What You Need to Know About Protein

In terms of the overall health and function of the human body, protein is essential for building and repairing things. Your organs, muscles, skin, hair, nails, bones and certain hormones are all made up of some amount of protein. It’s an absolute requirement for sustaining life and proper function.

When dietary protein is in short supply, the body tends to take protein from skeletal muscles to preserve more important tissues and body functions. As a result, lack of protein leads to muscle wasting over time. Amino acids (found in protein) consumed in excess of the amounts needed for the synthesis of nitrogenous tissue constituents are not stored but are degraded; the nitrogen is excreted as urea, and the keto acids left after removal of the amino groups are either utilized directly as sources of energy or are converted to carbohydrate or fat.

Protein will help you lose fat, build muscle, and generally get your body to look and perform the way you want it to look and perform.

Your goal is to get your body to burn nothing but fat and leave all of your pretty muscle alone. Eating a sufficient amount of protein on a daily basis is the key dietary factor in getting your body to preserve your muscle and burn fat instead. In addition to preserving muscle, building muscle has two dietary requirements, a calorie surplus and eating a sufficient amount of protein on a daily basis. Protein is the “building block” of muscle. Without enough of it, your body just cannot (and will not) build muscle.

Another major role protein plays in losing fat revolves around its thermogenic properties. Protein is the macronutrient with the largest thermic effect. Therefore, eating more protein on a daily basis will actually lead to more calories naturally being burned by your body.

The Role of Fat in your Diet

Why are trans fats bad for you, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats good for you, and saturated fats somewhere in-between?

Fat is a major source of energy. It helps you absorb some vitamins and minerals and is needed to build cell membranes, the vital exterior of each cell, and the sheaths surrounding nerves. It is essential for blood clotting, muscle movement, and inflammation. For long-term health, some fats are better than others. Good fats include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Bad ones include industrial-made trans fats. Saturated fats fall somewhere in the middle.

1. Trans Fat

Trans fat has been shown to raise your bad (LDL) cholesterol levels, lower your good (HDL) cholesterol levels and must be eliminated from your diet. Trans fat is normally found in fried foods, fast food, typical snack foods (chips, cookies, etc.), doughnuts and various pastries.

2. Saturated Fat

While saturated fat may be pretty bad for the average person who isn’t very active and eats too much junk (or just eats too much in general), it may actually not be too harmful (in small amounts) for fit and healthy people who eat right and exercise regularly. High levels of saturated fats are found in red meat, dairy and coconut oil.

3. Monounsaturated fat

Monounsaturated fat, which is most abundant in foods like nuts and various plant oils like olive oil, will most often end up comprising the majority of your total fat intake. Research shows that monounsaturated fats may help lower your bad (LDL) cholesterol levels.

4. Polyunsaturated fat

Omega-6 and Omega-3 are polyunsaturated fats. They are your essential fatty acids, and that means your body REQUIRES them in order to keep you alive and functioning properly. And, since your body is incapable of producing them on its own, it’s up to your diet to supply a sufficient amount of it on a regular basis.

The omega-3 & 6 fatty acids, which is most abundant in fish, fish oil supplements, nuts, seeds, olive oil and avocados, basically improves your body’s ability to do just about EVERYTHING (build muscle, lose fat, lowers your bad (LDL) cholesterol levels, raises your good (HDL) cholesterol levels, and reduces inflammation etc.

Also worth mentioning now is that it may also help with calorie partitioning. Meaning, when in a caloric surplus, calories will be more likely to go towards building muscle rather than being stored as fat. And when in a caloric deficit, your body will be more likely to burn fat instead of muscle.

What You Need to Know About Carbohydrates

While carbs definitely DO play an important role in your diet for various reasons and for various goals (especially building muscle, increasing strength or improving performance), they are the least important of the macronutrients. Carbs Are Extremely Useful, but not essential.  While protein and fat (specifically the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids) are essential to your body, carbs on the other hand are not.

Despite the fact that the glycemic index was originally created for diabetics as a way of figuring out which foods would be best for them, it quickly became used by bodybuilders, athletes, and regular people who just want to look good and be healthy.

Why? Because the glycemic index allows us to maintain steady blood glucose levels throughout the day by choosing the right types of high carb foods at the right time.

This of course is useful for many reasons, the most important of which are controlling hunger, maintaining energy levels, improving the way our bodies look/perform and preventing a variety of health/medical issues associated with frequent and sustained spikes in blood sugar levels (like type 2 diabetes and heart disease).

A carbohydrate with a high glycemic index (high GI) breaks down quickly during digestion and therefore releases glucose into the bloodstream rapidly, while a carbohydrate with a low glycemic index (low GI) breaks down more slowly therefore causing a much slower and more gradual release of glucose into the bloodstream.

While complex/low glycemic foods should comprise the majority of your carb intake, your post workout meal is the one time of the day when simple/high glycemic foods may actually be the better choice.