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Protein is often referred to as the building block needed to grow muscle. This is fairly accurate. Although muscle is mostly water the fibers are themselves proteins. Here is an interesting fact, the more muscle you have the more energy it requires and a good source is fats, so it stands to reason therefore that anyone wanting to loss fat needs to ingest an increased amount of protein. There are some pitfalls that should be avoided and some things that need to be remembered with protein.
With protein the source is extremely important. The source needs to be one with a good amino acid profile. This means it provides the body with essential amino acids. These are the aminos that the body can't manufacture itself. Amino acids will be dealt with in more detail shortly.
Different people will have varying abilities when it comes to ingesting protein. Musculature, training requirements and gender all play a role. A 120kg footballer will probably ingest more protein in a sitting than a 60kg sedentary office worker. For this reason a little common sense needs to be employed when choosing increment amounts of protein. A male heavyweight bodybuilder who has just finished a weight session may be able to synthesize 50g or more of protein, whereas for a female netball player 25g may be a more suitable amount. Choose an amount in the region of 30g and then increase or decrease depending on body size, training or activity demands.
Food doesn’t last in your body for long periods, something you have eaten this morning is well and truly gone, aim to eat protein around every 3 to 4 hours, otherwise your body will cannibalize body tissue from other areas to replenish amino acids (protein).
Eating protein just before sleep is necessary for carrying you through the next eight hours but it is also when your muscle repair will take place most effectively. This is the reason babies need so much sleep, as they are growing at a faster rate than at any other time in their life.
Remember that lean meat often has saturated fat attached to it. If you are getting your protein from lean meat remember to cut off as much fat as possible. Which fats you should eat will be dealt with shortly. Good sources of protein are
— Chicken
— Fish
— Red meats
— Eggs
— Fish
The foundation of your protein should come from these foods. It is suitable to supplement your protein intake with a good quality protein powder. This is perfectly acceptable provided you don't use it exclusively instead of the natural sources. Click here to view protein chart.
When we eat anything we get feedback sent to the brain from the taste receptors in our tongues. Many of the carbohydrates we eat are only eaten by herbivores in nature. As omnivores they have to be refined so that we can eat them. The net result is that we receive a carb hit, often with more calories per mouthful than we could find in most natural sources. This calorie dense message is relayed to the brain. The brain still thinks we have to forage for our food and hasn't adjusted us to the supermarket and take away on every street corner. So the brain thinks "we've struck gold". It then relays a message to eat as much as possible. This can pose a problem.
Carbohydrates are food stuffs that are broken down and stored as fuel, stored as body fat and perform numerous other functions throughout the body. Carbohydrates are essentially sugars of one form or another. When they are eaten they are broken down into glucose and a hormone called insulin is released by the pancreas. The job of insulin is to take the excess glucose out of the blood. This is commonly known as blood sugar. If insulin production is effective then the carbs will be mostly stored as glycogen, a fuel stored in muscles and the liver. Ineffective production of insulin will lead to fat storage. Sometimes insulin production can become exhausted. For instance a very sugary breakfast would lead to high insulin activity. If this was followed by a very sugary lunch, there could be an insulin crash. If insulin isn't there to do its job fat storage is the inevitable result. If you were to give a rating to carbohydrates then sugar will be 100 and oats will be about 25. The higher the number, the greater the chance that it will store as fat lets call anything over 50 high glycemic and below 50 low glycemic. Lower glycemic carbs are preferable however to the high glycemic ones. Low glycemic foods makes them a more suitable energy source this is because they provide a more sustained energy output and are less likely to provoke insulin sensitivity and unwanted fat storage. Low glycemic carbs can be obtained from most berries, fruits and vegetables, greens, pulses, squashes and certain whole grains. Because these plants based foods tend to be good sources of fiber they are harder to break down. This has two advantages. One is that it slows the breakdown and thereby discourages insulin sensitivity. The other advantage arises from the fact that fiber is indigestible, these means that as it passes intact through the digestive tract it cleans it. The berries and greens in particular are often rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants can help nullify the effect of free radicals. Free radicals are present in red meat and can, in large quantities, alter D.N.A. to the point of tumor development. This is why antioxidants are important if much of your protein comes from red meat. Yet another advantage of the low glycemic applies to the fruit and vegetables. When eaten raw they are a rich source of phase I and phase II enzymes. These are important for health, intestinal and bowel function.
At the moment many people are confused about carbohydrates. This is quite understandable as there is a lot of mixed information in circulation about them. There are two very opposite camps sending completely different messages about carbohydrates. So as to avoid confusion we will call them side A and side B. Unfortunately they are both wrong. Allow me to clear a few things up. Side A says carbohydrates are the best thing since sliced bread. That the human body needs a high amount of carbohydrates on a daily basis and those carbohydrates should be the main source of calorific intake. Not necessarily. A marathon runner will need the majority of their calories from carbs. They will need a steady supply of carbs to replace glycogen stores that are constantly depleted. Someone who works in an office all day and predominantly watches T.V. at the weekend does not need to be ingesting large amounts of carbs. Many of the people who could be described as side A types have fallen prey to marketing. Carbs are much cheaper to grow, keep, transport and package than protein for instance. The fact that we live in an over populated world, where many people need to be fed cheaply, may explain the presence of side A. Side B on the other hand are just plain annoying. They say that the human body isn't designed to eat carbs and it isn't natural. Well considering apes, who are our closest ancestors, predominantly eat fruit I think that's unlikely. They also say the body doesn't need them. This is also completely inaccurate. As already stated, without carbs the brain doesn't produce the necessary neurotransmitters required for sleep. Without sleep you either die, or you become addicted to sleeping pills like so many celebrities who go on no carb diets.
Click here to view Carbohydrate chart
Fats are often known as lipids. There are various kinds. You may have heard of mono saturated, polyunsaturated and saturated. The saturated ones are the kind to avoid. These are normally found in animal fat. If eaten in large quantities they can lead to heart disease and strokes. Ironically this has more to do with the way in which livestock is fed and treated. Fat on animals that live free and get a healthy diet is often a rich source of nutrients that the animal has broken down. However if you don't catch everything you eat, then I suggest you skip the fat. Although the body uses fat as a fuel source it also has other functions. Mono saturated and polyunsaturated fats are very healthy. As some vitamins, such as A and D, are fat soluble, fats are required just to break them down. They are important for the skin, the eyes and the hair as well as aiding in various brain and immune functions. Fats even help insulate our internal organs and keep us warm. Fats are calorie dense so a person needs to be careful that he doesn't take on board too many calories. Once again the best sources of these fats are natural ones. These are some of the best sources.
— almonds, macadamias, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, brazil nuts, peanuts, cashew nuts, avocados, olives, avocado oil, olive oil, flaxseed oil, flaxseed, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds. The avocado is a rich source of lipase, which is the enzyme that breaks down fat. So it’s sometimes possible to eat fat and loose weight
Click here to view fats chart
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