Fat loss & protein-rich breakfast
Here's what you need to know...
- Bulletproof Coffee, a homemade blend of coffee, MCT oil and butter has plenty of calories, but very few nutrients and no protein.
- People who skip meals get fatter over time. If the skipped meal is breakfast, then fat storage is accelerated.
- The more we eat later in the day or the later in the day we eat, the more likely it is that our meal will be converted to fat instead of muscle.
- Apart from an increased risk of diabetes and metabolic syndrome, people who skip breakfast have a 27% higher risk of coronary heart disease.
- Eating a high-protein breakfast increases levels of a chemical in the brain that is associated with a reward response, while a low-protein breakfast causes cravings for sweet foods that get worse as the day goes on.
- A high-protein breakfast has a profound effect on the neurotransmitter that controls hunger, brain function and overall energy levels.
How to store body fat faster
America seems to be in the grip of another of these cult diet trends. This one involves replacing breakfast with coffee, MCT oil and butter.
They call this mixture "Bulletproof Coffee". Users claim that you have better mental clarity and increased productivity while feeling less hungry throughout the morning. Personally, I would call this skipping breakfast.
If you look hard enough, you can find some good things associated with this trend. People are eating more fat and less sugar, and are re-embracing butter as a food. The downside is that this makes people nutritionally malnourished and fatter with less muscle.
Whether you've tried this butter-infused coffee yourself or just heard about it, eating a modest breakfast - or worse, no breakfast - is a bad tactic from every angle.
Unless you've been living under a rock in the desert for the last few years, you'll know that six meals a day is no longer the gold standard. We can survive, thrive and grow without carrying around a cool bag of free range organic turkey that has had a shiatsu massage every day of its short life.
We will not immediately atrophy and turn into a 60-year-old sarcopenia patient because we only managed to consume 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight the day before.
However, scientific research has made it quite clear that people who skip meals gain more weight and body fat over time, even though they eat less overall. More importantly, if the skipped meal is breakfast and this is overcompensated by dinner, fat storage goes into turbo mode.
The big breakfast
Like most things, our insulin sensitivity follows a natural internal clock. Skeletal muscle has the highest insulin sensitivity in the morning and this gradually decreases throughout the day.
Take a look below at the progression of blood sugar levels after consuming 50 grams of glucose at 9:00 am (yellow), 3:00 pm (red) and 8:00 pm (white).
That's a huge difference! Conversely, adipose tissue has the lowest insulin sensitivity in the morning, which continues to increase throughout the day.
This means that the more we eat later in the day, or the later in the day we eat, the more likely it is that our meal will be converted into fat rather than muscle. Eating late in the day is also associated with a slower metabolic rate, a decrease in glucose tolerance and reduced carbohydrate oxidation.
A study published in the journal Obesity in 2013 compared a large breakfast (700 of 1400 kcal for breakfast) and a large dinner (700 of 1400 kcal for dinner) eating program in a group of overweight and obese women over a 12-week period. The big breakfast group lost more weight and body circumference and showed greater improvements in blood glucose and insulin levels in the fasting state.
Interestingly, triglyceride levels were also reduced by 33.6% in this group, while an increase of 14.6% was observed in the large dinner group!
If we look again at the daily rhythm of insulin sensitivity, this should come as no surprise. The calories consumed at dinner would be stored to a greater extent in fat tissue, while the calories consumed at breakfast were stored to a greater extent in muscle tissue.
The terrible protein-free breakfast
Back to Bulletproof Coffee. It contains plenty of fat and calories, but very few nutrients and almost no protein.
The equivalent amount of calories in one serving (400 to 450) of this coffee is about 4 eggs, but the eggs provide 25 grams of protein and up to 50 times more nutrients.
Sure, the drink will fill you up until lunch, but is the goal with food to eat less and stay full or provide your body with needed nutrients?
Despite the calorie count, you could argue that Bulletproof Coffee is the equivalent of skipping breakfast. And I think you would agree with me when I say that a meal with one gram of protein is not a meal.
In addition, Bulletproof Coffee consumption results in higher 24-hour blood sugar levels (+6 on average) and increased food intake later in the day.
All this amounts to the fact that people who skip breakfast have an increased risk of diabetes and metabolic syndrome due to hyperglycemia and increased fat storage in conjunction with a 27% increased risk of coronary heart disease.
This is likely the result of increased conversion of food into fat - body fat (adipose tissue) or blood fat (triglycerides) - and higher levels of AGEs (sticky proteins and lipids in the blood).
The almost equally bad low-protein breakfast
Even though we shouldn't eat to feel full, if we consume an inadequate amount of protein at any meal (especially breakfast), low protein intake increases the risk of making poor choices.
Research published in the Nutrition Journal found that eating protein at breakfast (13 to 35 grams) increases levels of a chemical in the brain associated with a reward response to food intake.
In turn, a low-protein or protein-free breakfast causes cravings for sweet and savory foods that become stronger as the day progresses.
The tendency to seek immediate caloric gratification is also increased by fluctuations in blood sugar levels. As mentioned earlier, skipping breakfast or eating a low or no-protein breakfast increases our 24-hour blood sugar levels in a fasting state, making us more susceptible to dips in blood sugar levels.
The real "bulletproof breakfast"
We observe better fat loss, increased satiety between meals, significant reductions in fasting state blood glucose and insulin levels, and superior improvements in body composition and insulin sensitivity in those who consistently consume the majority of their calories in the morning.
These results are multiplied when that breakfast is large and high in protein.
One of my favorite studies comes from the International Journal of Obesity. In this study, young college students were divided into three groups:
- No breakfast: 0 grams of protein
- Breakfast with moderate protein content: 18 grams of protein
- High protein breakfast: 48 grams of protein
As expected, the group that consumed a high-protein breakfast reported better satiety and less hunger at different times of the day.
What was most interesting, however, was that the group that consumed a moderate protein breakfast ate the same amount of food at lunchtime as the subjects who skipped breakfast, while the high-protein breakfast group ate less.
A high-protein breakfast produces a gradual and sustained increase in blood glucose levels, which corresponds to a consistent delivery of nutrients to the brain and muscles. This not only keeps us fuller for longer, but also has profound effects on the neurotransmitters that control hunger, brain function and overall energy levels.
So let's forget about things like Bulleproof Coffee and get back to focusing on a big, protein-rich breakfast.
If you want coffee, then fry your steak in butter, cook your eggs in coconut oil and drink a big mug of coffee with it.
Even better would be to drink that coffee with a dollop of cream and some cinnamon to keep your blood sugar levels down. This is what I would call Bulletproof.
Not only will this provide you with far more nutritional value, but it will also make you feel more satisfied, energized and provide your muscles with nutrients instead of fat.
By Mike Sheridan | 01/22/15
Source https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/fat-loss-high-protein-breakfast