Build Muscle And Burn Fat By Eating More Protein
“How The High Thermic Effect of Whole Food Protein
Can Help You Burn Fat And Build Muscle At The Same Time!”
If you want to build muscle and burn fat safely and naturally in as little time as possible, it’s critical that you begin to eat whole food sources of learn muscle building protein. While the shakes and protein powders are great…they definitely have a place in any well thought out muscle gain diet plan, if you ingest the bulk of your dietary protein from supplemental sources, you simply wont be getting the full muscle building fat burning benefit of lean whole food protein sources.
Most people understand that in order to build muscle and burn fat, they need to focus on eating high quality muscle building nutrients spaced throughout the day. While in theory this is true, what that simple rule hides in practice is the fact that not all foods are created equally…especially if your goal is to build muscle and burn fat!
The Thermic Effect of Food is defined as “An increase in energy expenditure due to the digestive process of breaking down, absorbing and metabolizing food.”
What this means is that your body will burn calories in order to digest the foods you eat. As a rule, whole food sources of muscle building nutrients have a higher thermic effect than supplemental sources of the same nutrients.
Think about it this way…
The more complex the food is to break down and digest, the higher it’s thermic effect! Whole food is much more difficult for your body to break down. While this can help if your goal is to build muscle and burn fat, it’s not always ideal for optimal muscle gain.
That’s why so many natural bodybuilders turn to whey protein supplements for extra protein.
What this means is that the process of breaking down and digesting whole food protein sources requires more energy (calories) than it does to break down and utilize pre-digested whey protein supplements.
“The thermic effect of food associated with the consumption of a high-protein meal is significantly higher than it is following a high-carbohydrate or high-fat meal” (Wardlaw, G.M. & Hampl, J.S. (2006) Perspectives in Nutrition (7th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill.)
While your metabolism will rev up and kick into fat burning mode quicker if you eat smaller meals spaced evenly throughout the day, simply eating more frequent meals consisting of the wrong nutrients will not help you build muscle or burn fat!
Taking this example a step further, eating smaller more frequent meals consisting of the right muscle building nutrients but the wrong sources of high quality muscle building protein will not allow you to build muscle and burn fat as effectively as laser focusing your muscle building nutrition plan to include ample amounts of whole food protein sources.
If you’re serious about achieving lasting muscle gain and fat loss, you need to adjust your diet to include more whole food sources of muscle building protein and less supplemental potions and powders.
If your simply ingesting whey protein supplements for extra protein above and beyond your typical requirement go ahead and continue to use it! You will be able to enjoy the benefits of whey protein in conjunction with a well balanced muscle building diet.
If on the other hand, you’re substituting whey protein for the common whole food sources of protein, you might be making it impossible to build muscle and burn fat by making it too easy for you body to digest the nutrients!
If you’re guilty of substituting whey protein for the whole food staples of a well balanced bodybuilding diet, get back to basics by consuming more of the following protein sources:
- boneless skinless chicken breast
- boneless skinless turkey breast
- lean cuts of beef
- tuna
- salmon
- lean cuts of pork
If this describes your situation, chances are your having a hard time shedding unwanted body fat…I’ll bet your body would definitely benefit from the higher thermic effect of whole food protein sources. Try to limit yourself to 1 serving of supplemental whey protein per day.
The best time to use it is immediately after your intense weight training workout, as a fast acting easily digested post workout meal.
If your goal is to build muscle and burn fat at the same time make sure and take advantage of the naturally occurring high thermic effect of whole food protein sources. Not only will your still be able to build a considerable amount of muscle mass, you should also begin to lose some additional body fat due to the increased energy required to digest the whole food protein that your eating throughout the day!
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