Protein is what makes you look firm and toned

Literally every tissue in your body that gives you shape and makes you look firm and young is made of protein. Your skin, muscles, fascia, ligaments and even your bones are made of proteins such as collagen and elastin. Collagen provides firmness, whilst elastin provides elasticity. A high protein level in those tissues can only make you toned and fit, whilst on the other hand, excessive fat and water gives you that loose, flabby, "cellulite-y" look (lack of firmness is one of the main facets of cellulite).

These skin, muscle, bone and connective tissue proteins (let's collectively call them "beauty proteins") degrade with time and need to be broken down and replaced with newly synthesized proteins by cells cells such as myocytes (muscle cells), fibroblasts (connective tissue cells, including skin cells) and osteoblasts (bone cells).

Beauty proteins can be degraded due to a variety of reasons. Some factors are listed below:

• Simple wear and tear (ageing)
• High sugar/excessive carbohydrate intake (sugar is lethal for body proteins as it degrades them via a process called glycation)
• Immune cells action (as when you suffer from chronic, low grade inflammation, for example)
• Fat cell action. Fat cells do break down the collagen structures around them in order to grow and accommodate more fat. This is a major cause of cellulite and the flabbiness that is associated with it.

Avoiding protein is the worse thing you can do for your skin and overall firmness

To replace the "beauty proteins" with newly synthesized ones and maintain your skin firmness, your cells need aminoacids and peptides that can only be derived from dietary protein. This means eating fish, chicken, lean red meat (including lean beef, lean pork, lean lamb and game), eggs, low fat cheese (such as cottage and ricotta cheese), low fat milk and pulses (beans, lentils, peas, fermented soya products etc.).

Most women today don't realise how important protein is for their physical appearance and overall health, and unwittingly or purposely follow a low protein diet, with disastrous consequences. Excessive consumption of red meat with high fat content may be bad for you, but having no meat and animal food at all is equally bad. With this negative attitude towards red meat among the female population it is no wonder that most women today are borderline or actually anaemic. Not to mention cellulite and loose skin, of course...

I am amazed of how little protein my clients and female friends eat. Quite often the amount is negligible, so it is no wonder why cellulite and loose skin is such a big issue today. The truth is that protein has been given plenty of bad press in the last couple of decades. Many nutritionists advise that you don't need a lot of protein because an excess "will tire your liver and kidneys" and as a result most women avoid protein altogether, in favour of carbohydrates that "give you energy". What women don't realise though, is that unless you utilise those carbs with physical activity they will inevitably become fat, adding inches to your thigh circumference and millimeters to the depth of your cellulite "bumps". Hence the popular adage about sweets and carbs: "once in the lips forever in the hips". This negative effect is in addition to skin protein degradation due to glycation and fat cell expansion, described above. The truth is that most women will not come anywhere close to tiring their kidneys and liver due to eating fish, chicken or low fat red meat, and the extra iron cleaved from the latter will be greatly appreciated by their bodies.

The only problem with red meat is saturated fat, otherwise red meat is absolutely fine if it is low fat. And the fact is that there are cuts of bef, lamb and pork that contain as little as 3-4% fat, i.e. the same as game. And if you do not like red meat, there are always poultry, fish, seafood and eggs to help you boost your protein intake levels. This is not to say that eating a vegetarian diet will not necessarily provide you with enough protein - it's just that it is so much more difficult to achieve your daily protein quota, unless you eat a loooot of pulses, eggs and low fat cheese. Unfortunately a small piece of tofu will not cut it... Just to mention here that unfermented soya (as in as soya milk, tofu and soya textured protein) is not the healthy food it is purported to be, partly due to it's negative effect on thyroid function and partly due to it's high phytate content. In contrast, fermented soya, as in miso, tempeh, soya sauce and natto are indeed very good for your women's health.

Protein can also help you keep calorie consumption down - especially when combined with loads of vegetables

Protein introduces a feeling of satiety, so it helps you keep off the naughty fatty, sugary, carb-y foods that end up being deposited on your bum. Sugary foods, in contrast, are the most addictive foods and lead to constant cravings and overeating.

The same applies to starches, but to a lesser extent. The low glycaemic index (GI) carbs (pasta, brown rice, fruits) do not induce cravings as potently, whilst the high GI carbohydrates are the worst in that respect (all types of bread, white rice, pastry etc.).

Fats and oils can also be filling but are also very calorific, so they are not a solution to the hunger problem. The best solution to this problem is vegetables combined with protein, e.g. salmon and loads of broccoli, lean steak with loads of salad, prawns with loads of stir-fried vegetables etc. You get the drift...

How much protein do I need?

As a rule of a thumb, most women need about 40-60g of pure protein per day. This is equivalent to 4-5 eggs, a medium lean beef steak (~200g), a large salmon steak (200-300g), 500-600g of boiled lentils or boiled beans (that's a looot of beans and lentils, as mentioned above), or a combination of those or similar foods during any one day.

Starvation/crash diets are by definition low protein diets and lead to severe loss of skin protein

When you crash diet and deny your body of proteins you don't just lose fat, you lose protein as well. This is because your body utilises the "beauty proteins" in order to provide your vital organs essential proteins for survival and synthesize enzymes for basic bodily functions and digestion.

When you go back onto the "pigging out" phase after the crash diet all the weight you put on is fat, thereby replacing firmness with fat. This will inevitably happen every time you follow a crash diet, unless you do resistance exercise during the "refeeding" phase to regain the lost muscle; and power plate or high impact sports to regain the lost bone mass; and vigorous anti-cellulite/skin firming massages to stimulate the rebuilding of the lost skin proteins. By the way, yoga, pilates, lymphatic massages and other lightweight approaches won't help you replace the lost protein, as they offer minimal protein synthesis stimulation. Firming/anti-cellulite creams and a high intake of antioxidant and flavanols, typically found in vegetables, berry fruits, herbs and cocoa, can also aid in protein synthesis, as activities such as running and swimming do.

The moral of the story is...

...that if you want to look firm and keep cellulite at bay you'd better exercise vigorously and regularly, avoid crash dieting, eat enough protein, vegetables, berries, herbs and spices and avoid sugar, excessive carbs, saturated fat, trans fats and anything fried. In addition, regularly having anti-cellulite treatments and applying a good cellulite cream will also help fill the gaps in your lifestyle and keep your skin toned and smooth.