Protein diet – finally found the solution? Anyone who has ever tried to get to grips with proper nutrition and used the search engine will have noticed two things:
There are a chaotically many approaches, and
In every approach there is always something about protein or, in English, “protein”.
At least all the different ideas seem to converge on one thing: If you want to be healthy and look sporty, you need enough protein in your diet.
So let’s combine everything we know about protein and nutrition and find a diet together that will continually bring us closer to our goals.
We call it the protein diet – where diet describes a term that only defines a temporary dietary regimen; If we do everything right, we will find a form of nutrition that will make us permanently happy and healthy.
What exactly is protein?
Protein is one of 3 basic nutrients that we consume in every meal. The other two are fat and carbohydrates.
The building blocks that make up protein are called “amino acids”. There are only a limited number of these, which are then divided into different chemical groups. Our body can synthesize most of them itself, but we have to get them through food.
But we don’t have to go into that much detail to eat a protein-rich diet. The only important thing to know is that the body uses amino acids to build proteins and then uses them to create muscle cells, skin, hair, bones, hormones and our blood.
Protein diet: which foods are suitable?
Animal products are often suitable here because, just like us, they consist largely of proteins. Plants also provide good proteins, but often not in as raw a quantity as animal proteins. However, you should always keep in mind that it is much easier for the body to break down the less energy-dense plant than the very energy-dense animal food.
This means: Animal products keep you full for longer, provide more energy and protein in terms of mass, but make you more sluggish and tired during the digestion process than plants and in almost every case have more calories. If the goal is to lose weight and you are one of those people who still want to eat something, it is definitely worth eating a large portion of plant-based food and supplementing it with animal food.
Also Read: The Right Diet For Iron Deficiency
Products with a high protein content
When it comes to animal products, we include eggs, cheese, meat and fish. Low-fat quark, for example, is very popular with athletes: 12g of protein per 100g is a lot and a pack (500g) usually doesn’t even cost one euro. Grainy cream cheese or Black Forest ham also provide a very high content with little fat or carbohydrates.
When it comes to plant-based products, chickpeas, beans, nuts, nuts, oat flakes, broccoli and lentils make the top selection. Beans in particular have a very good reputation as a basic food: they are the most nutrient-rich plant in the world! So consuming it is definitely worth it.
A little tip: A look at the nutritional table when shopping is a good idea in the long run. After a certain amount of time, you already know, without having to look, which products consist of approximately what proportion of the 3 macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, fats).
You will notice: every diet is just a game of the composition of these 3 substances in our food intake.
What happens in our body?
The increased protein content ensures that our body can continue to work normally. During a protein diet, the metabolism remains very active. Muscles and connective tissue continue to work as usual so that the body can burn fat.
Despite the main focus on protein, the first source of energy for us is fat!
And I explain why:
Just like with carbohydrates, our body can break down fats to create energy. However, carbohydrates have the disadvantage of this diet that our body only uses up its glucose (sugar) stores until it can utilize other attached tissue.
It has long been said that fats create belly fat, but that is just a misconception that underlies our language. Eating fat doesn’t mean getting fat!
This happens in a completely different way:
In short, our body gets quick energy from sugar.
Avoid sugar, increase protein
We know sugar as the sweetener in our desserts. These are short-chain carbohydrates that the body can quickly break down and convert into energy. There are often so many short-chain carbohydrates in sweets that our body cannot utilize them all.
After a chocolate bar, the amount of sugar in our blood increases, this is transported through our vessels into the cells and we get an energy high. In order to regulate excess sugar, our body releases the hormone insulin. This drives the blood sugar level back down. Our body does not waste the excess energy sources, but rather stores them within fat cells for bad times.
We want to avoid this as much as possible, which is why we want to eat ice cream, chocolate, etc. less and less from now on and replace quick snacks with nuts or nuts . There are countless varieties of them. Let’s keep trying until we find something we like!
If we behave correctly, we also get the following benefits from the protein diet:
- Unlike other diets, we don’t lose our current muscle mass as quickly.
- Because before the body removes fat from our stomach, it uses our muscle mass.
- Unless we know how to prevent this by signaling to him that he cannot adapt in this way due to our living conditions.
2 things are necessary for this:
- As agreed, we eat a protein-rich diet so that our basic functions remain stable and we don’t get hunger attacks
- We do sports. With this stimulus we show our body that we need the muscles in full in our everyday lives in order to continue to “survive”.
This means that he does not have the option of depriving us of this vital resource.
We get what we want: As soon as the sugar stores are empty, it has to use the fat cells to generate energy.
Conclusion
So in summary, we want to consume as much protein as possible and more fats than carbohydrates. If carbohydrates, then as little sugar as possible (the amount of sugar in the carbohydrates of a product can always be found in the nutritional table directly below).
A little tip: just 10g of sugar per 100g is as much as in the well-known thick cola.
Well, now we know which foods to consider, in what order we should eat them, how we can lose weight with the diet and how we can maintain our muscles.
Also Read: How Do You Increase Protein In The Diet?