for weight loss and muscle gain is often presented as a puzzle requiring military levels of planning, a fridge full of meal-prep containers and the apparent willingness to eat cold chicken and rice in increasingly inappropriate locations.
But according to Dr Mike Israetel, one simple habit could solve '90% of all nutrition problems': make sure you always have access to protein.
Israetel, an exercise scientist, competitive bodybuilder and one of the most recognisable voices in evidence-based fitness, shared the advice during a recent episode of the Men’s Health: Built for Life podcast.
His argument isn't that protein bars and shakes represent the pinnacle of human nutrition. Nor is he suggesting you abandon fruit, vegetables and freshly cooked meals in favour of powdered food. It's that diets rarely fall apart under perfect conditions. They fall apart at work, while travelling, when visiting family or during the long gap between breakfast and dinner when you're away from home.
In other words, anyone can be a monk in a monastery. The real test of your diet is whether it survives contact with your actual life.
The Best Diet Is the One You Can Stick To
Israetel explained that when he visits his sister and brother-in-law, he can't guarantee when the family will eat or whether the meal will contain a meaningful source of protein. His solution isn't to demand an itinerary and nutritional breakdown in advance. He simply keeps protein bars in the car.
'If it's been four hours, and I haven't eaten, I just walk out to the car, bring back a few protein bars, hang out with the family and eat my bars,' he said. 'Problem solved.'
The same principle applies at work. Most offices aren't short on readily available carbohydrates and fats. Between granola bars, pastries, crisps, sandwiches and whatever has mysteriously appeared in the communal kitchen, energy is rarely difficult to find.
Protein, however, can be a different story.
'Just keep a five-pound tub of whey protein and two shakers [in the office],' Israetel advised. Should lunch arrive with grilled chicken, kebabs or another high-protein option, you're sorted. Should the delivery consist largely of bread, rice and snack foods, add a couple of scoops of whey, get in the carbs you need and move on with your day.
It may not look as virtuous as chicken, broccoli and white rice arranged neatly inside a glass container, but that doesn't mean it's nutritionally useless.
'You're within 95% of exactly as good nutrition with a whey protein shake and some bars as you are with white rice, broccoli and chicken breast,' said Israetel.
The operative word here isn't optimal. It's available.
An imperfect meal you can actually eat will almost always serve you better than the flawless meal currently sitting at home while you attempt to survive on coffee and the biscuit you found beside the kettle.
Always Have Protein Within Reach
Israetel applies the same logic when flying. Airline snack baskets are often filled with nuts, granola bars, crisps and biscuits, he said, but rarely contain a substantial source of protein. So rather than hoping one appears at 35,000 feet, he travels with protein-rich snacks or ready-made protein products.
'Be prepared to have protein on you,' he said. '[It] solves like 90% of all nutrition problems.'
For those of us in the UK, this doesn't necessarily mean carrying a suitcase full of supplements. Israetel pointed to the abundance of ready-to-eat options available in supermarkets such as M&S, Sainsbury's and Tesco – from protein shakes and bars to cooked meats, seafood and other high-protein snacks. We'd add that portable fruit and vegetables are just as easy to find.
The skill is learning to walk into almost any shop, café or service station and quickly identify the protein source. Once you've got that sorted, carbohydrates and fats are generally not far behind.
That may mean keeping whey at your desk, leaving a protein bar in your bag or choosing the chicken option when you're eating on the move. None of these decisions is particularly exciting. They won't revolutionise your metabolism or lend themselves to a breathless social media montage.
They will, however, stop a disrupted schedule from becoming a disrupted diet.
Don't Let Convenience Replace Good Nutrition
Because the best nutrition strategy isn't simply the one that works when you have two uninterrupted hours on Sunday to prep your meals. It's the one that still works when the meeting overruns, the flight is delayed and nobody at the family gathering seems to know when dinner is happening.
Elsewhere in the episode, Israetel was clear that emergency protein should supplement a solid diet – not become the entirety of it. His basic template still centres on several evenly spaced, protein-rich meals, with 'mostly healthy foods', whole grains, healthy fats, fruit and vegetables forming the bulk of what you eat.
'If you're getting multiple high-protein meals per day and getting enough protein, you get enough calories [and] most of your food is healthy,' he said, 'there's just none left' to dramatically optimise.
In other words, a protein shake and a bar may be an excellent contingency plan, but they're not an excuse to act as though fibre, micronutrients and food variety have suddenly become optional.
Keep protein close, make the best choice available and carry on. Problem solved.
Dr Mike's new book, The Aesthetic Revolution, is out now – a science-backed guide to building a leaner, more muscular body and embracing the fact that there's nothing wrong with wanting to look your best.
With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.
