Health

Develop Muscle to Lose Weight and Flabby Underarms

March 12, 2009
By J White

When most people diet to lose weight, they end up losing muscle as well. This is why that even though their end result may be a slimmer body, their overall body mass looks soft instead of firm and lean. If you fall into this category, as well as focusing on losing fat, you are going to need to focus on retaining and developing muscle. This is the only way that you are going to lose those flabby underarms.

The amount of muscle you have throughout your body is the difference between just looking slim and looking slim, healthy and fit. The more muscle on your body, the more athletic you look. Another bonus to more muscle is that it also helps to burn fat.

As well as resistance training, to retain and develop muscle, you need to make sure that you’re getting high quality lean proteins in your diet. The best sources come from lean meats, but busy as you are, you may not have the chance to prepare and cook them. This is where protein powders come into play and the best choice on the market today is whey.

Whey protein is a by-product of cheese manufactured from cow’s milk, and more importantly, it has a high biological value. This means that a large portion of its amino acids are incorporated into the proteins in the your body, which is important for building muscle.

The amount of protein that you need is determined by your weight. In the United States and Canada, the recommended amounts for a day are 0.80 and 0.86 g/kg a day respectively. For those in the States, that’s 0.36g/lb and 0.39g/lb a day. These values are for both men and women.

It’s important to note that these values were determined for studying sedentary subjects. So for physically active individuals, like yourself, the value is going to be slightly higher.

An expert in the field recommends 1.4-1.8 g/kg/day for strength athletes, i.e body builders, football players, etc., and 1.2-1.4 g/kg/day for endurance athletes, i.e. competive runners, swimmers, etc. Since many of you don’t fall into either of those categories, I suggest about 1g/kg or 0.45g/lb for each day.

So, if you want to look trim and strong while losing weight, make sure you’re getting enough protein in your diet. If you don’t have time to cook lean meats, carry small plastic bags of whey with you and when you’re ready, just mix with water.

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Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whey_protein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_value
Sports Nutrition: Energy Metabolism and Exercise

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