FortiesDiet.com

The need for healthy protein

Adequate amounts of healthy protein are essential to effective diet and fitness. Adequate protein also helps to regulate blood sugar and insulin levels, thereby tempering your appetite. When you increase the amount of protein in your diet and decrease the amount of carbs, you will naturally be satisfied consuming fewer calories.

Protein consumption also increases your metabolism. It simply takes more calories to burn protein than it does to burn fat or carbohydrates.

Most importantly though, adequate protein while dieting is essential because it will help to both preserve and build muscle mass. If you are cutting calories and don’t consume enough healthy protein, then you run the risk of losing muscle mass, which is unhealthy. Muscle burns fat, supports your body frame, and gives you shape. Preservation of muscle mass will also help you maintain a healthy body weight when you return to a regular maintenance diet. This is why I strongly recommend that you combine a common sense diet with a muscle building exercise routine in order to lose weight. But in order to do that you need adequate protein in your diet. The importance of these concepts is amplified when you are over forty years old. Preserving muscle mass becomes more challenging as we grow older and is therefore more important.

How much protein should we consume on a daily basis and from what sources? The average healthy woman should consume approximately 100 grams of protein per day. The average male should consume 150 grams of protein per day. Check out this protein calculator. But the source of your protein is also important. Chicken, fish, and lean red meat are good sources. But I would also recommend drinking 1 or 2 healthy protein meal replacement shakes per day. But make sure that you check the composition of the shake mix. A good protein shake should have roughly 20 to 25 grams of protein and no more than 10 to 15 grams of carbohydrates per serving. Protein powders are derived from a variety of sources, but whey protein and soy protein based powders are good choices.

As I have written elsewhere, keep everything in balance. There is no need to go to extremes. Just take one step at a time and you will achieve your goals.