Different foods in our diet affect our metabolism differently. The digestion of food also requires expending calories for breaking down the components in food via the action of enzymes. This is called postprandial thermogenesis (PT) which temporarily increases the basal metabolic rate (BMR) following a meal. The graph below shows the affect of various components in food and how they affect the BMR as a function of time after the meal.
So this means about 3 hrs following a high protein meal the BMR increases about 30%. Carbs and fat don't have the same dramatic effect on BMR. So within an hour or two of waking up eat a high protein breakfast to rev up your BMR so that you keep burning extra calories all morning. Also drinking a protein shake an hour or so before a run or workout will maximize the calorie burning during exercise. In the next article I'll discuss BMR and what constitutes the various components of BMR. This will help explain why building muscle is more effective for burning fat than cardio. Until next time....
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