Protein Protip: Between Meal Supplements Make You Fatter

October 18, 2018 Ashley 0 Comments

Love your protein supplements shakes?

That’s fair. The Tropical Smoothie Cafe down the street makes addictive icy elixirs. We’re talking the tongue equivalent of a intravenous Valium. However, sadly (for both you and I), these badboys might be the reason we still see a little shake and jiggle on our bods – despite all those intense workouts we’re putting in. (Yes, even your seemingly benign homemade ones are guilty.) At least, that’s what scientific data has to say about it. Sure protein’s one of those necessary macros we require for survival. There’s no disputing that. But, the problem isn’t that we’re eating it. It’s about when we eat it. And you wanna know the optimal time to be ingesting this stuff? Spoiler alert: it’s not via that comically large vat of slurp-able caloric sin, right after the gym. Rather, it’s at dinner. Or breakfast. Or really any legitimate meal time. Why, though? After all, that is your lunch, you say. Hey, don’t shoot me. I’m just the messenger. But the messenger is indeed telling you that the stats don’t lie. In a study published in Nutrition Reviews, those who put away their protein during dinner or lunch lost more fat, while those who had it between upped their blubber levels.

(Or, if you’re plant based, those “Don’t Have a Cow” burgers are brilliant moo shoo-ins)

But it doesn’t make sense.

Why would your fave go-to smoothie of strawberry and whey betray you? (“Et tu, fruitus?!”) Well, while it could be any number of things, there are definitely at least three biggies: Lack of satiation, calorie “forgetting”, and calorie underestimating are the trifecta of chart toppers that’re popping your pant buttons. Let’s start with that first factor: I don’t care how big a smoothie is. If it’s liquid, it’s just less filling. By the time you finish it, it’s just not the same as a solid meal. And that means we’ll inadvertently overdo dinner later, most likely. This’s exacerbated by the fact that you’re already gonna be more hungry anyhow come supper. Why? Well, the high sugar content in so many protein meal replacers makes you ride the blood glucoaster (AKA when your blood sugar goes on a roller coaster ride). Your sugar soars before hitting the floor. After that, you’re ravenous and don’t stand a chance of exacting willpower when it comes to your next meal.

As for the second and third reasons? It’s simple. We’re liars. We don’t mean to be – but we totally lie to ourselves. We as humans have proven that we tend to underestimate and “forget” our more aqueous meals. We cerebrally erase their caloric cost to our bodies. Sometimes we subconsciously think that – just because they weren’t as satisfying as tearing our fangs into a steak or salad or something solid – that they can’t possibly have had as many calories as we logically know they do. It seems unjust so it must just… not be true. So, some’ve us round down. (Just like holiday and Christmas calories.) We do that or we totally “forget” about it altogether. It’s like some traumatic event that we did to ourselves and are so ashamed of that we wipe it from our brains. (Denial is a helluva drug, am I right?) Plus, by supper, our sugar crash has us so hungry that we don’t even care anyway. We’re already on board with binging. And these fabricated calorie cutting stories we’ve made up in our heads jibe nicely with that. So, we eat more than our usual share of that would-be healthy meal, on top of the fifteen digit calorie drink we swilled down earlier – which, in our minds, didn’t really even happen.

(Protip: rounding down makes you round and cutting fat from your memory adds it to your as- the scale)

(Don’t think hugging it will convince it to whittle your weight number down, girl…)

In sum, if you wanna be a pro at protein, don’t eat it for lunch in supplement form.

Instead, ingest this macro with your meals for optimal weight loss.