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| Protein as Macronutrient |
There are approximately 20 or so amino acids that can make up a protein. Eight of them are considered essential and the body cannot make them on its own (the def nition of an essential nutrient), thus they are required from our diet. Technically, the non-essential aminos can be made from the essential aminos. There are also amino acids considered “conditionally” essential under certain conditions and or populations.
If you link several aminos together you get a peptide. Keep linking peptides together and you get a protein. The shape of the individual amino acids and resulting proteins is quite unique and highly specif c, so I won’t go into great detail here. Suf ie it to say, amino acids are the structural unit of a protein molecule.
Protein (or more appropriately, amino acids) is the only macronutrient that supplies nitrogen to drive lean tissue growth (anabolism). Although athletes usually focus on the efect that protein has on skeletal muscle, it is equally important for people to understand that there are other disposal sites of amino acid nitrogen in the human body.
In simple terms, these include structural proteins, DNA, RNA, phospholipids, enzymes neurotransmitters, and bile acids, to name a few. The bottom line is that there are many uses for protein in the body unrelated to just building muscle.
We need protein to build or regenerate skeletal muscle. However, many people don’t understand the other functions protein has within the body, as alluded to above. Upon digestion, amino acids from ingested proteins enter what is called the “free amino acid pool.” The amino acids can then be diverted to dif erent areas of the body for utilization depending on what the body needs. For example, some amino acids are used as an energy source through their conversion to glucose, using a process called gluconeogenesis.
Others are used to synthesize proteins in many dif erent tissues. Dietary protein can also be converted to fat, though this is a very inef iient process in humans and is not a major source of body fat, contrary to what you may have been led to believe by some nutritional “authorities.”
Protein is also a very thermogenic fuel substrate in the body, meaning that its digestion, metabolism and storage require a great deal of energy, which is released as heat. Have you ever wondered why you may feel hot after a large protein meal ? This could be the reason. Protein is the macronutrient that’s least likely to turn to fat. In fact, it has been shown that ingesting large amounts of protein can account for upward of 20 percent of daily energy expenditure. This means that as much as 20 percent or more of the calories from protein you eat are lost as heat and can’t be stored as fat on your glutes or hips !
References : Will Brink - Brink's Body Building Revealed
References : Will Brink - Brink's Body Building Revealed
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