Plainly Her Picks

Protein and nutrition

Protein is the lever. Everything else in this category is downstream of hitting the target.

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Strong evidence

Protein powder, whey isolate or plant

Hitting a protein target is the single highest-leverage nutrition change in midlife: it is what preserves muscle while oestrogen falls, and muscle is what protects metabolic rate, bone loading and independence later.

Who it may suit. Anyone struggling to reach roughly 1.2 to 1.6g of protein per kg of body weight from food alone, which is most people who are busy at breakfast.

The catch. Powder is convenience, not magic. The same grams from fish, eggs, chicken, Greek yoghurt or peas count exactly the same.

Moderate evidence

Creatine monohydrate, unflavoured

Creatine paired with resistance training has the best evidence of anything in the supplement aisle for midlife muscle and strength, and a growing signal for cognition and mood.

Who it may suit. Women who are actually lifting. Without the training stimulus it does very little.

The catch. It will not make you bulky, but it does draw water into muscle, so the scale moves up a pound or two in the first fortnight. That is water, not fat.

Read the evidence before you spend anything
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