Food has a lot of effects on your body. Food can make us stronger, it can make us healthier, and it can even prevent serious diseases.
Of course, not all foods can do this. Some of them have negative effects on the body as well. The effect that the food will have on our body depends on the nutritive value of the food and the amount of the food we eat.
For instance, even foods low in nutrients won’t harm you if you consume them in the right way.
However, some foods are more beneficial than others and some nutrients are more important than the others.
One of the most important nutrients is by far protein and here you can find out what protein is and how does it benefit you.
Table of Contents
What is protein?
Nutrients can be macronutrients and micronutrients. Protein, next to fats and carbohydrates, is one of the macronutrients. These are all important because they provide you energy.
Protein is the one macronutrient responsible for building muscle mass. That means that without a proper amount of protein daily, you won’t be able to build muscle mass at all.
Protein is usually found in animal products. Protein is found in some other sources as well. For instance, nuts and legumes are full of protein.
The term “macro” comes from the fact that your body needs large amounts of these nutrients in order for you to remain healthy and functional.
On the other hand, your body requires smaller amounts of micronutrients and that is the origin of their name as well. Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals.
Since your body can’t produce these nutrients, you must obtain them from other sources.
When it comes to the protein, this nutrient is made up of amino acids. Amino acids are organic compounds that are made of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, or sulphur.
These are the building blocks of protein, while protein is the building block of your muscles. With fuelled muscle mass, you also get better metabolism.
Not only that, but protein is also very important for your immune system. For all these reasons protein intake is important and you shouldn’t neglect protein in your diet.
Effects of protein on weight loss
As mentioned before, protein intake is very important. If you’re looking for ways to lose weight, good exercise and large amounts of protein will be your biggest allies.
When fighting the unwanted pounds, every help is needed. If you want to step up your game you should consider having a protein shake before bed.
Even though this is the key step in your journey to desirable weight, you shouldn’t forget about the total caloric intake.
Calories are the macronutrients that you should pay special attention to on this journey. Every time you go overboard with calories, you end up gaining weight.
That is why it’s important not to eat over the required amount of calories per day. That is also the reason why you should be careful when supplementing with the protein shakes.
Namely, every protein shake you have adds calories to the total of the day. That means that you could easily make a mistake and add more calories than you intended while planning on going in a different direction.
To avoid making your effort seem like it is all done in vain, you should adjust your calorie intake to the newly developed diet.
To be more specific, if you decide to start drinking protein shakes regularly before bed, don’t forget to lower the number of calories you consume throughout the day. Otherwise, you may get the result you weren’t hoping for.
If you do manage to keep track of the calories you consume throughout the day, you’ll definitely go in the right direction.
Since this is the biggest problem, once you manage to solve this one, you can easily move on.
When it comes to the best time to drink your protein shakes, night time is by far the best time to do so. Namely, protein boosts your metabolism, and more importantly, stimulates muscle growth.
Once the metabolism is boosted, the rate at which calories are burnt is speeded up as well. This all plays a major role in your fight with the undesirable pounds.
The hardest part is counting all the calories you consume. Luckily, once you start doing it regularly it’ll become a habit and you won’t spend as much time on it.
When it comes to the perfect amount of calories, that is not that hard to count. For instance, if you consume 1800 calories per day, you’ll need to subtract a bit from that number.
The amount that you subtract is the amount of the calories you’ll consume once you have your protein shake.
Speaking of this number – 1800 calories per day, the perfect amount of calories to subtract would be somewhere between 160 and 300 calories. The exact amount depends on your age, weight, and the fact of whether you exercise or not.
To make the shake as enjoyable as possible, don’t forget all of the tasty fruits, nut butter, or milk. If you do use some of these ingredients, you’ll probably reach the number 300 when it comes to the calorie count.
If you do drink this shake at night, you can expect the best possible results when it comes to losing weight.
The best part is that this doesn’t even take much effort. All you need to do is eat delicious food while paying attention to the number of calories and that’s it!
The key things to take out from this are that protein shakes can help you lose weight. By boosting your metabolism, they speed up the burning of calories.
They also build muscles. Another important thing is that they are most beneficial when consumed at night. However, you shouldn’t forget about the number of calories you consume during the day.
When planning on calories for the day, you should always include the already mentioned protein shake. Since the shake is consumed at the end of the day, people tend to forget about it, but that is the key thing to do if you want success.
Effects on muscle growth
As was already mentioned, protein has a significant influence on muscle growth as well.
This is especially important if you’re exercising regularly, and it’s even more important if you’re doing high-intensity exercises. All of these require a larger protein intake than normal.
This is exactly the reason why protein shakes are the most popular way to build muscle. Namely, when you exercise, you tear your muscles down. You need the right fibre to rebuild it and that is why protein is so important.
Protein balance is very important for your body. All the amino acids that proteins consist of are essential for you and that is why the consumption of the protein is so important.
If exercise too much or if you don’t eat enough, your body could lack these amino acids. This could result in a negative shift. Fortunately, protein shakes are there to help you restore a healthy balance.
This healthy balance is a necessary feature when it comes to muscle growth.
Balance is so important because your body deals with constant depletion and feeding of amino acids. This all depends on the number of nutrients in the food you consume.
If you manage to find the right amount of protein your body needs, you’ll easily maintain this balance necessary for building muscle. For instance, if you’re an athlete, you’ll notice the negative effects as soon as your body is in the deficit of protein.
Without protein, there is no energy or source of growth and your body starts breaking down the muscle tissue to use it as fuel.
The best time for consuming the protein in large amounts is post-workout. You can have it as soon as you’re done with exercising or you can have it at night.
Since the benefits of drinking the shake at night are already familiar, it would be best to do so. You can find the ideal amount of protein both in food or supplementation.
When it comes to food, some of the most popular sources of protein are chicken, fish, cottage cheese, and Greek yogurt.
Effects on sleep
Not every protein is good for your sleep. Namely, depending on the type of protein, some types can even disturb your sleep.
That is why it’s important to pay attention to what kind of protein you’re consuming at a certain part of the day.
For instance, some types of protein could cause a surge of energy, which is far from beneficial at night. That is the reason why it’s important to consume bedtime protein.
With a type of protein that is slowly digested, you’ll do the right thing. Namely, if you consume the right kind of protein at night, you’ll be able to stimulate muscle protein synthesis without any problem with sleep cycles.
Muscle protein synthesis is the term under which the process of repairing the muscle after it’s torn apart is known. Speaking of types of protein, it’s worth mentioning that whey protein is one of the best when it comes to stimulating muscle protein synthesis.
On the other hand, casein is also good for this purpose, even though it’s not that good as whey. Casein is good in terms of duration since its benefits are present for longer.
Because of all this, whey protein is best when it’s used post-workout and not pre-sleep.
Of course, there are natural sources of protein as well. For instance, cooked eggs are considered to be the most popular sources of protein.
Low=fat milk is another instance of this and it is closely followed by low-fat yogurt. Protein is also found in chicken breasts and lean steak.
By combining all of these and supplementation in your diet, you can easily get the best results. To be more specific, you can lose weight, build muscle, and keep the quality of your sleep at an admirable level.
Effects on performance
If you have a specific reason to consume more protein, it’s good to acknowledge it and act accordingly.
Since the consumption of protein before bed has such an important role, you’ll be amazed once you see how much better your performance is becoming.
If you’re looking for a way to improve your athletic performance, all you need to do is start consuming the protein at night.
Once your sleep gets better, you’ll discover all the positive changes, caused by the protein. For instance, you’ll see how much your strength during the workouts has improved.
You’ll also be able to exercise longer. The reconditioning of your muscles during the night will be enhanced as well.
Besides all that, due to the quality of sleep, you’ll get, you’ll also experience a better mood and more energy to keep up with your daily work.
What to do?
Depending on your goal, you’ll know how to act. For instance, if you exercise and you want to build muscle, you’ll develop a diet that will have mid-calorie shakes that have a balance of carbohydrates and protein.
On the other hand, if you want to lose weight, you’ll go for a shake low in calories and low in sugar as well. However, if you want to gain weight, a high-calorie shake is the one for you.
If you exercise a lot, you may not want to eat solid food after the workout. Instead, you could better use a supplement that has all the nutrients that you need.
The key thing to remember is that the processes of losing weight or building muscle both happen during the night as well. That is why you need to keep consuming protein and enhancing the processes you want to enhance.
Conclusion
Nutrients are the most important features you consume. Without the right nutrients, you can’t make any results. On the other hand, if you conduct a small research, find out what you need and where to find it, you’ll have no trouble in achieving the results you want.
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