How Much Meat is Neat?

As previously stated in one of my earlier posts, your diet shouldn’t make you skimp on specific nutrients that your body needs. Protein is one of the vital nutrients that our body needs for various functions aside from the widely known role in muscle repair, bone building and brain functions. This is why we must be able to regularly supply our body with protein.

On the subject of losing a belly fat, you’d still need protein if you want those washboard abdominal muscles that are developed and toned. In fact, protein can even speed up the process of your weight loss from exercising and dieting. Protein is needed for building muscles, and the more developed muscles will then consume a higher amount of calories that it becomes your fat burning tool. In diet, eating a protein rich diet will help you avoid getting hungry quicker. Why is this so? Here’s a rundown on how your body takes in food.

When you’re eating a carbohydrate-based diet, those carbohydrates are broken down into sugars, which will then increase your blood sugar level. The risk of this kind of diet is that when the blood sugar is heightened above normal levels, the body will release insulin to lower it. There will be times when the insulin released is higher than what is needed, thus resulting in low blood sugar and causing your body to crave for carbohydrates. This will make you hungry. This will make you suffer.

However, if you’re relying on a protein rich diet, you’re blood sugar won’t increase as much and you could avoid an insulin response that could make you hungry.  This will make you feel full for a longer amount of time, so you won’t crave so much.

Another benefit of protein is that your body will actually burn more calories during digestion.

So with all the good benefits of having protein in your diet, you’d wonder how much protein is ideal for you.

The answer is quite simple. It is suggested that having 30 percent of your daily calorie intake should come from protein. That means if your recommended daily calorie intake is 2000, you must take in 600 calories from protein. 600 calories translates to 150grams of protein.

So there’s your number, 150grams of protein.

Genetics and Your Belly Fat

Is there any chance that any effort you put into losing that belly fat could be futile? Could it be possible that the hope of getting a slimmer figure and looking sexy is just an illusion?

For decades, there have been uncountable numbers of scientific research focused on gaining a better understanding on the subject of obesity. One of the things that we’ve learned from these researches shows the role of genetics to the weight of any individual.

What does this mean?

Simply, our body weight can be genetically predisposed. There are already studies that have conclusively shown that an individual’s body size is genetically coded. This is the primary reason why there are people who succeed in shedding off weight, but regain what was lost after only a few months. However, this does not mean that your genes are guaranteed to lead you to the downward spiral of getting fatter and fatter.

The human body is programmed to resist any major weight changes. The same mechanism that stops you from getting so thin also tries to stop you from gaining too much weight. Going by that, it would seem that the battle against a fat belly would only lead to a stalemate.

Not quite. When I mentioned about the people who lose weight just to gain them again, it was directed to those who rely solely on dieting to shed off weight. If you’re looking for a permanent weight loss, you can’t rely only on dieting. Given the fact that our bodies are genetically programmed to be in a certain weight range, it doesn’t mean that you have to be fat.

Time and time again, exercise proved to be the most effective way in controlling weight. Exercise, especially weight training, will increase the body’s muscle mass. This plays a huge role in burning fat as the muscles require more energy, thus speeding up the body’s metabolism.

In doing muscle building exercises, some will notice a little-to-no difference in their weight. This is due to the fact that muscle tissues have more mass. That is why in light of the relation between genetics and weight, it’s becoming important to focus not only on the amount of weight lost, but to the over health of the body.

One doesn’t have to be paper-thin just to look good. With exercise, coupled with the right diet, you could lose the belly fat without having to lose so much weight.

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