So why do personal trainers and diets keep telling you eat protein? Many people will come up with the common answers such as, “Protein helps my muscles grow and recover” , “Calories from protein are much easier for the body to burn than carbohydrates.” This is all true but did you ever wonder how many calories you burn when your body actually digests food? That’s right your body actually burns calories when ti digests the food you eat. It makes sense that a bodily function would require energy, but most people don’t understand this so here at illuminate gym we’ve begun to educate our clientele about the actual ‘thermogenic effect of food” which is the amount of calories burned during the digestion of food.
In essence what I am saying is that when we eat food we not only add calories to the body because we also burn calories during the breaking down of our foods. This process of burning calories to digest food is call the ‘thermogenic effect of food”. Most foods cause the body to burn about 5%-10% of the total consumed calorie amount to break down and eventually digest the food. However, protein forces the body to burn a staggering 30% of the total calorie amount to digest. What this means is if a person eats 100 calories from protein it will take approximately 30 calories to digest leaving only 70 usable calories left for the body to burn. So this is another reason why eating protein is so important to a person who is trying to live a healthy lifestyle. Protein is the most complex nutrient for the body to break down making it an inefficient way to get calories to the body but a great way to keep your excess calories down. Keep in mind that eating complex carbs like vegetables and legumes are also ways to force the body to burn more calories during digestion….. “So that’s why my personal trainer told me to eat complex carbohydrates.” It’s all making sense now. Continue to eat your protein and complex carbohydrates…. Make the body work a little to get it’s energy and have a healthy day!
Tags: body, burn, calories, carbohydrate, carbohydrates, carbs, diet, diets, food, legumes, muscle, muscles, nutrient, nutrients, protein, proteins, thermogenic, thermogenic effect on food, vegetables