Your doctor will tell you that your muscles consist of proteins. Healthy muscles are important. The more muscle tissue you have, the higher your metabolic rate will be. In other words, the more muscle you have, the more fat your body will burn. If you do not eat your body’s required daily portion of protein, the muscles breaks down. When your muscle mass decrease, your metabolic rate slows down and everyone knows that when that happens, your body burns less and less fat.
Most people live on a diet filled with carbohydrates (short-term energy) and which is deficient in quality protein. It all starts with breakfast; the most important meal of the day. Everybody says that if you skip breakfast, you start the day on an empty tank. Starting out just on carbohydrates, is not much better. Your body needs proteins!
Everybody knows that proteins are the building blocks for your muscles. If you are not supplementing your protein intake daily, chances are that you are not getting enough. The most healthy proteins are soy proteins and proteins you get in through fish, organic chicken, nuts (almonds are really good) and to a lesser degree, red meat. Red meat is high in fat and too much red meat, will increase your cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, the body mass index calculator does not differentiate between fat mass and muscle mass.
Use the calculators below to work out how much protein you need to consume every day to build and maintain a healthy lean muscle mass that will help you burn more fat:
Daily Protein Needs
Kilograms to Pounds
Centimeters to Inches
* See: How to calculate your daily calorie intake – It has a whole section on your daily protein requirements.