Protein
I wanted to talk a bit about this while is so important, so here is the quick and dirt version.
Most of us have heard the term 'complete protein' but what exactly is it?
A complete protein is one that contains all 8 of the
essential amino acids.
Amino acids are the building block for making stuff in the body. When your body needs to make something (muscle for example) it gathers a lof a amino acids together in a chain and Voila! You now have a new muscle fiber. There is a catch though. In
every single chain you will need 1 or more of the essential amino acids. Think of these as the corner peices in a jigsaw, without them you cant complete the puzzle, if its not complete then its not made, so the thing your body wanted to make is put on hold. The worst thing is that if it cant use the amino acids it has it wont waste them, they will get turned into fat and stored.
So, if you are taking in a lot of protein from a vegetable source it may not be a complete protein, i.e. one or more of the essential amino acids are missing. Vegetarians will combine 2 or more veggies to actaully get what they need to actually ingest a meal that has all of the 8. Any meat has all 8, but there is another twist. Of the 8 3 are more inportant than the rest, these are Valine, Leucine and isoleucine.
These are more important that the other 5 because you body will use them as a source of energy, which is strange as the body usually totally reserves proteins for building and repair. So, you must be careful when you make your calcualtions, as you need more of these 3 for energy and repair/growth. I cant remember off hand, but one of the three needs to be at least double the quantity of the other two (told you I was a bit rusty
)
Another problem is that a trained individual will burn more of the 3 listed above at rest than a sedentary individual so that should also be factored in.