• Protein is a macronutrient, so it is required daily for good health.
• Protein is the second most plentiful product (after water) in the human body.

Every living cell in your body which comes principally from protein is being constantly rebuilt. Each muscle, skin, hair, nails for example, are rebuilt every six months on average. Your body can only rebuild with the material you provide – food. So, you could consider yourself living proof of what you ate six months ago!

If your protein sources are inadequate for your body’s demands, your body will source its needs elsewhere in the body - muscle. That means your body can and will break down muscle to full fill its protein requirements.

Put simply, a builder can only build a house with the materials provided. Sub-standard materials will produce sub-standard results. Alternatively, first-class materials will result in a very different house.

If you do not eat enough protein, your body is forced to breakdown muscle, and weight gain or fat loss becomes more difficult for a number of reasons:

• Your body can enter into what is referred to as a semi-starvation state. Because your body is breaking itself down, it believes that it is starving, irrespective of the amount of calories you are consuming.

To offset this effect, the body produces an abundance of an enzyme that converts food to fat. Fat is simply is stored energy, which is something you would need if you were staving!

How many times have you heard bout people going on a diet and initially losing weight only to put it all back on, not to mention a few extra kilograms? It is this enzyme at work that causes this phenomenon.

• Fat is burnt for fuel within muscle, so if you are losing muscle, you are effectively taking away something that can reduce your body’s fat stores.

Remember also that muscle weighs three times more than fat, but fat takes up three times the space. This means the scale changes you may see (weight reduction) do not always provide an accurate indication of what is happening with your body composition.

Another great reason to include protein in your diet for weight management is that it reduced appetite and creates a feeling fullness. When it comes to fat loss, one concept that is generally well accepted is the need for a reduction in total calories consumed per day. That is – taking in less calorie that the body uses/needs (calories in versus calories out). However, there are a number if additional factors that must be taken into account. For example, simply reducing total calories is not always a guaranteed formula for successful, sustainable fat loss or good health.

All too often information is focussed exclusively on weight loss. Gaining weight or muscle mass is a problem that plagues many individuals. While those wishing to gain weight often do so for reasons based around physical appearance, weight gain may also offer protective benefit to athletes involved in contact sports (Rogerson et al., 2004). Therefore gaining weight is common goal for many individuals, yet information on how to safely do so is often scarce.

Maintaining a positive energy balance (consuming more calories than you use) is essential in gaining mass. In fact a positive energy balance has been shown in numerous studies to have a whole body anabolic effect (Houston, 1999). Many proteins are formulated as a protein/concentrated energy source that can assist in increasing the total caloric intake, thereby contributing to a more positive energy balance. These are therefore ideal for those who are naturally skinny and have difficulty gaining weight.

Use a protein supplement to meet your daily requirements
Many health professionals believe that protein supplementation is unnecessary and that the recommended daily intake for protein is easily achieved via normal dietary intake.

However, this argument is based on the assumption that everyone consumes a well-balanced diet containing a range of high-quality protein sources. But in today's hectic world, how many people actually achieve this?

If you do not fulfill your recommended daily intake of protein everyday, a protein supplement would defiantly be of benefit.

Take your protein supplement at your mealtime, post workout ( within 20 minutes ) or combine it with a low-protein meal.

A good guideline to follow in terms of required nutrients on a plate is one-third protein and two-thirds nutrient-rich complex/fibrous carbohydrates.

Protein supplements can be useful for individuals who want to maintain their dietary protein intake while controlling their calories ( less or more). By using a protein supplement with (weight gain) or without (weight gain) you can control the daily total calorific intake without compromising quality nutritional intake.