Breakfast Starts Your Day in Either a Fat Burning Or a Fat Storing Mode

Your first meal of the day is very important because it determines whether you start your day in a fat burning or a fat storing mode.  Most people mistakenly start their day in a fat storing mode by eating a meal high in carbohydrates such as cereal, bread, fruit, and juice for breakfast and very little protein.  Your body quickly converts all those carbohydrates to blood sugar, which causes your insulin level to spike and to store most of those calories your just consumed as fat.  Once all that blood sugar is stored, your insulin level hits bottom causing hunger pains and cravings for more foods high in carbohydrates.  This vicious sugar craving cycle can go on all day unless you do something to derail it.

On the other hand,  having a breakfast in which you consume at least 21 grams of high quality protein such as eggs, low-fat dairy, and lean meats starts your day in a fat burning mode.  When you eat a breakfast high in protein your body to start a process called protein synthesis.  This is basically a biological process by which muscle cells are built and maintained and it is very energy intensive causing your body to burn fat as fuel to support it.  Thus, this process increases your metabolism, and levels out your energy until your next meal, which means you burn more calories, and you don't have sugar cravings.

I start my day by having a smoothie with a whey protein powder that is quick and easy to make.   When using a protein supplement, whey based or otherwise, make sure it has at least 21 grams of protein per serving because this is the threshold where your body starts the protein synthesis process.  Below is one of my favorite smoothies for breakfast, I call it my Blueberry Special.

• One cup of frozen wild blueberries
• One serving of vanilla whey protein powder (the one I use has 26 grams of protein per serving)
• One cup of unsweetened almond milk

This smoothie contains 249 calories, 3 grams of fat, 29 grams of carbohydrates, and 28 grams of protein. A quick and easy balanced breakfast that starts my day in a fat burning mode.

Getting Enough BCAAs In Your Diet Is Crucial To Maintaining Healthy Muscle As You Age

The natural process of losing muscle as you age is called sarcopenia and it can begin in your 30s, and this process accelerates with time if you don't do anything to slow its progress.  The good news is there are two things within your power you can do to slow and even reverse muscle loss with age, They are resistance training two to three times each week, and getting an adequate amount of Branched Chained Amino Acids (BCAAs ) in your diet each day.  These two activities combined have been shown to slow the effects of sarcopenia in people well into their 90s.

BCAAs  are the three essential amino acids, leucine, isoleucine, and valine that come from the protein that you eat, such as chicken, fish, and dairy products, or a protein supplement..  They are called essential because your body cannot make them out other amino acids, and therefore they must come from the food you eat, or a protein supplement.

BCAAs are most well  known for triggering protein synthesis,(the building, and repair of muscle cells).  Combining BCAAs with weight lifting results in maximal protein synthesis because both these activities trigger something called the mTORC1 signaling pathway that is essential for muscle building.  The proper amount of BCAAs can increase protein synthesis by as much as 145 percent when you consume it right after a session of resistance training.

As you get older, getting the proper amount of BCAAs is paramount for building, and maintaining muscle.  Creating a muscle building environment in the body is important, but becomes harder to do as you age.  Activation of protein synthesis is impaired, and starts to decline after the age of 35.  This decreased muscle building effect along with the tendency to eat less dietary protein with aging are the primary contributors to muscle loss and sarcopenia.

You need at least 21 grams of good quality protein in a meal in order for your body to have an adequate amount of BCAAs for the amino acid Leucine to turn on the signal for protein synthesis to take place.  This signaling process to begin muscle building, and repair can also take place if you have a BCAA supplement that is 40 percent Leucine.

The goal of protein consumption as you age should be to maximize, and maintain muscle mass.  Studies have shown that consuming 25 to 30 grams of protein at each meal is optimal for building and maintaining muscle mass, and strength.