Fat Loss Tip #4) Eat More Protein Yes, it's important to keep your protein intake high when dieting to make sure that you don't burn off any muscle tissue in your quest to get ripped. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about taking in protein in order to boost your metabolism and burn more fat, in addition to helping preserve and build your lean muscle tissue. In a study published in the American Journal of Physiology, one group was fed a high protein diet (just over one gram per pound of bodyweight per day) while the second group consumed a protein diet near equal to that of the RDA. The group eating the high protein diet burned more fat than the group consuming protein near equal to the RDA. One reason for this could be an increased thermic effect. The thermic effect of the RDA group was elevated 16% after eating. However, in the high protein group the thermic effect increased 42% after eating, almost 3 times that of the RDA group. This thermic effect of digesting your food peaks approximately one hour after eating. Spreading your daily caloric intake over 6 meals a day, eating every 2 to 3 hours, helps to take advantage of the increased metabolic rate that accompanies eating. In other words, the more often you eat, the higher your metabolic rate, i.e. the number of calories your body burns each day. In addition, by adding more protein to each meal, you also increase your metabolism. Your body requires more energy (i.e. calories) to process protein than it does to digest carbohydrates. Do you understand what that means? Think about it. Think about all those people and so called experts that have continually said that a calorie is a calorie. This is simply not true. Your body's metabolic rate is affected by the number of meals you eat, the frequency of those meals (how much time passes between each meal consumed) and the macro nutrient composition of those meals. A calorie is not simply a calorie and they are not equal. Depending on the number of meals, frequency of meals, and macro nutrient composition of meals, the same person's metabolism will be different on two very different meals plans, even if the total number of calorie's is the same. Let's review some simple changes you can make right now in your nutrition program to rapidly increase your body's ability to not only build muscle but burn fat also. 1) Eat 6 smaller meals per day, as opposed to 2 or 3 larger ones. This will ensure that you supply your body with the nutrients necessary to build muscle and burn fat, as well as increase your resting metabolic rate. It will also prevent your body from kicking into starvation mode, which can happen when you go too long between meals. If this happens, your body will start burning muscle for energy and increase your body fat stores, as well as slowing down your metabolism. All of these are things you want to avoid. As a matter of fact, they are the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve. 2) Eat a high protein diet consisting of at least one gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. This helps ensure that your body has the protein available to maintain a positive nitrogen balance, which can lead to an increase in your muscles mass. It will also increase your metabolic rate, allowing you to burn more body fat than a low protein diet, without as large a decrease in your daily caloric intake, which will also help avoid the starvation mode discussed in the previous paragraph. Try these simple changes in your nutrition program to help you rapidly increase your muscle mass, burn off unwanted body fat and achieve the ripped muscular body that you've always wanted. Or, for you women, the long, lean, sculpted, sexy body you've always wanted. Gregg Gillies |
