If your parents or grandparents come to mind as you read this, you're on the right track. One of the most significant factors influencing how we live the second half of our lives is not something exotic. It's strength. The ability to get up from a chair unassisted, to carry groceries from the car, to walk up a steep street without stopping. All of this depends on muscle, and muscles, with age, require a little more attention. The good news is that you have a lot to say about it.
Sarcopenia is normal, and you can do a lot about it
The technical term is sarcopenia: the loss of muscle mass and strength that comes with age. It's important to defuse the drama right from the start. It's a normal, gradual process that happens to all of us and tends to accelerate from around age 60. It's not a disease or a personal failure. It's biology.
What I want you to remember is the other half of the sentence. Just because it's normal doesn't mean it's inevitable at the rate we think. You have two real levers in your hand, both accessible to any older person: eating enough protein and moving. These are not tricks. They are sustained habits, and they work.
How much protein, really
The general recommendation for the adult population is about 0.8 g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. But when experts specifically looked at older adults, they found that this figure falls short.
Two reference groups made this clear. The PROT-AGE study group (Bauer et al., Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 2013) and a group of European experts from ESPEN (Deutz et al., Clinical Nutrition, 2014) recommend that healthy older adults aim for about 1.0 to 1.2 g of protein per kilogram per day. And during illness or recovery, a little more, around 1.2 to 1.5 g per kilogram. In plain terms: with age, you shouldn't eat less protein, but a little more.
The trick isn't the total, it's how you distribute it
There's a second game-changing factor: with age, muscles respond less effectively to the same amount of protein. It's as if the signal is weaker.
The practical consequence is simple. Concentrating all your daily protein in a single meal isn't very effective. It works much better to spread it out, with a worthwhile amount at each meal. As a general guide, not an exact recipe, we're talking about 25 to 30 g of quality protein per meal.
And what does that mean at the table, with real food? Eggs or an omelette for breakfast. Fish or legumes for lunch. Some fresh cheese or mató, a yogurt, a handful of nuts. Good bread with tomato and ham. No strange products are needed. What's needed is protein distributed throughout the day, so the body can make the most of it.
Protein alone is not enough
If you take away only one sentence from this entire article, let it be this: the strongest lever for preserving muscle with age is combining enough protein with regular movement. And, within movement, especially some form of strength training.
Strength doesn't mean going to the gym or lifting weights if that's not for you. It means working your muscles. Getting up from a chair several times in a row. Walking up a steep street. Carrying groceries. Walking every day. This is the part people forget: you can eat all the protein in the world, but if your muscles aren't working, your body doesn't have enough reason to maintain them. The two go together. This is the scientific consensus, and it's the part that costs the least money and makes the most difference.
When appetite decreases: the shake as a tool, not magic
There's a very real problem with age that no one talks much about. Appetite decreases. Many older adults simply eat less, and when you eat less, reaching the right amount of protein becomes an uphill battle. A whole plate can seem daunting or too much.
This is where a protein shake can help, and I want to be honest about what it is and isn't. It's not magic and it doesn't replace eating well. It's a convenience tool: an easy way to add protein when a full meal is too much. A glass with a Catalan cream or horchata flavor is gentle enough to have every day, and that, when appetite falters, matters more than it seems. For daily use, I recommend the 1500g format. It's what you always have on hand and doesn't run out in a week, exactly what you want when we're talking about a habit to sustain over time.
In summary
Sarcopenia is normal, but you have much more influence over it than it seems. With age, you need a little more protein, not less: around 1.0 to 1.2 g per kilogram per day, distributed throughout the day, with a worthwhile amount at each meal. Always accompanied by movement, especially strength training, even if it's as simple as getting up from a chair or walking up hills. And when appetite decreases and eating becomes difficult, a shake is an honest tool to fill the gap. Think about it for yourself, and think about it for your loved ones. Strength is, in large part, independence.
Gerard, founder.