Whey Protein

So you want to lose that gooey winter coat that’s permanently attached but you have a little problem in the eating department? I know how you feel. You feel like you just can’t eat enough. It’s not like you don’t REALLY want to stop eating, but for some reason you have an insatiable appetite. Well, has anyone ever told you that WHAT you are eating is probably making you want to EAT MORE? Yea….probably haven’t heard that one before or if you did, you didn’t give much thought to it….well, now you should, because this could be the “missing link” between you and removing that fat jacket. I know, it keeps you warm, but a hot little 22 year-old honey will do the same for you if you show her your ripped chest and abs.

So let me edjamacate you on this. When we eat foods that are highly processed like “Little Debbie Snack Cakes”, “Twinkies”, “Ho-Ho’s” or McDonald’s Apple Pie our bodies don’t have to spend time breaking them down in the stomach and gut. So the carbohydrates (sugars) in the food go into our bloodstream very quickly. Our body’s response to this is to produce a higher than normal amount of insulin. Insulin is a hormone made in the pancreas, but forget about that crap and just hang with me here. Insulin’s job is to take the sugar in the bloodstream, and place it into each cell in the body. However, when there is a larger than normal amount of sugar in the bloodstream, and a larger than normal amount of insulin, all the sugar (carbohydrates) from the twinkie goes directly into your cells…pretty damn quick. So, what the hell does that have to do with your spare tire? Well, insulin is a tricky little bastard, when circulating, it also sends the body the signal to store calories (a.k.a sugar, a.k.a carbohydrates, a.k.a fat). So a high calorie meal mixed in with a high amount of sugar is kind of like the “Perfect Storm” for making more fat on our bodies. On top of that, insulin works really good at putting getting all that sugar from your blood into your cells, and when the blood is empty of sugar, your body sends the signal out to your stomach, which then sends the signal out to your head and mouth that says “Yo, fatso! There’s no sugar in the blood, get some more twinkies!”

“Now, that’s a fun little story and everything, but I’m still hungry after I eat five twinkies…..what’s the difference in what I eat?”

Well, if we eat food that is not processed as much, our body takes a longer time to digest it. This means that there is a steady stream of sugar (a.k.a calories) in the bloodstream, so there is no signal sent to your stomach or head to say “Go get more twinkies”. Instead, the signal changes to, “Yo, fatso….there’s plenty of food, quite eating….we’re full!”

So what the hell does this have to do with whey protein? Well, protein in whey just happens to have been scientifically proven to be the most satisfying macronutrient (you know the macronutrients are carbohydrates, fats, and protein) of all tested. That means if you would eat a regular twinkie and a twinkie made of pure whey protein, you would be hungry in about 5 minutes with the regular twinkie, and in about 5 days with the twinkie made of whey protein. (Alright, maybe not five days, but you get my point). Alright, so now we know how to not be hungry, where the hell do we find this whey protein. Basically whey is from milk protein. So milk products and the like contain whey protein. However, a lot of milk products (like cheese, butter, sour cream and cream cheese) are extremely high I calories. So, what we need to do is find foods that have a high whey protein content and a relatively low calorie content. I try to find foods that are close to 15-20 grams of whey protein for each 110 calories. This way, if you are eating 200-300 calories of this particular food, you will be consuming 40-50 grams of protein, which should keep your nose out of the fridge for about 4 hours. (Yea, 4 hours….you should be eating every 3 hours anyways to keep your metabolism working FOR you, not AGAINST you, but that’s another topic.)

It’s that simple, eat whey protein, 20 grams per 100 calories, and you are on your way to having those fresh little honeys chasing you all the way to your house.