Feeling stressed? There’s a pill for that. Want to loose weight? There’s a pill for that too. Sadly, many patients I see today have been ingrained to expect pills to solve their problems, especially for weight loss.

I recently had a pleasant, 42-year-old, lady come into my office with complaints of fatigue. Additionally, she wanted to lose weight, and she was feeling a bit anxious. As I began explaining to her the key things she needed to do to boost her energy and loose weight in the process, she stopped me with a sentence all too familiar.

“Look doc, I understand all that, but I just need some Xanax for my anxiety and some Adipex to help me lose weight,” she said.

I just shook my head and contemplated the state of our country’s medical care and the expectations our society now holds about treatments.

The Real Secret

In reality, people do not need pills to fix all their problems – especially not weight loss. People just need to understand nutrition and how their body works.

The solution my patient needed was changing her diet to include an increase in her protein intake, while also increasing her overall amount of physical exercise.

Understanding Amino Acids

You may not know this, but amino acids are vital to your health. Yet they are misunderstood by most people. Amino acids are used by your body for muscle growth, metabolism, and many other processes, including helping as neurotransmitters for the brain. Amino acids can also be used primarily as a source of energy.

Our bodies break amino acids down into essential and non-essential amino acids. The essential amino acids are obtained from the diet and cannot be made from other sources. In studies done by William Cumming Rose it was discovered that nervousness, exhaustion, and dizziness are the main symptoms of essential amino acid deficiency.

People who eat normal healthy diets find it almost impossible to have a true deficit in amino acids. The problem is many people do not eat truly balanced diets. And doctors therefore see many people with the symptoms listed above.

One problem with the symptoms of nervousness, anxiety and exhaustion is they are so common and so vague that many times it is hard to figure out their exact cause. Many doctors dread getting a patient’s chart where the chief complaints are "I'm exhausted all the time" or "I have anxiety".

There are two reasons for this. The first reason we already discussed, most patients want a quick fix in the form of a pill to solve their problem. The second reason is training on the part of doctors. Doctors do not study nutrition in medical school, so doctors seldom counsel patients as to the root cause of their symptoms.

Your Protein Intake

You don’t have to be one of the people looking for the quick fix pill. You now know one big key to unlocking the secret to increased energy and weight loss. That key is protein. What you may not know is how much protein you need a day.

Most books tell you to consume 0.5 grams per pound of body weight. I personally think that is too low. Body builders commonly eat 1.5 to 2 grams per pound of body weight. That number is too high for the average person.

A reasonable protein intake goal for a healthy individual who works out is 1 gram per pound of body weight. This means a 130 pound woman should be eating 130 grams of protein per day. Most women I see at my clinic are consuming less than 0.5 grams per pound of body weight.

Perhaps the lack of protein in our diets is why our society is seeing an increase in patients with symptoms of fatigue and nervousness.

A great way to make sure you get the protein you need is to consume 5 to 6 small meals a day. For a 130 pound person, that amount would be 20-25 grams of protein at each meal, or the equivalent of consuming a four ounce chicken breast, a protein shake, or fresh fish every 3 hours.

Protein’s Hidden Weight Loss Trick

The nice thing about eating that many meals a day full of protein is you don’t have room to eat foods that are not good for you. You stay full. I often tell overweight patients to start eating better by concentrating on their protein intake and the carbs and fat will take care of themselves.

[Ed. Note: Want to know more great health tips from Dr. Tim Reynolds? Check out his new audio cd program, which features a CD dedicated to health tips.]

Author's Bio: 

Dr. Tim Reynolds is the managing parter for HealthCare Express. He is also the president and CEO of Dr. Tim, International, a company he founded in 2009 to allow him to share his passion for Living Every Minute with others. He dedicates countless hours each week to helping other people change their lives through mentoring, life building, giving inspirational talks and writing for his motivational newsletter, Adventures with Dr. Tim.

Dr. Tim was the first member of his family to graduate high school. He joined the military shortly after graduation. Dr Tim was a graduate of the Special Forces Q-course in July of 1982. He served as a Green Beret medic on an A-Team, as the Battalion medic and eventually as a Special Forces Battalion Surgeon for the 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne). He served both enlisted and as an officer for 17 years.

After getting out of the military, Dr. Tim was the first in his family to graduate college with honors. His passion for helping people inspired him to become a medical doctor, and in 1993 he graduated Summa Cum Laude with an MD degree from the University of Utah. He completed his Emergency Medicine residency at Texas A&M Scott and White in 1996 and is board certified in emergency medicine. Dr. Tim is the managing partner for HealthCARE Express, a group of urgent care clinics rapidly expanding across the United States.

Prior to starting HealthCARE Express in 2006, Dr. Tim held numerous positions across the medical field, including: medical director of the Wadley Regional Medical Center Emergency Department and level II trauma center; director, Texas College of Emergency Physicians Board of Directors; president of E-Med Services, LLP and of E-Med Billing Solutions, LLP; associate clinical professor for the Area Health Education Center at the University of Arkansas; founding member of the Greater People’s Clinic of Texarkana Board of Directors.

Dr. Tim speaks fluent Spanish, having lived in Guatemala and traveled throughout Central America.

In addition to his medical experience, Dr. Tim is also an entrepreneur and successful businessman. He is currently the chief executive officer of TL Reynolds Properties, LLP, a real estate investment company; and he is a managing partner of JJET Developments Ltd., a real estate development company.

Dr. Tim has served on numerous other committees and boards throughout both the medical and business communities and is published in various journals and publications. He is sought after as a presenter at many national conferences.

In his leisure time, Dr. Tim enjoys spending time on his Ranch in Atlanta, Texas, where he lives with his beautiful wife, Pam, and their five amazing children. He holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, is a SCUBA rescue diver, and a pilot. He also enjoys body building, golf, and hiking.

Dr. Tim is a world traveler, having visited six of the seven continents. He is a firm believer in living every minute of life and teaching others to do the same. His online website www.livingeveryminute.com allows him to reach thousands of people around the world as they subscribe to his weekly self-help and life improvement adventure newsletters.