A conversation with my inner noob (am I crazy?)
Protein comes from: meat! dairy! legumes! eggs! nuts!
What it does: it helps build/repair your body (including those sexy muscles of yours!). It also a form of energy, because (duh) those foods have calories.
Can you elaborate on how it helps my muscles? Sure: When you work out (which requires muscles to move no matter what you're doing... obviously) your muscles are twitching (there's fast twitch and slow twich muscle fibers, the latter refering to those which sustain you on a long jog, vs the fast which give you amazing power in little bursts, such as when you are sprinting... but I digress) and stressing and having a huge dance party. And they get tired. They get little mini tears in them because of the stress of motion and contractions, chemicals reacting, etc etc. So, in order to repair (not to mention grow, cause you can't grow without fuel!) you need a) calories and b) specifically protein. It's like if you skip feeding your plant or giving it fresh soil - it will grow, but not the way you want it to!
So why do I care about muscles if all I want is to lose fat? Well: if your muscles are not supplied with proper proteins, the repair process and therefore your muscular development is like buying Walmart underwear vs Victoria's Secret - it does the job, but does it look and feel the best? Is it sexy? Sure, the Walmart pair is fine when it's under your clothing, but the Victoria's secret is the one you wanna wear when that special someone comes around.
Having muscles and a low bodyfat percentage (mind you "low" is relative here - women bodybuilders can get down to a minimum of about 9%, where "normal" ladies probably want to opt for 15-20% to see nice definition) IS SEXY. We don't need 20" biceps, but I bet you'd rather have a sleek line on the inside of your arm than a saggy garbage bag dangling below it.... okay, so those are obviously esthetic things. But there are legitimate FAT BURNING reasons too!
I like burning fat! Can you elaborate on the fat burning stuff? Let's start with basic principles here. You probably already know that if you have a LARGE body, you are going to need a LARGE amount of calories to sustain it. We're not even talking body composition here - this is just the fact that plain old LARGE people need to eat a lot (relatively) to remain large. You get a 300lb man, he will probably have a BMR (basal metabolic rate - the amount of calories your body needs to just exist if you were, for instance, in a coma) of at least 2000. And that's not including daily activities (even if that's just getting up to go to the bathroom and the fridge) which would give him a TDEE (total daily energy expenditure - basically your maintenance calories if you wanted to keep your lifestyle the same and stay the exact same weight) of about 2400. That means this large man needs to eat at least 2400 calories a day to avoid losing weight.
Now let's look a little deeper, at your body composition: fat is not very metabolically active. This means that fat can just sit there without you feeding it and it will stay the same. Unless your body is tapping into it for energy purposes, it's very existance does not require feedings. It is like a fake houseplant. However, muscle IS metabolically active. this means that muscle CAN'T just sit there without you feeding it, it requires regular feedings in order to thrive. It is like a REAL houseplant. Its very existance BURNS CALORIES.
Holy crap, so this means if I don't do cardio at all but I strength train 5x a week, I can still lose weight? Assuming you're eating enough and including enough protein... yes and no. Yes you will lose FAT, but you may not necessaily lose weight.
What?
Muscle is more dense than fat. if you are gaining muscles through your strength training it will melt away your fat, and your clothes will be looser and you will feel sexier, but the number on the scale may not go down.
Okay, I'll just do cardio then, because I want to lose 10lbs. You're dumb. would you rather look like a supermodel and weigh 150lbs or look like wax dripping off a candlestick and weigh 110lbs? I'm hoping you chose heavy supermodel vs the light flabbymonster, or else I wrote all this for no reason.
I choose the heavy supermodel. So what's the point of cardio? Cardio is still important. Firstly, it improves your cardiovascular health. It improves your endurance, so you can outrun the zombies when the world ends. It also is fantastic at burning calories. The key with cardio is to do it right! As with most things in life, you probably want to do something the right way first instead of wasting time.
So how do I do it right? You have to fuel yourself properly.
- Eat enough protein so that your muscles replair.
- Eat enough (period) so there are enough calories in your system to
- Fuel your workout performance, and
- Make sure that your body doesn't turn to eating your muscles for fuel. if your LBM (lean body mass, which is all your organs/bones/muscles - a number you do NOT WANT TO GO DOWN, EVER) decreses, that means your muscles are being eaten away from a combination of not being well-repaired and probably too big of a calorie deficit.
How do I know if I'm really doing this right? If you're doing the whole weight loss thing right, your LBM should stay the same or increase, while your bodyfat percentage decreases. To find out your LBM you need to know your weight and your bodyfat percentage. Unfortunately I've only had mine measured professionally once, about four years ago when I joined a gym, and I can't remember the number and it's probably changed since then anyway. Fortunately, there are INTERNET ways to do this! It's not as accurate, but if you're using the same method to measure it every time, it is the PROGRESS that counts! Here's a site where you can figure it out at home. (remember it is definitely not nearly as accurate as a caliper test, but it's something to mark progress at the least).
Now that you have this percentage, you can figure out how many POUNDS of fat are on your body by:
- Taking your body weight and multiplying it by the percentage.
- So for me, I'm apparently 25% body fat, so I would do 145 x .25 = 36.25. That means I have 36.25lbs of pure fat on my body (some of this is essential fat: some so I am not a skeleton, some to surround and protect my organs, and of course boobies!).
- Now you can see your LBM by subtracting the pounds of fat from your total body weight.
- For me, 145 - 36.25 = 108.75. That means my bones, muscles and organs together weigh about 109lbs. (you can also figure out a goal weight for yourself by playing with these numbers, but again this internet calculator is NOT as accurate as a caliper test, so take it with a grain of salt).
Weight is arbitrary. Bodyfat percentage is what counts.
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