As a middle-age male that got away with many “bad” habits as a 20ish year old, fat burning has now become a top priority right up there with staying sane and trying not to lose all of the money we have earned in the next stock market crash!

So that means I spend ALLOT of time researching and trying different techniques of diet, exercise, supplements and even psychological techniques to help turn around many of those bad habits with the ultimate goal of finding the main changes that are easiest to make but have the biggest impact in terms of weight loss. 

I’m no different than anyone else – radical shifts in behavior are not likely to stick (unless you have had a major, near-death life experience), so we are left with having to make ongoing, smaller tweaks to our behavior that don’t seem that far off where we are today while at the same time making sure to maximize the impact on our ability to burn more fat.

Watching the calories we eat is one way, adding more moderate exercise to our routine is another…paying attention to stress management is still another. 

But one technique I’ve been paying more attention to lately is increasing the amount of protein in my diet while watching my intake of carbohydrates (one of those nasty bad habits that I used to get away with). 

For me, it was not so much a matter of increasing protein intake once or twice, but making sure the amount was consistently higher each day.  One day I may have above average with fish, chicken, tofu, nuts and other protein rich foods, but another day I may get just a few mg’s of protein – all in all it is too little and too inconsistent.

So, I started to look into more information about muscle building and maintenance as another main pillar of increasing metabolism and burning fat faster throughout the day and the role that protein plays in a muscle building plan is pretty significant. 

Over the last month I’ve been substituting protein shakes and protein bars for snacks or smaller meals and I have to say that I feel terrific!  

Along with my normal workouts 3-times a week, cutting back on carbohydrates (especially lunchtime sandwiches and before-bed toast attacks) I have lost 5-lbs and notice that I don’t go through the same hunger points during the day where I just had to have something to eat, where more often than not it was something that wasn’t good for me. 

These protein bars are great to have on hand – they contain more than 30 grams of protein – including Advanced Hydrolyzed Whey Protein Isolate – and they taste great, making it simpler to substitute that afternoon snack or lunch where you are rushed with a healthy, filling and tastey protein bar.  Believe me, when you have these on hand, you will not need to raid the refridgerator or hit the snack machines and you will lose weight.