Week 18 - Turning the Tide

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Like the title says, it was a big turnaround on the scales this week.  Significantly a 1.5 kg loss on weigh in day was bettered by my average weight for the week that dropped a startling 1.9 kg, which is the biggest recorded average loss for a week to date.  I've included here an image of how my average weight looks when graphed.  You can see the daily weigh in dots dragging that average line down each day.  A great looking graph it is too.  Compared to last week where the dots were standing up tall and waving at me from the high side of the line it is a very pleasing result.

The difference this week was being back to near full health, some hard training and a change in mindset.  I am back to recording diligently my food intake in my food diary.  It is that sort of accountability that I find helps me make sensible eating choices and I have been a bit slack.  I can hear the little voice in my head as I reach for something I shouldn't...'You know you have to record that in your food diary right....'.  If you are trying to get healthy, lose weight, or just eat better generally, all I can say is give it a go.  I have found it really works.

Speaking of eating right.  I read an article the last month posted under the guise of being Georges St Pierre's blog.  I say it that way as I doubt he writes it himself and it is linked to his Rushfit product.  I've tried Rushfit and is actually a decent workout and worth a look for those days when you can't get outside for whatever reason.  The article (Complete, Incomplete and Complementary Proteins), which I am going to paraphrase for the purposes of this exercise, is about proteins in your diet and your body generally and the bit that really caught my eye was the concept of complementary proteins.

It seems to me that most people appear to be obsessed with carbohydrates when it comes to eating well to lose weight in so much as they seem to want to go to extreme measures to limit or cut them out of their diets completely.  Way back in February after my first visit to the Dietician I wrote about the importance of keeping those carbs in there as part of the overall balance - Mystery Solved.  What I am probably more interested in at the moment is proteins.  Mainly because I am intent on dropping the weight I still have to lose whilst losing as little muscle mass as possible.  Ideally, I would even like to add a little muscle, even though I know it will make the weight loss process take longer.  But, proteins are even more important to us than that.

To quote from the aforementioned article -

"Protein acts as the building blocks necessary to build muscle tissue after a workout, repair connective tissues such as tendons and ligaments, form digestive enzymes to assist in the breakdown of food once it is in your system, build antibodies to support immune functions and overall health, and maintain healthy skin and hair growth."

Wowsers!  Busy little amino acids aren't they?  I say that because the different kinds of proteins that our bodies use, make and need are made up of smaller component parts called amino acids.  The different kinds of amino acids combine in different configurations to build individual types of protein.  These are called 'chains' of amino acids.  Think of a protein as being like a cake and the amino acids are the ingredients that go into making it.

Pretty aren't they...Complementary enough?

Your body can actually make certain kinds of amino acids.  Eleven of them in fact, which are called non-essential amino acids.  We only need twenty to make all the different kinds of proteins that we need.  Of course that does leave us with a little bit of a gap.  That's where the nutritional content of our diet comes into play.  The nine 'essential' amino acids, that is those that our body cannot make on its own, we need to obtain from the food that we eat that contains them. In turn they are extracted during digestion and rebuilt into those magic protein cakes.

The foods that we eat can be categorized by the types of proteins that are contained in them.  Those that contain all nine of the essential amino acids already in the form of protein are said to contain 'complete proteins'.  They tend to come from animal sources like dairy, meat, and eggs.  'Incomplete proteins' are those generally from plant sources like nuts, seeds, and peas for example, where not all of the essential amino acids are present.  Interesting in a lab coat and safety glasses kind of way, but, what does it all mean to me, you and training to get fit and lose weight.

To me, I take comfort as it is easy enough for me to get the right amount, quality and type of proteins in my diet to help fuel and repair my body for training.  Reason being is that I like all those animal type proteins with all the complete proteins.  Love meat, red and white as well as eggs and oh so yummy dairy.  Key thing there of course is that animal products tend to contain the bad fats that we want to avoid as opposed to the good fats that I need to consume 93 grams of per day!  That's just my figure given to me by the Dietician by the way and not the one for everyone.  The point for people on restricted diets or those who are vegan or vegetarian and the like is to ensure that they eat what are called 'complementary proteins'.  That is, foods that contain proteins that are not made up of all essential amino acids, but when combined have all the bases covered and can be used to form complete proteins.  Eat the right combination of those foods and your body takes care of the rest.  Just think, your body probably knows more about chemistry than you do!  Mine certainly does.

Deep breath....science based nutrition lesson over.  I found the concept quite interesting.  I hope you did too.  If nothing else it may help with any insomnia you may be having trouble with...