Protein is great for all that!
Why? There're a few reasons.
1. Great for building muscle, as well as restoring and maintaining muscles
2. Has a satiating effect (makes you feel full for longer)
3. Has a great thermic effect (takes a lot of energy to digest - 25-30% of its own calories. E.g. When you eat 100 calories worth of protein, you spend about 30 calories to digest it. For 100 cals of carbohydrates, only about 5 calories are used up in digesting it! )
4. Helps to give healthy blood cells and enzymes
5. Good for immune system
Good sources of protein:
Fish - any kind is great, just make sure it's cooked in a non fried manner. Try to avoid farmed fatty fish and get fish from waters that are more pollution-free.
Poultry and eggs - eat your poultry non-fried. If you have a safe, clean source of fresh eggs, eat them as lightly cooked as possible, to keep the nutrients in the yolk intact
Meat - Lean cuts of any animal are good. Don't try to hard to cut out the fat though - you need some of those fats to absorb the good stuff in the meat, like some of the vitamins and minerals. Meat from game animals or free-range grass-fed animals are more nutritious and healthful.
Shellfish - all good, make sure its prepared hygienically. Again, try to source shellfish from the less polluted fishing grounds.
Dairy - Full-fat cheese, non-sweetened yoghurt
Low-carb protein powder - don't make this your main source of protein though.
How much to eat?
Men should eat 1.5-2g per pound of protein of bodyweight and women should eat slightly more than half of that, spread over 5-7 meals for good fat loss and muscle gain. Most protein foods are around 22% protein after cooking. E.g. a 300g steak might contain 66g of protein.
All your protein should be as close to its natural form as possible. Eg. Chicken thighs instead of chicken nuggets, pork chops instead of bacon and ham (avoid deli meats for their nitrates and fat content etc), fish slices versus fish balls.
Back to (one of the many reasons) why protein is good for fat loss:
Protein is special because of its thermic effect. It is tough to digest so 25% of its own calories are used for its own digestion. This really adds up. Let's say that our 80kg man eats 180g of protein a day. Since protein is 4 calories per gram that's a total of 720 calories from protein. 25% of this is used up in digestion of protein that's 180 calories burnt each day just as a result of how much work the body has to do in digestion of this nutrient alone!
Since his intake is about double the average person's that means that he has an extra 90 calories burnt each day just because of his increased intake. That is equal to an extra 10 minutes of brisk swimming each day and will result in about 1kg extra of fat loss (all other things being equal) every 10-12 weeks. All this for "free" just because we have increased protein intake.
A word on Protein Myths
For clients doing personal training or fitness bootcamps in Singapore or elsewhere, there is the general misconception that excess protein causes you to have serious health problems.
Well excess anything makes us fat. Protein "seems" even worse than that according to many old wives tales. If those tales were correct, excess protein would make our kidneys explode! But they don't. In fact there are no studies that show that high protein diets affect kidney function. NONE. ZERO!
There are however studies that show that people who have EXISTING kidney problems should not take excess protein. This is like saying "you shouldn't play soccer if you have a broken leg..." well of course! However that is not saying that people playing soccer will DEFINITELY break their legs.
When Singapore residents want REAL results in health, fat loss, weight loss, muscle building and sports performance they visit Coach Jonathan Wong for the best Singapore personal training and fitness bootcamp in Singapore. Free week-long trials of bootcamps up for anyone with a desire to get lean, learn to eat right and look good!
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