For years those of us who have been in the bodybuilding circles have come to understand, love, and never go without protein! Personally having designed my own nutritional programs for over 16 years, I have analyzed many different nutritional strategies and of course, protein featured heavily in many of these! Now I have come to understand that the body does not require excessive amounts of protein to function effectively. This conclusion may have saved my mum & dad a few bucks when I was consuming as many as 30 eggs/day as a “growing teenager”!
The concept behind protein is pretty straight forward. Protein breaks down into amino acids that are critical to things like; muscle recovery & growth and things like hair & nail growth. These Amino Acids are distributed to each cell of your body so as to give credence to the term “the building blocks of life”.
Each time we eat food containing protein, it also contains amino acids. A complete protein is one that contains all 8 essential amino acids and is therefore considered superior (eg; safrol Tuna pouch). An incomplete protein is one that does not contain all 8 essential amino acids and should be combined with other pushing for proteins to enhance its amino acid content (eg. Heinz Baked beans).
So enough about the scientific process of protein! Does the big question lie as to why we have gone crazy about protein? As you may have encountered there are many protein-related diets Protein power, Protein plus, and Atkins to name a few. Similarly, they advocate to reduce your carbohydrate intake and increase your pushing for protein (what else are you going to eat?).
Now, increasing your protein has a number of benefits (previously mentioned), and generally speaking, we find in numerous individuals that we, at Peak Physique, consult to that their protein intake is simply not high enough to substantiate adequate recovery from exercise. What then does your body use to recover? Answer: YOUR OWN MUSCLE TISSUE! Consequently, when we manipulate an individual’s protein intake we find that they are able to not only maintain but build muscle. This results in faster metabolism, and greater FAT BURNING capabilities!
Your strategy is simple:
1) Make sure you are satisfying your minimum protein requirements for your activity level.
2) Choose good quality “complete” proteins as a preference
3) Place equal importance to your fat and carbohydrate consumption as they are also critical!
