PROTEIN, FAT, CARBOHYDRATES
The primary nutrients humans consume are protein, fat and carbohydrates. Understanding the role each of these primary nutrients plays on our health and on our ability to gain or lose weight is an important feature of the 3-Week Diet. I strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with this portion of the 3-Week Diet, as it will have long lasting ramifications on your daily life.
Protein
Proteins are the foundation of your body’s cells, tissues and organs. They are essential to your muscles, hair, skin, hair, organs and hormones. While the body can survive without eating another carbohydrate and while it can last for extended periods without eating fat, a lack of protein in your diet will cause degeneration of your muscle tissue and organs, which will eventually lead to death. Knowing how important protein is to the body, it is unbelievable to see how many people still get most of their calories from high-carbohydrate diets.
Several studies have shown that the recommended daily allowance for protein consumption is far lower than it should be. .especially for those engaged in regular exercise. What this research has shown is that people following the “recommended daily allowance” of protein consumption while engaging in regular physical activity, were actually losing valuable muscle tissue because there was not enough protein in the body to repair and rebuild their muscles after their workouts.
Proteins are made up of amino acids and there are just 20 amino acids that make up ALL human proteins. Of these 20 amino acids, the body can only produce 12 of these itself. This means the other eight amino acids must be obtained through the foods you eat.
Lysine, leucine, isoleucine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine are the essential amino acids that are not made by the body (there are two others necessary for infants and small children). We get these amino acids when we consume protein sources like meat, fish, poultry and legumes.
Protein sources that contain adequate amounts of all of the amino acids are called “complete proteins.” Those food items that do not contain all or adequate amounts of amino acids are know as “incomplete proteins.”
In general, animal proteins (meat, fish, poultry, cheese, eggs) are considered “complete proteins.” The “incomplete proteins” are those that are vegetable based, usually in the form of grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. To get enough essential amino acids through vegetable protein, one usually has to combine several different food groups together in a strategic combination.
Breaking down and processing protein takes a lot more energy and much more time than it does to break down other nutrients. In other words, the body has to work a lot harder to digest protein than it does with carbohydrates and fat.
The extra energy it takes to break down and process protein reduces the amount of energy your body receives from that food it consumed. Also, because it takes longer to break down and to assimilate protein, the process of emptying the stomach takes longer as well, which causes us to feel full longer, which reduces hunger pangs.
It is believed that the body can only use about 50% of the protein we eat. This means the other 50% is eliminated from the body as waste because protein is not stored in the body the same way that fat and carbohydrates are. So, when you eat calories primarily from protein, you can rest assured that these protein calories are repairing and rebuilding your body with the excess being eliminated as waste. The extra protein will not be stored as body fat. As you will see, this is in stark contrast to excess carbohydrates and fat we eat, which are stored on our bodies in our fat cells instead of being eliminated.
Adding protein to your meals causes your body to release a hormone called glucagon. Glucagon works to slow down the harmful effect of excess carbohydrates from being deposited into our fat cells. It does so by slowing the rate of absorption of those carbohydrates. Additionally, there are new studies that have shown that when the body releases glucagon (by consuming protein in your diet), it also works to stimulate fat-burning by freeing up your stored body fat, so that it can be used to fuel your body.
As you will see, when we increase protein consumption and significantly decrease the amount of carbohydrates we consume, we benefit from a dual fat-burning effect. On one hand, when the body does not have carbohydrates to turn to, to fuel the body, it begins to use stored body fat. Secondly, the release of glucagon into the body appears to have the added effect of attacking the fat stores that the insulin has worked to preserve. The 3-Week Diet is strategically designed to take advantage of both these events.