CAN PROTEIN MAKE YOU TONED?
Just as focusing on kilojoules alone
doesn’t provide all the answers, the scales
also don’t tell you the whole story. They
have no idea when it comes to your
curves, muscle tone, fat content, waist
measurement or any other visual criteria.
Do you, for instance, when checking out
someone in a bar, go over and pick them
up, weighing up their attractiveness. No,
you give them a good visual appraisal, up
and down, like any normal, slightly creepy
person. That’s because shape matters, for
our health and, more importantly, our
sex appeal.
This is where protein comes in, and,
surprisingly, the importance of eating
enough kilojoules every day.
“If you A – don’t meet your protein
requirements or B – don’t meet your
kilojoule requirements, you’ll be losing
muscle,” says McGrice. “You can do as
much exercise as you like but it’s like
trying to build a wall without bricks – you
can’t increase your muscle mass if you
don’t have adequate protein in the body.”
“And if your kilojoule intake is too
low, what will happen is your body will
use some of your muscle mass for energy
rather than building up lean muscle.”
Bodybuilders push their protein levels
to extremes, and ideally they put it to
good use with regular strength training
sessions in front of huge mirrors.“Sure, it can work for hardcore
bodybuilders but for the general public or
someone who is doing a weight session
twice a week who thinks they can eat as
much protein as they like and gain muscle
and no fat, that is definitely not the case.
If you eat too much protein you can put
on fat rather than muscle. Not all protein
automatically converts to muscle.”
But some of it will. An interesting
study conducted by Louisiana State
University of people consuming excess
kilojoules found that people in the
low-protein group experienced less
weight gain, but significantly more fat
gain, whereas the high-protein group
experienced greater weight gain but less
fat and more muscle gain.
These slightly confusing results can be
explained by the fact that muscle weighs
more than fat, that not all excess protein
turns into fat and that protein has a
greater ‘thermic’ effect, meaning it creates
its own ‘heat’ or energy to burn.
“It takes our body more kilojoules to
digest and store protein than fat,” says
McGrice. “It takes approximately 100 kJ
to store 400 kJ of protein, but only 10 kJ to
store 400 kJ of fat.”
In time, the muscle created will
actually help to burn off that fat. But
there’s a catch: you’ll need to hop on your
bike to get it working for you.WHAT’S THE BEST
MACRO SPLIT FOR
FAT LOSS?
To stimulate fat loss and production of lean
muscle at the same time you’ll need to get the
macronutrient ratios right without going under or
over your kilojoule budget.
“The optimal kilojoule range of protein is 15
to 25 per cent, 45 to 65 per cent carbs and 25 to 30
of fat,” says dietitian Dr Alan Barclay. “That allows
you to have a Mediterranean-style diet if you like
or an Asian-style diet – to give you two extremes.
Providing you exercise, you will gain muscle.”
And muscle burns fat, even long after you’ve
packed up your gym bag and are sitting at
home on the couch, that muscle is tirelessly
working out.
But too little protein in your diet makes weight
loss extremely difficult.
“There’s emerging evidence that if you
do undereat protein you’re going to overeat
carbohydrates and fat,” says Dr Barclay. “That’s
because protein is more satiating than the
other macronutrients.”
But too much protein can be harmful.
“Protein becomes toxic when you go above 35
per cent of your kilojoules, even with bodywork,”
says Dr Barclay. “Although a lot of hardcore
bodybuilders push the threshold with protein
shakes and the like.”
Low-carb dieters tend to have other problems- consuming enough protein in the short term
as well as maintaining the original diet for the
long term.
“On a low carb diet the first thing you lose is
fluid and your carbohydrate stores,” says McGrice.
“Typically the average person has around half a
kilo of carbohydrate stores, stored as glycogen.
After that it’s very important that you’re meeting
your protein requirement not only to maintain
muscle but also because you’re now using your
protein as your kilojoule source.”
“I see people really restrict themselves, say,
on a soup diet, and yes, they’re cutting out carbs
but they’re severely restricting protein intake as
well, so you’re losing muscle faster than you’re
losing fat.”
“A lot of these diets are a one-size-fits-all
approach, but somebody who is 150 kg and
somebody who is 80 kg going on a low carb
diet are going to need very different amounts of
protein. One of them might be losing fat and one
of them might be losing muscle. You really need
to be doing it under the guidance of a qualified
dietitian if you want to do it properly.”
HOW CAN FAT MAKE ME LEAN?
It was long believed that fat was the least
satiating of all the nutrients and that it
was only a lack of fatty foods or extreme
willpower that could stop us from
shovelling the stuff into our mouths. In
fact, the opposite is true. Fat is deeply
satisfying and psychologically filling,
which is just as well, because there doesn’t
appear to be a fat shortage on the horizon
in the near future.
Fat tastes great, but it also slows
digestion and activates the brain’s satiety
signals to prevent overeating.
“Research in general populations has
shown that fat intake levels as high as 40
per cent of total calories can be perfectly
healthy,” says Matt Fitzgerald, sport
nutritionist and author of Performance
Nutrition for Runners. “European women
who eat the most fat are the least likely to
be obese. Likewise, research with runners
and other athletes has shown that a high-
fat diet does not adversely affect health
or performance.”
Inadequate fat consumption lowers
the production and activity of fat-burning
enzymes and decreases overall fat-burning
efficiency, Fitzgerald says.
“Runners who consume the least fat
have a higher risk of injury than runners
who eat moderate or relatively high
amounts of fat,” he says. “This is probably
because runners who eat too little fat do
not get enough nutrition to adequately
repair the microscopic muscle damage that
occurs during running.”» CONTINUE ON PAGE 90