One of the latest health trends on TikTok is the 30-30-30 method. It consists of eating 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up, followed by 30 minutes of low-to-moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise.
Proponents of the 30-30-30 method claim that it helps you lose weight consistently and sustainably while maintaining muscle mass. But is this really so? Perhaps yes, although its biggest benefit is that it can help us form healthier habits in our daily lives.
Eat Protein to Maintain Muscle
What happens if we eat 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up?
Proteins are the building blocks of the body. We need to eat protein to ensure our cells have what they need to repair and recover from the wear and tear of everyday life.
The amount of protein we need varies depending on the stress we place on our bodies. If we exercise, the body requires more protein to help muscles repair and recover, usually around 1.2-2g of protein per kg of body weight. It may also be important to eat more protein when trying to lose weight, as research shows that high-protein diets (eating more than 2 grams of protein per kg of body weight) can help maintain muscle while losing weight.
For many people, breakfast is usually the lowest protein meal, often consisting of toast, cereal, baked goods, or other carbohydrates.
By consuming 30g of protein within 30 minutes of waking up, the 30-30-30 method can help us increase our total daily protein intake from the start. However, this alone does not mean that you will automatically reach your daily protein intake goal. The rest of the foods we choose throughout the day are also important.
To lose weight, we need to consume fewer calories than we burn during the day. Eating protein in the morning will not lead to weight loss, but protein is filling. This means that eating them generously at the first meal can help us feel fuller and consume fewer calories throughout the day.
But the key word is “may”. Some people may find protein unsatisfying, may make them feel very hungry, or may find themselves snacking during the day for no reason.
Half an hour of cardio
Let’s now look at the training component of the 30-30-30 method. We need to think about three parts of the workout: the timing (first thing in the morning), the sequential nature of the workout, and the 30-minute duration.
Some studies have shown that morning exercise can provide positive health benefits, such as improved metabolic health, which may reduce the risk of certain diseases such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. However, there have been as many or more studies that have shown that this is not the case and that the amount of time you exercise is not important for your health or fitness.
Therefore, we cannot say that morning exercises are better. The best time of day to exercise is probably the time that is most comfortable and enjoyable for you. This will make it more likely that exercise will become a habit, which is key to consistency and getting any benefits from exercise.
The 30-30-30 method also states that the first exercise should be “steady”. These are continuous exercises performed at low to moderate intensity, basically anything that increases your heart rate, such as brisk walking or jogging.
There has been a lot of debate about which exercises are best for health and weight loss. World Health Organization guidelines recommend incorporating both cardiovascular and strength training for good health.
But if we look specifically at cardiovascular exercise, there is little evidence that steady-state exercise is any more beneficial for health or weight loss than other types of exercise. A 2015 study compared steady-state cardio with high-intensity interval training. Both had similar effects on the fitness levels of sedentary young people.
So, no matter how and what time of day you exercise, the best type of exercise for you is one that you can stick to.
Finally, the 30-30-30 method involves 30 minutes of exercise. While this may just be because the name is catchy, there may be something practical to it.
It’s short enough that it can be done even on a busy day without being too tiring. This is also enough time to sweat, burn calories and improve your cardiovascular health. But again, if we have less than 30 minutes or want to do more than 30 minutes, this can also be effective.
In any case, it is worth noting that increasing the amount of exercise will not necessarily help us lose more weight. Although exercise requires energy (so you burn calories), this effect does not increase linearly with the amount of exercise you do per day.
This occurs because the body compensates for excess energy expended during exercise by reducing the amount of energy used to perform other body functions. This effect seems to be more pronounced when we diet.
But even if longer workouts don’t result in a proportionate increase in calories burned, exercise still has many other benefits that can be considered more valuable to health than simple weight loss. For example, it improves cardiovascular health and respiratory function and may even be beneficial for cognitive function.
The 30-30-30 method encourages the development of habits that together can promote health and weight loss. Focusing on these elements in the morning can make it easier to develop other healthy habits for the rest of the day, but it is by no means a perfect formula for losing weight.