The Quick Cut:

• Protein is found in every cell of our bodies.

• It’s critical to your fitness & fat loss goals because it helps build and preserve muscle while keeping blood sugar low.

• Seek to eat .75 - 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day on average.

• The best sources of protein are: lean meats, poultry, eggs, and fish.

• Unless you're vegan, limit vegan protein sources (e.g. tofu) or substituting meats with foods that have protein but are primarily a carb (e.g. beans).

The Long Slice:

Protein is one of the three macronutrients found in food, with fat and carbohydrates as the other two.

Many will argue protein is the most essential macronutrient for humans to eat. In fact, the ancient Greeks named this macronutrient with the root word of ‘Pro’, which is the word for the number 1 in Greek, because they considered protein the first and most important macronutrient.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Protein is found in every cell of the human body and is essential for the proper functioning of our bodily systems.

In a fitness context, protein helps with muscle contraction, muscle repair, and the increase of muscle mass (known as hypertrophy).

Protein is comprised of 20 different amino acids, 9 of which are considered ‘essential’ because the body cannot manufacture them on its own. The 9 essential amino acids are: histidine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine.

BENEFITS OF EATING PROTEIN

When it comes to losing weight and adding muscle, protein plays a critical role that cannot be understated. Its numerous benefits include:

• Helping you build and preserve muscle mass, which is critical to strength, mobility, and a faster metabolism.

• Keeping you satiated longer because it digests slowly.

• Controlling blood sugar, which helps prevent cravings.

As an added benefit to fat loss, digesting protein requires your body to burn additional calories!

Unlike when eating carbs and fat, when you eat protein the body draws energy (i.e. calories) to digest and process what you ate. In fact, protein burns 20-30% worth of its own calories during digestion vs. only 5-10% for carbs and 0% for fats.

HOW MUCH PROTEIN TO EAT

While there is debate around how much protein to consume, a good rule of thumb that I recommend is to have .75 - 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (or 1.65 - 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight).

This assumes you are weight training on a regular basis and adding muscle tone (yes, you want to do be doing this!).

WHICH PROTEIN SOURCES TO CONSUME

While eating meat has gotten a bad rap in the media, if you dig deeper, you'll see that it's 'unhealthy meats', which are processed and contain preservatives, are what's bad for you. Eating meat from healthy sources is actually good for you.

Personally, I’m a fan of the Paleo diet, which recommends eating whole foods and protein from the sources our ancestors used to get it from: lean meats, poultry, eggs, and fish.

Many of these sources also contain additional nutritional benefits besides just protein (e.g. whole eggs have good cholesterol, fish have omega 3 fatty acids, etc.).

WHICH PROTEIN SOURCES TO AVOID

Unless you’re a vegan, I would recommend staying away from foods like tofu and tempeh (because they raise estrogen, which stores fat) and seitan (due to its gluten content, which creates inflammation in the gut, making it harder to lose weight).

Similarly, I would limit dairy products as a protein source. While dairy is a complete protein source, it has been shown to cause inflammation in the gut, which makes it harder to shed fat. Milk has also been shown to spike insulin, a fat storing hormone.

Sharp Strategy: Be sure not to confuse foods that are primarily carbs or fat as a protein source. While foods like beans and nuts do contain some protein, there are two problems: First, they do not contain all of the 9 essential amino acids (i.e. they are not 'complete proteins') and second, you would have to consume a tremendous amount of carbs and fat (respectively) to get sufficient protein from these sources.

To look at it more simply:

If you want to be a lean piece of meat,
then eat a lean piece of meat!

After all, we are what we eat, right?

So, that wraps up your handy-dandy guide to protein, a very essential nutrient for your fitness and fat loss goals.

Suffice it to say that when it comes to losing fat, maintaining a healthy weight, and adding muscle, protein is your number 1 weapon in the war against fat and a flabby body.

So let's 'sharpen' that blade and get chewing.