Exercise more, increase
your lean muscle mass, take a thermogenic supplement...
These are some of the more well known ways to get your fat-burning 'engine'
revved up. However, there's one little known way (outside of the scientific
community) that ups your metabolism almost effortlessly - eat more protein.
Since protein foods require more 'metabolic processing' than carbohydrates
and fat, doesn't it make sense that the metabolic increases seen when
eating protein would be higher than those seen when eating fat or carbohydrate?
You betcha!
In fact, several research investigations have shown just that. The metabolic
increase seen with eating protein is just about double that of eating
carbohydrates or fat (Welle et al. 1981, Robinson et al. 1990, Nair et
al. 1983).
In one study, the amount of calories expended to process the protein food
was about 10% of the total calories eaten (Robinson et al. 1990). So,
if I'm eating a high-protein diet containing about 3000 calories, then
around 300 of them will be burned from eating alone. This is around the
same amount of calories you could burn from an intense cardio session.
Wouldn't you rather eat your way to a slimmer body than exercise more?
I know I would.
I recommend a diet consisting of about 40% protein. While this may seem
high, and you may be worried that this is too much protein for your body,
in fact it is not. Although studies have shown that high-protein intakes
might negatively
affect those with kidney dysfunction, healthy individuals have little
to worry about with high-protein diets. To demonstrate this, a recent
study showed that when bodybuilders consumed up to 1.3 grams of protein
per pound of body weight, kidney function was not impaired (Poortmans
and Dellalieux 2000). In fact, in an older study conducted with female
rats, kidney function seemed to be improved with high-protein diets (Sterch
et al. 1992).
GOOD FATS GO UP WHILE BAD FATS GO DOWN
It's almost a crime that there are some nutritionists recommending a high-carbohydrate
diet when research has demonstrated that replacing some dietary carbohydrates
with protein can lead to favorable blood lipid profiles. Dr B.M. Wolfe,
a nutrition researcher at the University of Western Ontario, has been
asking himself this question for several years.
In three separate studies, Dr Wolfe has shown that when increasing protein
intake from about 11% of the diet to about 23% (in essence doubling it),
blood markers associated with heart disease took a turn for the better
(Wolfe and Piche, 1999; Wolfe, 1995; Wolfe and Giovannetti, 1991). And
this benefit occurs in both healthy and high-risk people. It should be
noted that as protein intake increased, Dr Wolfe made sure that the fat
content of the diet stayed the same (25-35%) while the carbohydrate content
was reduced (from about 63% to about 48%).
The exact magnitude of the changes was pretty large as in one particular
study, the bad fasts like LDL cholesterol decreased between 6 - 9%, while
the good fats like HDL cholesterol increased between 12 - 17% (Wolfe,
1995). In addition, in this study, the ratio of plasma total cholesterol
to HDL (the lower ratio the better) decreased between 15 - 16%. Finally,
in this study, the total triglyceride levels decreased between 18 - 23%.
Another interesting effect of the protein increase in these studies was
that the satiety levels of subjects tended to be higher with the high-protein
diet. Therefore, they felt fuller at the same calorie intake. Protein
is well known to have this effect on appetite.
SUMMARY:
- Increasing your protein intake increases your metabolic rate by about
10%
- Increasing your protein intake is not harmful to your kidneys (and
in fact may even help them)
- LDL cholesterol (bad fats) will be reduced on a higher protein diet
- HDL cholesterol (good fats) will be raised on a higher protein diet.
- Triglycerides (bad fats) will be reduced on a higher protein diet.
There you have it, up your protein, burn more fat, and get healthier
in the process -- just from eating more protein. What more can you ask
for from any food? It just doesn't get much better than that. To get more
protein try the leanest cuts of red meat like top round, eye of round
(in fact, any of the 'round' cuts of meat), top sirloin, as well
as chicken, turkey, fish, and quality protein powders (which I just happen
to have in stock HERE ) ;-)
|
