Eat Protein at Every Meal for All-Day Energy

As a personal trainer, I believed the myth that carbs give you energy. That’s why I was always surprised that I didn’t feel very energetic after eating a high-carb snack. In fact, quite the opposite.

I later learned why. The appetite control mechanisms that send message from your gut to your gut to your brain signaling that you’ve had enough to eat work very well with protein and fat, which have been in the diet of the human genus for 2.4 million years. The “satiety” molecules in the gut are exquisitely tuned to respond to those macro-nutrients, which they recognize quite well.

But those appetite control mechanisms don’t work nearly as well with carbohydrates. For one thing, we haven’t had as much “practice” with them, because most of the carbohydrates we eat (from grains) are relatively new in the human diet, and the highly processed kindly, which make up most of the American diet, are virtually unprecedented. (In case you were wondering, that explains why it’s so easy to eat six bowls of cereal watching reruns of Friends. Not that I’ve ever done that, of course, but I’ve heard of it).

Because protein (and fat) just naturally activate the body’s innate satiety mechanisms, it’s a lot less likely you’ll overeat, and if you don’t overeat, you’re a lot less likely to fall into that post-meals slump. Plus, when you meal has a greater ratio of protein to carbohydrate, it stabilizes blood sugar and reduces insulin response. As an added bonus, new research suggests that leucine, an amino acid found in protein, helps you maintain muscle mass while losing body fat during weight loss.

For high-energy snack food, think nuts, cheese (string cheese is a great choice), hard-boiled eggs, jerky, or some leftover chicken, all of which, by the way, are extremely portable. (There goes the excuse “the snack machine was the only thing around”. Sorry about that!)

You can add a piece of fruit to the mix or some veggie crudites, such as carrots, celery, broccoli, and cauliflower, but what you can’t do is grab a bag of chips or pretzels or a chocolate chip cookie. Or at least not if you want to boost your energy!

Because protein (and fat) just naturally activate the body’s innate satiety mechanisms, it’s a lot less likely you’ll overeat, and if you don’t overeat, you’re a lot less likely to fall into that post-meal slump.