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The ultimate guide to upping your game: Faith, weights and protein shakes!
Are you too thinking of a majorly good performance boost at your gym or Pilates class with a tad bit change in diet? Well, then think protein! Protein is a vital macronutrient that is found in every cell of the body. But before you dive right into the world of protein diet, let’s first understand what has protein exactly got to do with enhancing your performance? Read on to learn more!
Improves muscle mass and strength: If you have adequate amounts of proteins, it will let you maintain the muscle mass and can also promote the growth of muscles, especially when you do strength training exercises. Physically-active people lift weights or those who want to gain muscles must ensure that they are getting enough protein, or their efforts might not get the results they need. Whether natural proteins or protein supplements, both have a huge impact on your build. Wolfing foods which are high in protein like lean meat, eggs, soy, beans and dairy products like cheese and yoghurt would further amp up the process of gaining muscle mass and strength.
Enhances metabolism: Did you know that eating food, proteins in particular, could actually up your metabolism. Proteins have a higher thermic effect (popularly called TEF) so quite simply, if you amp up your protein intake, you will automatically increase the number of calories you burn as your metabolism is boosted 2x.
Helps with injuries: Protein can help you with injuries by repairing your body after an injury. It is a well-known fact that if you increase your protein intake, it can help speed up the recovery process. Increasing muscle mass, getting lean, improving metabolism and recovery from injuries - Protein does it all, doesn’t it? However, some more insight on when to consume and when to avoid protein is important to reap the full benefits of this highly rated macro nutrient!
When should you give it a shot?
If you want to make the most of all protein benefits like boosting performance, building muscles, and helping you to improvise your body, you should know exactly when to include protein in your diet. Fitness coaches and instructors highly recommended that you start downing more protein alongside your intense workout sessions! It brings with it a whole lot of amino acids and also assists in the recovery of muscles. If you are an athlete, you must not give a second thought before gulping a protein bar within 15 minutes of your exercise sesh. If that’s not possible, consuming protein in liquid form
By the way, the answer to ‘when to consume protein?’ also depends on your fitness goals. For instance, if your purpose is weight loss, you should consume protein between meals. It will ensure that you don’t bulk up on more calories than needed and don’t feel hungry too often.
For vegetarians: It’s often mistaken that a gym enthusiast who follows a pure vegetarian diet could possibly not consume as much protein through natural sources as that of one who thrives on a non-vegetarian diet. Well, that’s so not true. Legumes, lentils, tofu, beans, soya can make all the difference in lesser time that you’d expect.
For eggetarians or non-vegetarians: Wonder why your gymnasium has every athlete walking around with protein shake bottles in their hands and settling for boiled eggs at the cafeteria ever so often? The reason is quite simple, eggs are a gym bud’s best friend, being one of the highest sources of natural proteins.
When not to consume proteins?
As opposed to popular belief, it is recommended that people shouldn’t take protein during a workout or exercise session. Doing so might help you to get a jump-start, but that may not last very long. So, you should try and have protein only after a session is over.
It is crystal clear now that the benefits of proteins are innumerable, especially if you want to boost your performance and build muscles, but the key here is to know exactly how much and when to down it, else, it’s nothing more than a fad!
