Diet and Wellbeing
Nutrition is a basic need that plays an important role in maintaining the health of every individual.
Proper nutrition is determinant in achieving and maintaining healthy body weight, and to prevent and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. When you decide to lose weight it is an investment in your future. Basically, it is a lifestyle choice that determines a deep change. Weight reduction is an effort, but if in reaching the proper weight you also learn to eat healthier by eating the right foods in the right portion, it is a habit that will remain within you and forever.
To achieve and maintain the correct weight you need to set achievable goals, be motivated and have confidence knowing that nutritional well-being is not made only of prohibitions or restrictive requirements.
First you need to be aware that losing weight is not the same thing as slimming down. For example, when we start a restricted low calorie diet , what occurs is the loss of a lot of lean mass (muscle) and only after a long time we start burning adipose tissue (FAT);
however, depending on our life style choices, we can affect the metabolism and thus decide whether to lose first FAT or muscle.
Our goal is learning how to lose weight by making sure that the organism consumes excess fat for energy production, thereby preventing its accumulation and serious damage to your body.
Why do we loose muscle easier than fat?
The human body is a complex machine, in continuous turn-over. In order to keep it running we must consume large quantities of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, substances that we must replenish with food. Our body is capable of transforming proteins into carbohydrates and lipids but is unable to do the opposite because only the amino acids that make up proteins contain the nitrogen we need, while carbon, oxygen and hydrogen are also contained in fats and carbohydrates.
Theoretically, we could live assuming only proteins to obtain the amount of nitrogen lost with daily activities by the same amino acids they are composed of together with carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen.
Energy
The main “fuel” to produce energy in our body is a sugar: glucose. Oxygen allows the carbon-carbon bonds to be broken transforming glucose into energy and can also transform fat or amino acids into energy. We can do this efficiently only if there is an adequate amount of glucose. Our body, in the absence of glucose in the bloodstream, can transform the amino acids into glucose but unless these are not introduced regularly we would be forced to obtain them by demolishing protein reserves stored in the muscles. By doing so we would greatly weaken ourselves, risking even the heart which we know is a muscle.
To lose weight we should try to consume fats to produce energy and to do this we must first reduce the intake of food and then do some training that will be useful to mobilize fats and to increase their consumption in the muscles. We all know that a working organ becomes more and more efficient, but very few people consider that eating lots of junk food and sitting in front of television is a great workout, Yes, but only to make efficient adipose tissue cells to store fat. The fate of a good plate of spaghetti, if consumed by a person who is training habitually, will reform rebuild the muscle reserves, but when consumed by a sedentary person, will go primarily to rebuild fat.
What are the essential amino acids for?
Before talking about amino acids it is necessary to explain what are macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients, the most important energy source of the organism, are carbohydrates, fats and proteins. Amino acids are the “building blocks” of proteins because each of these is formed by a precise sequence of amino acids and the lack of even a single amino acid does not allow the synthesis of the specific protein such as the lack of a letter does not allow a word to be spelled properly. Not only are the muscles made up of proteins, but also the main substances that defend us from infection such as gamma globulins are proteins, and so are albumin and haemoglobin. A malnourished person would be more susceptible to infection and illness and consequently would have greater difficulty in healing.
If the glucose reserves were to finish and adequate amounts were not replenished through diet, the body would try to produce it by consuming its protein reserves transforming them into amino acids. Basically it would degrade the muscles to make glucose (neoglucogenesis).
If we introduce an appropriate amount of essential amino acids these are quickly absorbed and after about 30 minutes, they circulate in the blood sending an “alarm signal “(feedback) that suggests the body is entering into a destructive process. In this case, our body begins to activate a defensive process that releases the fats from adipose tissue for energy purposes, making them available to save the consumption of glucose and prevent hypoglycaemia. In order that a slimming process occurs properly at the expense of body fat and not muscle mass as unfortunately happens when diets are too extreme and you lose a lot of weight too quickly ruining your skin and making flabby muscles, it is necessary to introduce an appropriate proportion of essential amino acids “according to the prescription of a doctor or nutritionist.”
Why this method works?
This method not only teaches us to eat properly, but it helps the organism to reduce body weight by promoting the consumption excess fat, saving carbohydrates, nourishing the muscle and at the same time covering the nitrogen requirements. This method helps reach one’s weight goals and to maintain a proper diet by avoiding past mistakes. In addition, it takes advantage of a recent scientific discovery that has allowed us to understand that eating too much sugar actually helps to feed the fat, reducing its consumption for energy. The amino acid supplementation, in addition to diet, facilitate the consumption of fat storage for energy production.
What is the secret of the diet with essential amino acids?
Following any low-calorie diet, the body would be subjected to a state of metabolic stress by putting in place mechanisms of defence and compensation, the first of which is to use the amino acids present in the muscles less used for energy purposes. So here is the scale needle drop. This is actually a hollow victory because the reserves of fat storage won’t be minimally affected. With the amino acid supplementation on the contrary, the body will be directed towards a different metabolic behaviour, in the sense that starting from the second week it will be engaged to use deposit fat for energy purposes. Fat will therefore be burned in favour of lean mass. The consequence is that the weight decrease will seem slow, but in reality it will be almost entirely dependent on the fat mass.
Why the essential amino acids are not all present in the same quantities?
Not all of the essential amino acids are required by the metabolism in the same amount. They must be present in a specific qualitative and quantitative ratio between them, individually tailored. Such a mixture is able to cover needs and deficiencies present at certain times or in the case of poor health. This is not a medication, but a food supplement that follows the rules of metabolism by acting as naturally as possible.
Taking this blend of essential amino acids, in contrast to a high protein diet plan, does not require any digestive phase and does not overload the renal functions with waste because it is completely used for synthetic and/or energetic purposes.
How to take amino acids?
This mixture should be taken on an empty stomach at least one hour before meals, in order to optimize protein synthesis, promote the consumption of fats and prevent hypoglycaemia which could get us to the table “dying to eat”.
You can lose weight by taking the mixture of amino acids even without working out but, in this case, you would lose the advantages and efficiency gained by training your muscles.
It should be noted that the essential amino acids should never be consumed with sugary drinks because this would stimulate the synthesis of insulin and this hormone which regulates metabolism, would prevent that adipose tissue “burn” fats reducing their consumption. It is a grave mistake people who wish to lose weight make when during and after a strenuous training session they drink sugary drinks which defeats weight loss goals.
Future perspectives
In all acute or chronic diseases, which would lead to a catabolic muscle phase, supplementation with balanced mixtures of essential amino acids, has a proven ability to correct a relative amino acid deficiency, “pushing” the body’s metabolism towards the anabolic phase with clear benefits for a healthy patient (a sportsman with muscular catabolism) and a sick one.
The scientific clinical evidence so far obtained justify, incontrovertibly, the use of balanced mixtures of essential amino acids as an important added value to the drug therapy of many diseases to chronic evolution.
Recent evidence points to a strong relationship between increased mitochondrial biogenesis and increased survival of eukaryotes.
Recommended dosages in diets
Thanks to the remarkable tolerance of this mixture the dose can vary according to body weight.
An individual should take about 1g for every 10 kg weight 2-3 times per day.
Doses can be increased or decreased, depending on workload and lifestyle.
