6/22/26 - Muscle Matters: Why Whey?

[00:00:22][music] >> Take the ride on the wild side.

[00:00:26]>> Meet Craig Blanchette. He's not exactly shy.

[00:00:30]He's hardly low profile.

[00:00:32]>> They heard earrings and wheelchair, boom, that's me.

[00:00:35]>> And he certainly isn't modest.

[00:00:37]>> I want to go as fast as I can go. And if the other guys want to go with me, that's fine. But if they don't, then they're racing for second.

[00:00:43]>> This is the story of a world-class athlete who knows nothing about limitations.

[00:00:50]>> Currently, I own the world records for the mile, the 10K, 12K, and 15K.

[00:00:55]>> It's about a guy who won this bronze medal at the '88 Olympics.

[00:00:59]>> You really can be anything you want to be.

[00:01:01]>> Craig Blanchette was born with a zest for life and a desire to get the most out of it.

[00:01:11]>> Some people, if they want to be the best, they can be the best. They just have to work for it.

[00:01:15]>> Craig Blanchette was born without legs.

[00:01:18][music] >> He is so gifted that he is a pain sometimes uh cuz he can really [music] sort of break and bend some of the rules that most of us have to live by in order to perform at our maximum [music] potential.

[00:01:32]>> I feel that the person at the top of the sport needs to speak up for the sport and make the sport grow. It's It's their job. It's the responsibility they take take on when they become that person.

[00:01:41]>> Blanchette closes the door on Wiggins winning his eighth world title.

[00:01:46]>> [cheering] >> I've been working out for quite a few years now.

[00:01:56]I found it's easier to stay in shape when I do a lot of different things.

[00:02:04]That way I never get bored.

[00:02:09]So I never quit.

[00:02:19]ALL RIGHT, EVERYBODY. HEY, welcome to tonight's Let's Talk.

[00:02:24]Our topic tonight is called Muscle Matters and why whey protein is really the gold standard of building muscle. And so we're going to go into that. We're going to talk all about that. My name is Craig Blanchette and I am an independent certified Optavia coach. I've been coaching and being around this whole idea of metabolic wellness for little more than 16 years. So it's been a wild ride and each each year you learn a few more things and you keep growing and you you adapt as you as you get older. So tonight I'm going to start off. I've got a little bit of a video here that kind of gives an overview of what we're going to be talking to about tonight and then I'm going to break it down for you with a little slideshow. So without further ado, here we go.

[00:03:18]>> Most people start a diet with a clear set of objectives. Lean out, improve their reflection in the mirror, and increase their daily energy. Naturally, they turn to the scale to measure that progress. But the scale is a blunt instrument. It tracks total mass, which effectively hides the biological changes occurring within your tissues as you eat less.

[00:03:40]In strict caloric restriction, this chart of 10 lb of weight loss splits to reveal up to 5 lb is lost lean muscle mass. Because muscle is metabolically expensive, losing it drops your basal metabolic rate, reducing the total energy you burn at rest. Reducing your body weight at the expense of your muscle tissue leaves you with a smaller frame, but one that is metabolically weaker and less resilient than when you started. During a calorie deficit, your body follows one of two physiological directions. In the first scenario, the body meets its energy demands by breaking down its own muscle fibers.

[00:04:16]This results in the skinny and weak outcome: persistent fatigue, reduced physical strength, and a softer body composition.

[00:04:25]The alternative is a lean and strong composition. Here, the body preserves its structural muscle, drawing the majority of its energy from stored body fat. This preservation is driven by a biological process called muscle protein synthesis, or MPS.

[00:04:41]MPS functions as a continuous repair mechanism that maintains and builds lean tissue. Improving your body composition requires keeping this repair mechanism active enough to protect your metabolic engine while you lose fat. It is often assumed that regular resistance training or cardio is sufficient to keep your muscles strong while you cut calories.

[00:05:02]However, exercise is a stimulus that actually causes localized inflammation and breaks down muscle tissue during the activity itself. When an exercise in body is in a calorie deficit, it faces a paradox. It needs to repair the damage from the workout, but it lacks the internal energy to do so. Without the right building blocks, the body will harvest amino acids from existing muscle to fuel other processes. Reversing this breakdown requires muscle protein synthesis, but that process cannot initiate without specific nutritional inputs from your diet. Exercise provides the signal for growth, but it does not provide the materials. Without the correct nutrients, your muscle mass will continue to decline regardless of your training intensity.

[00:05:44]Biological repair doesn't happen based on your total daily protein intake alone. It operates on specific nutritional thresholds. To initiate protein synthesis, a single meal generally needs to contain between 20 and 40 g of high-quality protein. The key to crossing this threshold is a specific amino acid called leucine, which acts as the primary chemical trigger for muscle building.

[00:06:07]Leucine initiates the mTOR pathway to start building.

[00:06:11]The text uses a simple analogy. Leucine turns on the switch, and other essential amino acids power the light.

[00:06:19]Hitting a minimum of 2.5 g of leucine triggers this repair process.

[00:06:24]Consuming small amounts of protein throughout the day, like 5 g at a time, never reaches the concentration needed to start synthesis.

[00:06:32]You need to hit the full threshold three to four times daily to keep your muscles in a state of repair.

[00:06:38]This demonstrates that meal composition is just as important as calorie counting.

[00:06:43]If you don't hit the leucine threshold, your body stays in maintenance mode rather than building new tissue. The challenge is hitting that 20 to 40 g protein target consistently while keeping your total calories low enough to continue losing fat. While whole foods, like chicken or beef, are complete proteins, they take hours to digest and often come with additional calories from fats.

[00:07:06]This is where whey protein isolate becomes a strategic tool. It is specifically processed to deliver high protein concentration with minimal caloric This matrix compares whole foods to whey across digestion speed, leucine content, and caloric cost. Whey is the fastest digesting option, delivering a concentrated dose of leucine to your muscles within hours of consumption.

[00:07:30]The tradeoff involves the cost of the supplement versus whole food. However, whey ensures you cross the synthesis threshold without the extra carbohydrates or fats that might slow your weight loss progress.

[00:07:42]This efficiency is why whey is considered a standard for athletes. It bridges the gap between the need for strict calorie restriction and the muscle's physiological requirement for rapid amino acid delivery. Looking past daily nutrition, there is a significant long-term return on the effort required to maintain muscle mass.

[00:08:01]Muscle mass is a direct indicator of your metabolic capacity. It dictates how well your body processes glucose and how efficiently it utilizes energy.

[00:08:10]This quadrant chart maps the outcomes.

[00:08:12]Dieters ignoring protein thresholds end up bottom left, losing both weight and metabolic health. Those optimizing muscle land top right. Here, individuals gain higher insulin sensitivity, better immune reserves, and greater injury recovery as they age. The use of whey and specific leucine targets is most beneficial for active adults in a calorie deficit and older individuals looking to prevent the natural decline of their muscle mass.

[00:08:38]This protocol is less effective for those unwilling to track their protein intake. And anyone with dairy sensitivities should substitute whey for an essential amino acid supplement instead.

[00:08:48]Success requires choosing the deliberate management of protein thresholds over the simpler, but more destructive, path of rapid scale weight loss.

[00:08:58]The objective is a body that doesn't just occupy less space, but one that operates with explosive power and physical vitality.

[00:09:06]Look past the scale. Use high-quality protein to trigger the synthesis your body needs to stay lean and strong for life.

[00:09:14]>> Awesome. So, hopefully that was exciting for you. I know it I learned a bunch uh watching that and creating that actually. And so, now we're going to get into why muscle matters, the science of being lean and strong and really lean, strong, and and have strength for life.

[00:09:33]So, we got two paths here, right? Two paths of aging from the age 30 and on, this is where this really makes a difference. So, one path where you lose muscle loss begins to be a factor at 30 and above. So, without action, you can lose 30 to 50% of your muscle mass between the ages of 40 and 80. So, it's it's really an issue. With some of the different weight loss techniques for people chronically trying to lose weight, they have a problem with that because they don't just target fat loss.

[00:10:13]They're looking at scale weight loss.

[00:10:16]And when the scale goes down, the first question you should ask yourself is why did it go down? Well, cuz you lost weight. What kind of weight did you lose? Because when when you're in your older years, if you're 40 and above, you don't got a lot of time to rebuild back any muscle that you lose from a crazy weight loss plan, right?

[00:10:44]So, the other option is to be lean and strong, right? And when you're lean and strong, specifically strong, the beauty of being strong is that you're independent.

[00:10:57]As soon as you become weak, you have to start relying on different types of adaptive devices, uh canes, walkers, things like that, or other people.

[00:11:08]Sometimes they have those chairs, right, that you you push and it kind of helps you to stand up. It's because your legs have become weaker, not just because you're old, but because you haven't managed your your muscle. You haven't continued to grow muscle, right? So, the secret to quality weight loss, we get your standard dieting, losing fat and muscle, so you get smaller, but your metabolism is weakened, right? And then you have quality weight loss. So, that's losing fat while protecting muscle.

[00:11:42]This is the gold standard. This is what you want. The result is a lean, powerful engine that burns fat efficiently.

[00:11:51]Really, really really, really pay attention to this.

[00:11:55]It's not just the weight you're losing, it's the right kind of weight that you're losing.

[00:12:00]Right? So, here's the internal muscle factory, right? This is the cool thing.

[00:12:05]Um muscles are constantly being broken down.

[00:12:09]Right? So, it's just the wear and tear of use. And so, um uh that's actually um um normal for everybody. Your muscles are constantly breaking down, and you want to do something called muscle protein synthesis, which is building up your muscles, right? And so, you want to make sure that you're um equipping your body for a environment where it can actively build muscle.

[00:12:40]And so, that's what we're talking about a lot tonight. So, one of the key things to clicking on the MPS is something called leucine. If you think of If you think of like you're at a job site where you're um laying a bunch of bricks, you're building a brick wall, right? So, all the bricks are the amino acids, but one of those amino acids is the boss, if you will, the magic key in this case.

[00:13:05]And the magic key is called leucine. So, leucine has to be in the proper amounts to click the switch on, and essentially it's the foreman saying, "Hey, workers, get to work. Start building the wall."

[00:13:17]If you don't have leucine to click on, the wall doesn't get built, right? And so, um that is a really key piece, and then you have to have the right ratio of leucine.

[00:13:28]It's It's between three and four uh uh grams. So, the protein threshold trap. So, this is what we're talking about. It's 2.5 g of leucine um is the minimum, and you have different things like a small snack. Uh maybe it even's a small snack with with maybe you're having some jerky, but it's not enough leucine to trigger muscle protein synthesis. So, it's just protein, and then maybe low-quality protein. A lot of um vegetarian proteins we would consider low-quality protein because they're not complete proteins, right? So, they have to mix and match, but they just don't have enough of the amino acids in them to trigger MPS. So, if you are a vegan or well, mainly a vegan, the um uh you can utilize um the essential amino acids that Optavia uh provides, and those are going to be an excellent source to help your body maintain and repair itself. And then uh of course, over on the far right, you've got MPS activated, right? That's when the leucine levels are high, 2.5 g of leucine. That's the magic number. And what I do when I'm taking my leucine or my amino acids or whey, is I drink them fairly quickly. Within 5 minutes, I drank it all because I want there to get that concentration to trigger that MPS activation.

[00:15:00]So, let me talk a little bit about whey protein. Why is whey the gold standard, right? And there's three main reasons.

[00:15:10]First of all, it's the fastest digesting. So, of a complete protein, it's the fastest digesting, way faster than eating like chicken or fish or any type of whole food meat type of a thing.

[00:15:24]And it's the ultimate trigger. So, packed by packed with exactly the right amount of leucine, roughly 10% by volume, is uh to easily hit your threshold. So, it's it's got all of it magically. It's just there. And it is the complete package. So, it it contains all of the um nine essential amino acids. Essential means your body has to get it outside.

[00:15:51]So, non-essential, your body can make it. Essential, your body can't make it.

[00:15:56]You've got to acquire it from outside.

[00:15:59]So, it's fastest digesting, it's the ultimate trigger, and it's the complete package. It's just it is the gold standard.

[00:16:07]So, here's uh a couple ultimate upgrades for you, right? So, Optavia, they their active uh line, which has uh amino acids, essential amino acids, and it also has um um uh whey protein. And those two particular um uh products are first in class. They really are the best case scenario. Um I've stacked the Optavia EAAs up against all the top um brands, and it it passed with flying colors. It is the best in breed, best in class. And Optavia's um whey protein is also um super clean, no fillers, um and it triggers that MPS. So, fantastic stuff here, and excellent. What I do with the whey protein is I'll have the whey protein first first fueling of the day, because it takes me out of that when I've been fasting while I sleep, and that first meal, it raises my blood sugar very mildly, and it gets that nice MPS first thing in the morning. And then I'll have the active uh the essential amino acids. Like if I'm working out, I'll have it right after my workout. So, excellent stuff there.

[00:17:23]So, what we want to do is really talking to you about making every move count.

[00:17:26]So, exercise primes the muscle.

[00:17:30]Premium protein fuels the repair. So, when you use those together, your small movements add up to profound strength and vitality as you age. Um it's such a great thing. One of the things, too, when you think about it, is um this is something to do with when you're doing strength training, is you don't have to have a very heavy weight if you go slow with the weight. So, for example, you can do a squat. And when you're doing a squat, you want to do a slow-motion squat, right? So, say it's 15 seconds to go down, turn, 15 seconds go up. Do not stop at the bottom or the top or rest at any point. And do those, try to get um your do your squats, and make sure that you can go at least 90 seconds under load. You want to take the muscle to failure. So, essentially, failure is when you're going up for the last rep, you literally cannot make it up.

[00:18:29]That is going to trigger that muscle to grow, and then you're going to pound it with either the essential amino acids or the whey protein right after the workout. And that is going to go in there, and it's going to make use of that work that you just uh did with your strength training. And you can do two exercises that I recommend for my clients is squats and push-ups, slow motion.

[00:18:52]And then you can work up to a third one, which is a pull-up or an arm hang. And those three muscles are really simple.

[00:18:59]They take you less than 15 minutes.

[00:19:01]Um and you only need to do them twice a week. Pretty awesome.

[00:19:07]All right, so here is your blueprint for a strong life. One, move your body. So, you're going to add resistance to your daily routine to prime your muscles.

[00:19:16]We'll talk about that a little bit more as well. Some of my clients will they'll start with walking. Walking is fantastic. Walking is not strength training, though. Walking is movement.

[00:19:26]So, when you're on your walk, if you're walking for 30 minutes, every 5 minutes stop and do five slow-motion squats.

[00:19:34]And then keep walking. Do another five slow-motion squats. Fantastic kind of work that you can do, right?

[00:19:42]Then you want to hit the threshold.

[00:19:43]Stops snacking on weak proteins. Aim for the leucine trigger in your meals, right? So, some of these, you know, beef jerky and you know, have these all these wonderful protein things and they're great for overall protein, but you have to get that certain amount of leucine to trigger muscle protein synthesis, right?

[00:20:05]And then we recommend I recommend and I do take my own advice. I feel with the gold standard, right? Whey protein, Optavia's whey protein, and Optavia's EAAs to guarantee your muscle factory stays powered up.

[00:20:19]All right. So, next week on June 28th, we have our next uh let's talk and this is one of our favorites.

[00:20:30]These are pretty popular and pretty exciting. It's our Health Pros Live where we do questions and answers about everything metabolic health. And so, it has been my pleasure to talk to you about whey protein and it's been my pleasure to talk to you about muscle protein synthesis and the essential amino acids. And so, I hope you guys are thinking about this as you're going through your life when you're thinking about I don't want to just be lighter.

[00:20:59]I want to be leaner.

[00:21:02]And I want to be strong, right? So, you want to be light and lean or lean and strong. You don't want to be frail.

[00:21:13]Right? Frail and and weak, all that kind of stuff. And so, be careful at what you're doing when you're losing weight.

[00:21:21]Um be very careful if you're using any medically uh medical weight loss things.

[00:21:26]Now, to be very frank with you, if you follow the standard uh fueling packages or one of the protocols from Optavia, um you actually can outpace as far as the kind of weight that you're losing and the amount of weight you're losing. Um and there's no side effects to a drug that you never took. So, um just think about that as you're thinking about the kind of quality of weight loss that you're doing. And um let's get light, and let's get lean, and let's stay strong. All right, you guys.

[00:21:59]We'll see you. Good night, everyone.

[00:22:02]>> [music] [music]