I'm learning some really interesting stuff from the Protein Power book. I just started the book yesterday and I'm already on page 97. It's that good! I have to read with a highlighter pen handy. You have to get this book! Available on Amazon for as little as a penny (plus shipping) - about $3.50. That's what I paid for my copy.
Here's what the Eades' say about the importance of protein when dieting to lose weight:
Your lean body mass (LBM) is the metabolically active part of you, consuming most of the energy...Ideally, you want to keep all of it.
On typical low-calorie, high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets, protein intake is often marginal, and as a result as much as 50 percent of weight loss can be muscle weight. Each pound of active muscle mass lost reduces your rate of metabolism...
The proper care of a lean body mass requires that every day you provide it with enough high-quality complete protein to carry out all its vital functions. (pgs. 92-93).
A pound of muscle takes 50 calories a day to maintain, and a pound of fat only 2 calories (source). Basically, the more muscle we have, the more we can eat and still lose weight, so losing muscle is a very bad thing. I know I was losing an alarming amount of muscle before I added a protein shake after my workout. That was a huge help.
Losing too fast isn't good for the lean body mass. A person can only lose 2 pounds of fat a week. Anything above that is water and/or lean mass. Woman generally lose at the rate of 0.5-1 pound per week, a safe pace and more likely to spare lean muscle.
A moderately active person needs 0.7 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM). He gives a formula for calculating your LBM. That's the minimum. I'll be calculting mine when I get home and look up my LBM in my fitness folder where I keep that info. It is perfectly safe however, to eat as much as 1 gram of protein per total body weight. For me, this means I can have up to 140g a day - which I usually meet and often exceed.
Why are low-fat diets so often deficient in protein? Because protein foods often contain fat as well - meat, dairy, eggs, cheese - and in cutting the fat, they slash the protein along with it. Both are replaced with carbohydrates, which bring their own slew of problems.
Protein Power is a high-protein, moderate-fat, low-carb approach to weight loss - not too different than what I'm doing now.
I've been reading Dr. Michael Eades' blog nearly every day. He has so much good information there.
I want to build muscle so I start my day with protein; today was three fried eggs. On days I work out I take an Atkins shake with me to get protein into me as soon as possible after my workout. There's a very small window to take in protein after a workout before your body starts cannibalizing its own muscle. Since I can't have a protein snack because I am at the gym, I opt for the shake.
Work it, baby! And eat your protein.
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