Dave
01-19-2010, 09:03 PM
If you are doing P90X and following the Nutrition Guide, you are probably asking yourself this very question. Seriously, why so much protein? It makes Phase I - Fat Shredder - hard to follow and represents a massive change from the modern American diet of starchy carbs, high fat foods and high fructose corn syrup (items commonly found while staring out the window of your car and shouting into a box).
Here are a few of the top reasons:
1. Protein boosts your metabolism. It takes twice as much energy to break down proteins as it does carbohydrates. Your body can charge through carbs pretty easily, but it has to work to break down proteins. This means after you eat a high-protein meal your body must burn calories to break it down. Some studies have shown people with high-protein diets burned up to twice as many calories in the hours after their meals, than those on high-carb diets.
2. Protein flips your "satiety" switch. Huh? That's a fancy way of saying it makes you feel full. Would you keep eating if you felt full? Probably not. High fructose corn syrup has the exact opposite effect, which is why they make a 64 oz big gulp. That's between 800 and 1,000 calories, but you don't feel full after you drink one. "Satiety"...important stuff. You shouldn't want to eat a bag of chips and a hot dog after consuming 800 calories of anything.
3. Protein is the building block of muscle. This is oversimplified, but true. Lean protein helps promote muscle growth. Muscle burns fat. Huh? Adding muscle mass requires your body to expend energy to sustain that muscle. Adding one pound of muscle requires your body to burn up to 50 calories a day to maintain it. That's one pound folks. Try adding 10 and you can see why people that add about 10 pounds of muscle look the way they do. Their bodies are simply working more efficiently.
So, that's a nutshell of the benefits of protein. There are more, but I want to keep this simple right now. In addition, we reduce high fat foods and reduce carbs with Phase I of this plan. Trans fats and most saturated fats tend to be stored in the fat cells very easily. We are trying to change that. Some fats are healthy for you, and we'll talk more about that elsewhere. Suffice it to say now that we want to reduce the traditional American diet types of fats that are getting put in our bodies. the reasoning behind reducing starchy carbs is a little more complex. When the body takes in a lot of starchy carbs it treats them like sugars. The body responds by producing insulin to process those sugars in your blood. That in turn causes the body to store more fat because it just does not have any where to store those carbs. In addition, this insulin response actually tells your body to store fat as a precautionary measure. Keep that up long enough and you are headed for diabetes. Here's a video illustrating this principle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNYlIcXynwE&feature=player_embedded
When you eat a lean chicken breast, you make your body work for it and it pays you back by building muscle. It also makes you feel full when you've consumed an appropriate amount of calories. When you eat a burger meal the fat gets stored as excess fat, the fries and bun create an insulin response and the high fructose corn syrup in that yummy soda keeps you from feeling really hungry even though you've gobbled down a huge meal from a caloric perspective. That's just not a good mix. The soda also increases the acidity of your blood, which you can read more about here: http://www.thefitclubnetwork.com/2009/11/how-diet-soda-makes-you-fat/
So, given the range of alternatives and the benefits of protein is it any surprise that the P90X Nutrition Plan focuses on it so much in the first Phase of the diet? Hopefully, all that makes sense. If not, shoot me an email at dave@thefitclubnetwork.com.
Dave
Here are a few of the top reasons:
1. Protein boosts your metabolism. It takes twice as much energy to break down proteins as it does carbohydrates. Your body can charge through carbs pretty easily, but it has to work to break down proteins. This means after you eat a high-protein meal your body must burn calories to break it down. Some studies have shown people with high-protein diets burned up to twice as many calories in the hours after their meals, than those on high-carb diets.
2. Protein flips your "satiety" switch. Huh? That's a fancy way of saying it makes you feel full. Would you keep eating if you felt full? Probably not. High fructose corn syrup has the exact opposite effect, which is why they make a 64 oz big gulp. That's between 800 and 1,000 calories, but you don't feel full after you drink one. "Satiety"...important stuff. You shouldn't want to eat a bag of chips and a hot dog after consuming 800 calories of anything.
3. Protein is the building block of muscle. This is oversimplified, but true. Lean protein helps promote muscle growth. Muscle burns fat. Huh? Adding muscle mass requires your body to expend energy to sustain that muscle. Adding one pound of muscle requires your body to burn up to 50 calories a day to maintain it. That's one pound folks. Try adding 10 and you can see why people that add about 10 pounds of muscle look the way they do. Their bodies are simply working more efficiently.
So, that's a nutshell of the benefits of protein. There are more, but I want to keep this simple right now. In addition, we reduce high fat foods and reduce carbs with Phase I of this plan. Trans fats and most saturated fats tend to be stored in the fat cells very easily. We are trying to change that. Some fats are healthy for you, and we'll talk more about that elsewhere. Suffice it to say now that we want to reduce the traditional American diet types of fats that are getting put in our bodies. the reasoning behind reducing starchy carbs is a little more complex. When the body takes in a lot of starchy carbs it treats them like sugars. The body responds by producing insulin to process those sugars in your blood. That in turn causes the body to store more fat because it just does not have any where to store those carbs. In addition, this insulin response actually tells your body to store fat as a precautionary measure. Keep that up long enough and you are headed for diabetes. Here's a video illustrating this principle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNYlIcXynwE&feature=player_embedded
When you eat a lean chicken breast, you make your body work for it and it pays you back by building muscle. It also makes you feel full when you've consumed an appropriate amount of calories. When you eat a burger meal the fat gets stored as excess fat, the fries and bun create an insulin response and the high fructose corn syrup in that yummy soda keeps you from feeling really hungry even though you've gobbled down a huge meal from a caloric perspective. That's just not a good mix. The soda also increases the acidity of your blood, which you can read more about here: http://www.thefitclubnetwork.com/2009/11/how-diet-soda-makes-you-fat/
So, given the range of alternatives and the benefits of protein is it any surprise that the P90X Nutrition Plan focuses on it so much in the first Phase of the diet? Hopefully, all that makes sense. If not, shoot me an email at dave@thefitclubnetwork.com.
Dave