I also promised to give you a brief update on my preparation status and tactics in concerns of my first contest of the 2002 competitive season. Dino explains how much protein etc... he eats.
In my previous article I promised you that I would talk about the other macronutrients, which are of course, protein and fat. I also promised to give you a brief update on my preparation status and tactics in concerns of my first contest of the 2002 competitive season. (That information is in my next article.)

Proudly, this is my first year as a Bodybuilding.com bodybuilder, and let me tell you after seeing myself go through my "mini-peak" this morning; the crowd is in for a surprise. They will be flooding the Bodybuilding.com website after they see me represent the company in such a professional and polished way.

To say the least my physique is going to be really polished this year. My physique has matured significantly over the past two years. Well, "let's get it on" and begin with covering the other two macronutrients, so we can get into the "meat & potatoes" of what you guys really want, contest information in the next article.

Because I have been receiving a flood of E-mail to littlekahuna69@hotmail.com, which I love by the way, I decided to speak about fat & protein in a unique way. I am going to post a question and answer session done in an e-consult that I had with a client of mine. Since I did not consult with her on publishing this case I will use the confidentiality method

Protein

It is important to understand that protein and carbohydrates compete for absorption. This is the main reason for trying to consume a sole carb or protein meal and to avoid food mixing. Fat has little to do with competing for absorption because it is (for the most part) used in the form of energy, stored as adipose tissue (fat), clogs arteries, or used in hormone production.

Protein is muscle; think about it what is a chicken breast? It is a huge muscle. Muscle is protein. Inside of our skeletal muscle cells there are many nutrients found, but the main structural item is protein. Therefore the old bodybuilding saying protein is muscle-muscle is protein stands to be true. The body can only assimilate X amount of food in the form of protein into useable freeform amino acids at one time.


Consuming about 40-50 grams of protein, at a minimum, is a general recommended digestible amount. I guestimate that this will allow for some of the protein to be spared for energy, while allowing enough to go into the muscles and serve their purpose, of maintaining, preserving, and rebuilding muscular tissue.

If you are ever hungry while dieting, consume some sort of protein, try to choose a source that is low fat and zero to low carbs. This extra meal of protein will not make you "fat" and can only benefit the dieter. The old way of dieting made people go hungry for hours, limiting them to 3-4 meals a day, this is not good and is a form of voluntary starvation. This resulted in hunger pains, and a loss of muscle along with fat.


The new way brought about better-conditioned athletes that were able to hold on to much more muscle mass. We only want to lose fat, (not muscle) so "eat up" on protein. I have never heard of a bodybuilder getting fat on protein, or having a protein-eating binge. And if they did go on one (protein binge) I would not frown on them. We enjoy the stuff but do not crave it, as we tend to do with carbs.


Fats

Basically I never provoke the addition of fat to a diet. There is usually enough in the food that you eat, but there are times when we can use fat to our advantage. Let us say that I want to go to the gym and I know that I have to eat for great performance, but I hate training on a full stomach. Furthermore, I hate nothing more than the feeling of being hungry.


Today we're going to discuss how eating fats can actually help burn fat!

What should I do? I traditionally consume my pre-training workout meal 1.5 hours before I train and purposely add some fat to it. I know what you are thinking here. Why in the world would I do that, why would he add fat to his diet? Well the right type of fat is and can be beneficial.

I blame the health community mainly for these bizarre assumptions. For example, dietitians have scared the population into believing that fat, and high protein diets are evil. These ignoramuses are also the people who associate our sport with drug abuse and kidney failure. Neither is true! Fact!

"Most of these people do not exercise and are fat bodies preaching from an outdated textbook."
Okay-okay, I am off the soapbox, sorry, man I had to vent that out!

Fats will slow down the digestion of protein, now we do not want to hold the protein in the stomach forever because the acidic environment will denature and damage the precious protein. What we want is to slightly slow emptying into the small intestine with useable fats (i.e. Smuckers Natural Peanut Butter 1-2 Tbsp) and assimilateable proteins (protein that can be used in a proper fashion).

So we are fueling our bodies during training with fat and sending in some amino acids at the same time, which is what we need to be doing at that time. We accomplish all this and avoid hunger pain and the awful "full-bloated feeling" in the stomach. Wow, we have just used food science to create a perfect environment! Science is pretty cool after all.
Another way to use fat is for energy. When we embark on a low carbohydrate eating regimen there will be times when we have low blood sugar levels and we will feel sluggish, pulled on, sucked back, or drawn as bodybuilders would commonly say. We can avoid this feeling by putting a little fat into the body. This fat will be used as energy.

If the body is producing ketones the fat will be broken down into a ketone body to be used as fuel. Now, what if we do not use this little fractured fat AKA ketone body as energy? It will be passed through the body's byproduct of metabolism elimination processes (sweat, urination). By taking in only a few fats I promise you will feel an instant energy boost.


This is very cool; you see fat digestion begins in the stomach not the small intestine so as soon as it hits the stomach we can start to feel its effects within minutes (Really!). Generally a minimum of 30-50 grams should be consumed daily to assure healthy production of hormones, especially females.

I have worked with women that have experienced hair loss primarily due diets that contain little to no fats. Others experience menstrual cycle problems, which can lead to required hormone therapy or a change in diet. I would rather have my body produce the normal ranges of hormones on its own, at least for as long as it can, than to get on hormone therapy.