Your metabolism; part 2

Burn more calories by eating the right foods

In part 1 of this article, which you can read below, we discussed the components of energy balance in our body (metabolism) and how each one uses energy, or calories.

Your metabolism, in laymen's terms. Part 1/2

I highly encourage you to read, or re-read that article. In a world where you are bombarded with hot takes and half truths it will benefit you to have a scientific understanding of the relatively simple mechanisms your body uses to burn calories. That can be a foundation for you that is more accurate than an Apple Watch and more research based than Tik-Tok takes.

The Thermic Effect of Food

A simple review: Our body expends energy to consume energy, or put another way there is a calorie cost to the food we eat. Some foods require very little energy to digest, breakdown, and metabolize. Other foods have a larger calorie cost to metabolize, meaning consuming more high-calorie cost foods than the low-calorie cost foods can result in a more thermogenic (calorie burning) environment for your body simply by choosing better foods.

This graph shows how many more calories are burned by eating protein relative to eating fat or carbohydrate. In truth, these numbers are more like a range (fats: 1-3%, carbs 2-4%, and protein 10-30%).

Foods that have a low thermic effect (calorie burn):

Fats. Foods that are mainly comprised of fat only use 1-3% of the calories consumed to metabolize this energy source. For 100 calories consumed from fats, only 1-3 calories are burned off by eating them.

• Cooking oils like olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable oil, etc

• Nuts or seeds like almonds, cashews, peanuts, etc

• Nut butters like peanut butter, almond butter, etc

• Eggs (not egg whites, that fat is in the yolk)

• Cheeses

• Milk

Carbohydrates. Carbs use about 4% of the calories consumed to metabolize this energy source. For 100 calories consumed from carbs, only about 4 calories are burned off by eating them.

• Sugar food like candy or soda

• Bread

• Pasta

• Rices of all kinds

• Potatoes of all kinds

• Oats or museli

• Vegetables

• Fruit

• Legumes like black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, etc

Foods that have a high thermic effect (calorie burn):

Proteins. Protein uses between 10-30% of the calories consumed to metabolize this energy source. For 100 calories consumed from protein, 10-30 calories are burned off by eating them. That’s about 6 times more calories burned simply by eating protein than carbs or fats.

• Leaner meats like chicken breast, lean ground beef, lean steaks, turkey, shrimp, pork chop, beef or steak jerky

• *Less lean meats are still mostly protein, but won’t have as high a TEF due to more fat present. (These are the foods that will range closer to 10% TEF than the higher end of 30%.) Foods like chicken thighs, fish like salmon or tilapia, 80% ground beef, ribeye steaks, sausage, bacon or other fatty pork cuts.

• Non fat Greek yogurt

• Skyr (Icelandic ultra-filtered yogurt)

• Egg whites

• Protein powder or protein bars (with under 5 grams of carbs)

An effective and healthy diet is a well-balanced diet.

I am not demonizing fats or carbohydrates here, only displaying the large difference between those energy sources and protein when it comes to how our body metabolizes the food we eat.

Quality fats are needed for healthy joints, skin, and hormone health.

Carbohydrates are needed for daily energy and recovering from exercise.

Protein is needed for great immunological function, strong bones and joints, building muscle, and healthy blood sugar response.

So eating more protein burns more calories. How about a visual?

Take a look at the difference in calories burned in one week due to TEF in a low protein diet versus a high protein diet when overall calories are equated.

The low protein diet had 76 grams of protein daily. The high protein diet had 156 grams of protein daily.

The difference? The high protein diet burned about 500 calories more a week by TEF. That’s 500 more calories burned without lifting a finger, only making different food choices.

It is worth noting, although we label this a high protein diet the macronutrients are balanced and healthy. Just look at the daily calories from each macro for the high protein diet:

• 450 calories from fat

• 624 calories from protein

• 924 calories from carbohydrates

Looking at those numbers, you can see consuming more protein doesn’t mean your diet is now low-carb, or low-fat. On the contrary, the average American diet is extremely low in protein and rather high in fats and carbs. Consuming more protein isn’t just for folks who want to pack on muscle. More protein helps everyone because our baseline of protein intake is so low.

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