Eat this to burn more fat

The one food type that speeds up your metabolic rate.
 
The one food type that I tell my clients to make their first priority if they want to see phenomenal results.
 
Protein.
 
One of the many, many benefits of protein is that it can speed up your metabolism by taking advantage of something called the thermic effect of food (TEF)
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When I first start working with a client who is interested in losing some body fat or putting on some quality lean muscle, one the first things I look at is the amount of protein they eat on a daily basis.
 
Now the golden rule for any fat loss program is a calorie deficit. But there are some nuances to how we create this and although we cannot get around the energy balance issue we can take advantage of how different macronutrients affect the body.
 
Let’s take 1g of carbohydrates for example. 1 gram of carbs holds approximately 4 K/Cal worth of energy.
 
Protein is exactly the same. 1g of protein yields approximately 4K/Cal.
 
But as in life, the same rule applies to food – not all things are created equal. When we eat and digest food there is an energy cost to digest and break it down known as the thermic effect of food.
 
This is where protein rules over carbs and fats. The TEF effect of carbs and fats is somewhere between 5-15% of the calories you eat. So if that food contains 100 K/Cal and the thermic effect is 10% you have 90 K/Cal left for energy and storage purposes.
 
Now the TEF protein can be up to a whopping 35% of the calories. This means that if we look at the same 100 K/Cal of protein only 65 K/Cal would be left as an energy source in the body.
 
So this is a neat little trick in dieting. By taking advantage of the TEF you can theoretically diet on higher amounts of food compared to carbs and fats whilst staying full for longer. (protein is ranked high on the satiety index.)
 
Another interesting fact about protein is that it is almost impossible to store as fat. It’s structure and functions make this very unlikely in the body and most of what we don’t need or use is harmlessly passed out in healthy, active individuals.
 
Now one of the possible negatives protein is that there are no long-term storage pools for it in the body. Our muscles take up most of the protein but it is very much use it or lose it. This means we have to eat protein regularly throughout the day as well as daily.
So plan ahead and make sure most of your meals contain some form of quality protein if you are serious about losing fat and looking after your lean muscle.
 
If you have any questions on how much to consume on a daily basis or what the best possible sources are please feel free to message me.