Whether you’re trying to build muscle or preserve it while losing fat, there’s one major element you need to incorporate into your life. The muscle building element you need is:
Protein.
If you read my blog, you already know some of the importance of protein. If you’re a first time visitor, check out this post from Tuesday for a preview of today. Today I’m going to cover many of the aspects of why protein is so important. This will be in more of a bulleted list format than full-fledged blog post.
Protein is one of the three major macronutrients all food is made of. The other two are carbohydrates and fat. When eaten, protein is digested and broken down into amino acids. These are then utilized by our body as the building blocks for muscle and other organic processes.
There are 20 types of amino acids our body needs. 12 of them, deemed non-essential amino acids, are created by our body. The other eight, called essential amino acids, are NOT produced by our body and need to be consumed in the protein sources we eat. We absolutely need these eight amino acids hence their title of essential.
I don’t want to bore you with all of the nitty gritty details of amino acids, so if you want to learn more check out this article. It covers the details of essential amino acids a bit more in-depth.
This is likely what you’re waiting for. It’s the main event. The meat (no pun intended) and potatoes of the post. Why protein is the muscle building element you need. Let’s start shall we?
While there are more benefits to this muscle building element, I’m going to stop here. The other benefits will probably bore you as they’re a bit more scientific in nature.
The beauty of protein is that it comes in many different sources. As mentioned above, we need to ensure we are consuming protein to get the eight essential amino acids our body cannot produce. Lean protein sources include:
While there are more, this is a good list to work off of.
One thing to note: just because a particular food contains protein it doesn’t always make it a protein source. Peanut Butter is a great example. Peanut Butter has protein, but a majority of its caloric makeup is from fat therefore it’s more of a fat source than it is a protein source.
If there’s one major change you should make to your diet it’s adding more protein. No matter what your goals just remember that protein is the muscle building element you need. You can’t go wrong either way.
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