How I Keep Muscle at 56: Protein, Strength Training & Hormones | Gabby Reece

Gabby Reece (0:00)

I get asked all the time, I'm 56, how do I keep muscle? Well, I gotta tell you, this has been one of the things, especially by the thighs. What's going on there? That's what I wanna know. But I've managed to maintain a decent amount of muscle. I'm at about 15% body fat, which is pretty good. This is how I do it. It is not rocket science. First, let's start with where you're at. If you haven't gotten your blood work done, the only reason I say that is because if your hormones are way off, you're going to feel like you're swimming upstream, and I don't want that for you because I'm sure you're already navigating enough. The other thing is this world is very, very loud. As much as it's complicated, it is not rocket science. First, find out what's going on with your hormones. So for me personally, I started a little less than a year ago. I actually started with Joy and Bloke's, getting my blood work done, and I did start hormone replacement therapy.

So what does that look like? For me, I have an estrogial patch. I take progesterone at night to help me with sleep.

And I do take a shot of testosterone about every nine or 10 days. My testosterone is pretty good. I don't overdo it. But let's talk about the basics. So if you've gotten your hormones checked and you're just sort of trying, I call it melting. I'm trying not to melt. It starts with your food. And that's the problem, right? I weigh somewhere between 172 to about 177 right now. Once I got my hormones worked out, I started taking a natural support for my thyroid. Very important, I think, for most people, even the fact that we're just sitting in front of these blue lights all the time, I think it's very hard on our thyroid. So that'd be another thing that I would look into is making sure that my thyroid is correct. Because once I got that checked out, I lost like eight pounds instantly.

They were fine, but my thyroid was having a hard time. So that's where I will start. So what does that mean in protein? Everyone will say, well, one gram per ideal body weight. Well, it's not realistic for me to eat 175 grams of protein each day. I'm gonna tell you straight out, it is not. However, I do lead my meals around protein. Why is that? Oftentimes, I learned this from Dr. Gabrielle Lyon and Stacey Sims. A lot of times, especially women, we'll eat, we'll get full, and then we won't get enough protein. I love the idea of fiber first, but let's just say for argument's sake, if we're talking about muscle, lead with the protein. Eat with the protein before you get full. I order my meats, I have high quality meats. If you're a vegetarian, you can do it. Lentils, beans, tofu, tempeh, fish, eggs, yogurts. One of my favorite brands is called Painter Sisters. You can find it at Whole Foods. It's crazy, and three quarters of a cup, it's like about 20 grams of protein. It's delicious, I'll put a little honey in it. It's a way to get it done. And of course, red meat and other forms of animal protein. So there's protein everywhere. And I used to think you could only absorb 30 to 35 grams per sitting. That's not true. I've also learned from Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, you absorb what you eat. So if you can eat it, get it in, but you also have to eat enough. That's the problem. I think sometimes as we get older, we think, oh, I'm going to control my consumption, and that's going to get me to where I want to go. The fact is, we have to eat and eat enough. So I lead with protein. So a quick example of a day that I eat. I do try to have variety. They talk about all the colors. This is really essential. Don't forget, you can use spices that count as colors. So straight up in the morning, I drink, I have this Yeti giant jug right here. I fill it with either hydration or lemon, and I drink it first thing before I have my coffee. Now, my coffee is supercharged. Yes, I do use Laird Superfood. However, the morning I drink one coffee a day, this is it, but it is no joke. So I'll put two scoops of whey protein. I use chocolate, because I love it. Then I have four shots of espresso. I put a dollop of coconut oil, a tiny bit of ghee, a tiny bit of red palm oil. It's a great source of vitamin K. And then I use the Laird Superfood creamers. So I'll either use Mocha and the unsweetened, and it has adaptogens and things like that. I mix it with an emulsifier, and it is literally like a meal. But I've already hit about 20 grams of protein before I train. What I've learned from Dr. Stacy Sims is if we get that protein in before, we burn about 160 extra calories during our training. Pretty cool. Something I was super negligent on until recently was protein right after training. I always was like, I'll get to it because I wasn't hungry. So now what I'll do is I will either just have a bowl of yogurt, I mentioned earlier, the Painter Sisters, I put some fruit in there. So I know I get another 20 grams right away. It's usually by like 930 AM, and it's too early for lunch. I'm not big on smoothies and things like that anymore, but if you need it, great, just take it, maybe you have your powder already in your shaker. You can add water, you could add, if there's a viable source of plant milk. A lot of them are weird, I don't know. I avoid oat milk pretty much altogether. So that's how my morning starts. Then at lunch, again, it's not complicated. I lead with protein. So what kind of protein do I feel like it? I'm personally a red meat girl. Chicken can sketch me out a little bit, but let's say I'll take two patties, I will cook them up, I'll take two eggs, fry them, put them on top, and then maybe just have like a salad with it on the side, something like that. I get the healthy fat from the animal protein. If I'm feeling frisky, I can put avocado on top of that. So literally you could take a patty, I take two, and you could put a fried egg on top. The whole thing to cook takes about seven minutes.