Are the Carbs You're Eating Causing Your Cravings?

 Controlling the insulin level in your blood is very important in your effort to control your weight.  Most food cravings and hunger pains originate from quick rises in your blood sugar level and consequently, spikes in your insulin level.  What causes this rise and fall in your blood sugar level ?  The answer is, your body digesting the carbohydrates in your diet.

Carbohydrates are essential nutrients that are excellent sources of energy (measured as calories) for your body; they are the preferred fuel for your brain and nervous system.  Most carbohydrates come from plant sources and are in the form of sugars, starches, and fibers. Sugars, also called simple carbohydrates, include fruit sugar (fructose), corn or grape sugar (dextrose or glucose), and table sugar (sucrose). Starches, also known as complex carbohydrates, include everything made of three or more linked sugars. Starches include foods such as breads, cereals, grains, pasta, rice, and flour. Fibers are technically classified as a starch because they are complex carbohydrates that your body cannot breakdown into sugar molecules. Fibers are more abundant in whole grains, legumes, and vegetables.


 Carbohydrates are an important part of your diet.  The problem is that most people get the majority of their carbohydrates form easily digested sources such as white bread, white rice, pastries, sugared sodas, and other highly processed foods.  These kind of foods are quickly converted into blood sugar, thus causing a rapid rise in your insulin level.  Insulin takes the blood sugar and stores it in your muscles for fuel and the remainder of it is stored as fat in your body.  This rapid rise and fall of insulin in your blood stream also causes energy highs and lows and food cravings.

Muscle is Key to Long-Term Weight Loss

I believe, as you age strength training is the best thing you can do to improve your health and fitness level. Strength training is important because around age 40 you start to experience muscle loss. “If you don’t do anything to replace the lean muscle you lose, you’ll increase the percentage of fat in your body,” says Dr. Edward Laskowski, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Left unabated, you can lose up to 10 pounds of muscle each decade starting at age 40.

Loosing muscle is detrimental to your fitness because muscle is the component of your body that burns the majority of the calories you consume each day. Therefore, when you lose muscle your body requires less calories to function. Consequently, those extra calories you consume are stored as fat around your waist, hips, and other places.

Your body constantly burn calories, even when you’re doing nothing. This resting metabolic rate is much higher in people with more muscle. Every pound of muscle uses about six calories a day to sustain itself, while each pound of fat burns only two calories daily. This small difference can add up over time. In addition, after a bout of resistance training, muscles are activated all over your body, increasing your average daily metabolic rate.

Fortunately, strength training and the proper amount of protein in your diet can mitigate, and even reverse the loss of muscle at any age. Thus, increasing the amount of calories needed to function. That’s why you hear some people say that their appetites increase after they have been strength training for awhile. This is a sign that they are starting to build muscle.

It's been proven that consuming 25 to 30 grams of high quality protein within 30 minutes of completing a strength training session is the most effective way to stimulate muscle growth and recovery.  Thus, I use Protein My Whey for my recovery immediately after my workouts.  Protein My Whey contains 26 grams of muscle building whey protein isolates, one of the highest quality protein sources available.  In addition Protein My Whey is:

• Fat Free
• Cholesterol Free
• Only contains 1 gram of carbohydrates
• Sugar Free
• Lactose Free
• Sweetened with Stevia

I highly recommend Protein My Whey.  Find out more by clicking on this link: Protein My Whey
.

Complete and Incomplete Protein Sources

Protein is a necessary part of every living cell in your body.  Next to water, protein comprises up the greatest portion of your body weight.  Protein substances make up your muscles, ligaments, tendons, organs, glands, nails, hair, and many vital body fluids.  It is essential for the growth, repair, and healing of your bones, tissues, and cells.  In addition, the enzymes and hormones that catalyze and regulate your body processes are comprised of protein.  So, you see the proper amount of protein in your diet is vital for your health and well being.

Protein is composed of building-block chemicals called amino acids.  There are approximately 28 commonly known amino acids that your body uses to create all the various combinations of proteins needed for survival. These 28 commonly known amino acids are further classified as essential and nonessential amino acids.  Nonessential amino acids can be produced in your body, while essential amino acids cannot be produced in your body and must be obtained from the foods you eat.

The sources of protein in your diet are classified as complete or incomplete.  Complete proteins contain all the essential amino acids and are mostly from animal sources such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy products.  Incomplete proteins lack one or more essential amino acids that your body cannot make itself.  Incomplete proteins usually come from plant- based sources such as fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts.  You must eat incomplete sources of protein in a combination that contains all the essential amino acids in order for your body to use them.

As mentioned, you must get your essential amino acids from your diet because your body cannot make them itself.  Some of the best animal sources of protein are fish, poultry, lean cuts of meat, and low-fat dairy products.  Some of the best vegetable sources are beans, nuts, and whole grains.

Check out Protein My Whey.  One of the most complete and highly digestible sources of protein that I've seen in my 20 plus years in the health and fitness industry.  Each serving of Protein My Whey contains:

• 26 grams of muscle building whey protein
• 1 gram of carbohydrates
• Fat Free
• Cholesterol Free
• Lactose Free
• Sweetened with Stevia

          Find out more about this wonderful protein supplement by clicking on this link: Protein My Whey.

Protein Quality is Very Important

You've probable seen an advertisement something like this " our product contains 12 grams of muscle building protein."  But, is 12 grams of protein enough to build and maintain your muscle mass?

Truth is the quantity and quality of protein in your meal is very important in building and repairing your muscles.  Let's talk quantity first.  The goal of protein consumption and lean muscle mass is to optimize muscle protein synthesis (the biological process by which muscle cells are regenerated).  Studies show that consuming 25 to 30 grams of high quality protein at each meal is necessary to stimulate protein synthesis. Consequently, any meal in which you don't get a least 25 grams of protein does not start the rebuilding and repairing of your muscles.

Let's talk quality next.  While plant based sources of protein are good, the best and highest quality of protein comes from dairy, meat, poultry, and fish. To better assess the quality of protein in various foods, analysts often use the protein efficiency ratio, or PER, a measure of a specific protein’s ability to promote growth.

Whey, the watery residue from milk after the formation of curds in the cheese-making process, ranks among the highest quality proteins based on PER calculations, according to “NSCA’s Guide to Sport and Exercise Nutrition.” Used widely in protein supplements, whey has a PER rating of 3 to 3.2 and digests rapidly, which paves the way for rapid uptake of the amino acids it contains by your muscles to begin protein synthesis.

That's why after over 20 years in the health and fitness industry, I'm proud to introduce my new brand of whey protein to you.  It's called Protein My Whey.  Each serving of Protein My Whey contains:

• 26 grams of muscle building whey protein
• No fat
• No cholesterol
• No sugar
• 1 gram of carbohydrates
• Lactose free
• Sweetened with Stevia

You can find out more and purchase this great product by clicking on this link: Protein My Whey.