Eat Foods With Protein For Fat Loss

Foods With Protein

Muscles are made of protein. This statement is rather obvious to all of us. So to build muscle, equally obviously, you need to eat foods with protein. This can be found in eggs, fish, meat, cottage cheese or protein concentrates like protein powder.

A lot of people cut calories when trying lose weight, and certainly some dietary changes should be made. Cutting out baked goods and junk food is a great idea. But all too often calories are reduced too drastically. What then happens is that your metabolism slows down and weight loss stops.

You still need to eat to keep your metabolism running at high capacity. Eating foods with protein not only gives you calories, it has a thermic effect. This means that is raises your body temperature ever so slightly as it processes the food. This is a good thing.


The human body is in a constant state of flux, it looks the same from day to day, but through multiple biological processes, it is always rebuilding itself."

Science has proven that 99% of the atoms in your body are replaced within one year. Every cell in your body is always being recycled. Protein is what is used in the creation of new cells. It is the building blocks of your body.

Skin, hair, bones, hormones, and antibodies are formed of protein. Save for water, protein is the most abundant substance in your body. Like other nutrients, proteins are made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. But unlike other nutrients, proteins are the only nutrients that bring nitrogen into the body.

Thus by measuring the amount of nitrogen in ones excreta, compared to the amount taken in, one can estimate the amount of protein used for muscle growth. If the difference is positive, then muscle is being made.

But if the difference is negative, there is a negative nitrogen balance, and the body literally begins to feed on its own muscle to produce energy. Proteins are broken down by digestive acids like protease to smaller units called peptides. This occurs in the stomach where there are acidic conditions necessary for the digestion of proteins. The peptides are in turn are digested by peptidase, found in the duodenum, into amino acids. These are what the body actually absorbs and utilizes to form body tissue, including muscle.

There are 20 amino acids that are required for the normal growth of the body. Eleven of these are naturally made in the body and thus are called non-essential amino acids. The other nine have to be ingested into the body as it cannot synthesize them and are thus called essential amino acids. Foods with protein containing both types of amino acids in the exact amounts as they are needed by the body are called complete proteins. Only when all the essential amino acids are available can the body grow muscles. Otherwise it starts breaking down body tissue to suffice the amount of essential amino acids for growth and repair purposes. Thus lack of these amino acids actually leads to muscle loss.

More muscle is what you want. Muscle is active. It burns calories, even when you are resting.

Try to eat foods with protein at each meal. A bit of tuna or a spoonful of cottage cheese are great ways to get more protein in your diet.

So if weight loss and fat loss are your goals you must be eating foods with protein to have any hope of long term weight loss success.