The need for recreational athletes to increase and maintain fat-free-mass

The two main factors that control the size of your furnace are what you eat and how you exercise. In the previous blog post, I said "protein is the key ingredient to building the components that make up your furnace. It's important to note that your body prefers to not use carbohydrates and fats as the fuel that burns inside the furnace. The body preferentially breaks down carbohydrates first, and then fats and finally proteins only if the other two fuels are depleted. This is important as proteins are generally less efficient at generating energy. In addition, proteins perform several important functions so if they were broken down several systems could fail."

Both the quality and quantity of protein has a key role to play in building and maintain the size of your furnace.

Before we start to digest the juicy protein details I want to take moment to debunk the "calories in and calories out" equation.