Using Protein As A Fat Burner

     Studies have shown that in several groups of people who were given a diet that was low in calories, the group that was given the most protein to eat, lost the least amount of muscle mass overall. When trying to lose fat by dieting, you want to make sure that you keep as much of your muscle mass as possible. This keeps your metabolism from slowing down too much. It is for this reason that you shouldn't take part in any kind of diet that asks you to give up all or most of the protein from your diet.

Muscles reduce fat stores because they use calories for sustenance. So the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn daily. People who frequently use crash diets tend to lose lots of muscle mass. When they return to their usual diets, they will have a slower metabolism due to all of the muscle tissue that was lost. These people will most likely put on much more weight than originally lost and in the future it will be much harder for them to lose weight.

Protein is a word that literally means "of prime importance". It is an essential nutrient that is used to build the body, especially the muscles. Protein is also needed to construct hormones, hair, nails, organs and many other things. Your body can't function properly without a supply of quality protein. People who tend to have issues with their weight were found to eat much less protein than needed. Your protein needs will be much higher if you regularly engange in exercise or are very mentally active.

Protein is such a useful tool for weight loss in many ways, one of them being for it's thermic value. Of all types of foods, it is protein that possesses the greatest thermic value and is also the hardest of foods to digest which means it burns up more calories. As it takes a lot longer for digestion, it leaves you with a satisfied feeling for longer. It also doesn't cause your blood sugar level to spike too quickly.

One important fact about protein is that it's constructed of smaller amino acids. There are actually 12 essential amino acids that the body is unable to produce by itself and has to acquire them from external food sources. Most people are actually deficient in some of the amino acids. This is either because they simply don't consume enough, or that they don't eat foods that have high quality protein within them that the body can easily assimilate. Yogurt and eggs have protein of the highest biological value. What this means is that we can use this type of protein much easier than other types. Another good source is whey protein powder.

If the food you regularly like to eat is not nutrient dense, you will need to eat more food and you will be hungrier more often. This is because it needs to eat a lot to get those nutrients that it needs. If though, you began eating more nutrient filled food, your body would need less food and would then need it only when it required energy in the form of calories. This is actually one of the biggest reasons why people fail on crash or fad types of diets. They tend to be extremely hungry when they deprive their body from the things it needs.

It needs to be mentioned here that when cook protein, parts of it actually get transformed and destroys certain key amino acids. As protein is sensitive to cooking and heat, it would be a great idea to eat some raw source of protein daily. These can include nuts, seeds, whey, yogurt, cheese, and fruit and vegetables that haven't been cooked. This provides you with all of the essential 12 amino acids that your body is craving. It is then able to create the other acids from those 12.

To also help preserve the muscle tissue in the body, you can do more exercise or weight training. If your body realizes that it needs it's muscles, it won't use them for fuel. It will use it's fat stores instead to feed the cells and muscles of the body.

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