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Today’s Health Upgrade
How to store less body fat
Unlock your mind
The pill that cools your body
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Nutrition
How To Store Less Body Fat
We all know that overeating leads to weight gain, but could the amount of protein in your diet affect how much fat you gain?
Research suggests that your body is less likely to store protein as body fat — even when you overeat.
The strongest evidence comes from a study in which participants spent 8 weeks in a metabolic ward and were purposely overfed about 1,000 extra calories above their maintenance levels.
The participants were split into three groups: low protein, moderate protein, and high protein. As you would expect from overeating, all three groups gained weight, but here’s where it got interesting.
The low-protein diet gained the least amount of weight (3.16 kg), while the normal and high-protein groups gained about twice as much weight (6.05 and 6.51 kg, respectively).
The catch: The additional weight was all an increase in muscle — not fat! In other words, the more protein they consumed, the more the body stored it as lean mass, not body fat. The group eating the lower amount of protein lost lean body mass.
The researchers went so far as to state that an increase in calories alone drives body fat, but increasing protein causes a boost in lean body mass but not body fat.
That does not mean you can’t gain fat from a high-protein diet. It just means when you overeat calories, you’re less likely to store the protein as fat.
So when you over-consume calories, your body is more likely to store fat from the other macronutrients (fat and carbs).
Can some of the protein be stored as fat? Yes, however, your body is more likely to preferentially store protein as muscle, especially if you perform resistance training.
If you want more about the science, watch this great video from nutrition researcher Alan Aragon.
Mindset
Unlock Your Mind
When did you last grab some markers or a paintbrush and let your imagination run wild? If you feel overwhelmed, it might be time to turn back the clock and explore your inner artist.
Research suggests that coloring and drawing increase mindfulness, reduce anxiety, and boost your mood, focus, and happiness.
Drawing unlocks several processes that can take your brain from a difficult spot to someplace better.
Some studies suggest that being artistic can help you enter a “flow state,” which increases creativity and focus and — more importantly — blocks out distractions and troubling thoughts.
Research suggests that being artistic — whether drawing, coloring, doodling, or painting — can trigger a dopamine release to make you feel better, help you de-stress, and improve focus and motivation.
Unlike other activities, there’s no expert advantage to drawing, which means you’ll see improvements in mood and anxiety whether you draw stick figures or are the next Picasso.
On Our Radar
A Chill Pill That Works?
The more your body heats up during a workout, the faster you fatigue. But if you could keep your body a little cooler, then you might be able to push harder or last longer during exercise.
A new study suggests the amino acid taurine can help you stay cool in hot conditions.
In the study, participants walked on a treadmill in nearly 100°F temperatures. Those who took taurine for eight days before the workout stayed cooler than participants who didn’t use the supplement.
This isn’t the only study to find this outcome. A 2019 study discovered that taking a single dose of taurine 2 hours before cycling in hot temperatures kept people a little cooler and made exercise less exhausting.
Taurine helps regulate body temperature by increasing the rate at which sweat is produced, which is how the body cools itself.
So, if you’re exercising in the heat, prioritize getting enough water and electrolytes. And if you frequently overheat, you also might consider taurine. It could help you fight off fatigue and increase endurance and intensity. In both studies, participants took 50 milligrams of taurine per kilogram of body weight.
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
