If you’re struggling to lose fat or if you’ve hit a plateau in your fat loss program, but know that your workouts are appropriate for your fat loss goals, you may need to take another look at your nutritional macronutrients.

Macronutrients are simply the nutrients that provides your body calories for energy, such as protein, carbohydrates, and fats.

What most don’t fully understand is the “thermic effect” of these nutrients, and how to maximize their effects.

First, let me emphasize that “muscle is your metabolism”.  The amount of lean muscle tissue you carry is directly related to the amount of calories you burn on a daily basis.  This is important to understand, because on a fat loss program you want to preserve your muscle, or else your metabolism drops and you burn less fat.

So what is this “thermic effect” I’m talking about?

The “thermic effect of food” is the amount of calories (energy) your body has to burn in order to digest the food, and it accounts for 10% of your daily metabolism.

So when it comes to burning stubborn body fat, your goal is to further increase your metabolism, or calories burned by eating meals with a higher “thermic effect”.

Protein has the highest thermic effect.  It is the second most abundant nutrient in the body next to water.  For every 100 calories of protein ingested it requires 20 calories to burn and digest.

Carbohydrates and Fat on the other hand only require 10 calories to burn for every 100 calories ingested.

So as you can see protein sources trumps carbs and fats for fat burning ability.

Protein is the primary building and rebuilding source for muscles, and is vital for maintenance and repairs for the body.

With just a simple tweak to your nutrition program of structuring your fat loss meals around protein sources first, veggies second, and then maybe a little bit of starchy carbs to round out the meal may be just the ticket to get you past your fat loss sticking point.

Here are some examples of protein rich meals:

• Breakfast: 2-3 scrambled eggs, or spinach omelet, with side of fresh fruit

• Lunch: Grilled chicken salad (heapings of veggies), shallot walnut dressing

• Dinner: Seared Ahi Tuna, quinoa, steamed veggies

Plan your meals out a week in advance focusing on building your meals around protein sources first, reduce starchy carbs and replace with more veggies.  This simple tweak can help you maximize your metabolism.

Work hard, stay strong!

- Rommel Acda, MATS, CSCS