Weight Loss

The average diet has more than enough protein to meet daily needs, however, there are often times when the average diet becomes less than normal and may not be as adequate as it should be. Between the busy life that the average person leads and constant yo-yo or fad dieting, the fact is that what we should be eating quickly becomes what we do not eat and what we sorely miss.

There are two kinds of protein, complete and incomplete, which come from either plant or animal sources. Protein supplements, no matter what kind they might be, are derived from either plant or animal sources as well. Which is better between animal or plant based protein depends on a number of factors. There are those who choose not to eat meat or animal products for moral, ethical and religious reasons. There are those who find themselves unable to afford many forms of animal protein a majority of the time. Then there are those that just love the taste of a good juicy steak served up with a good cold beer. For our purposes, the comparisons of proteins will be based on these factors:

Face it, dieting is hard. If it were easy, there would only be one plan, it would work and no one would be overweight ever again. We eat to be healthy and to have energy. We eat because our body is convinced it is hungry. We eat because we see others eating and want to be social. We eat because we are happy, sad, mad, or indifferent. We eat because it is dinner time. We eat because it is Tuesday afternoon. Dieting does not address the whole picture, nor does it address the mechanics of the body. Diets, especially the extreme, hardcore, fad diets, are going to start off strong and then fade off after a week or two. Once the person stops the fad diet and returns to their normal way of eating, they regain what they lost and then some, starting off another swing in the vicious dieting cycle.

Severe burn injury over 30% or more of the body surface results in pronounced metabolic response that has prolonged nutritional implications. Understanding the nature of this response and the consequent changes in nutritional requirements is important for the optimal treatment of such patients. The expenditure of resting energy after a burn injury can be as much as 100%. Increased heat loss from the burn wound and increased beta adrenergic activity are probably both important factors that cause an increase in the resting energy expenditure. Burned skin loses its effectiveness as a barrier to water loss, leading to increased evaporative heat loss via the wound. In addition, radiation heat loss is increased from burn wounds. This is brought about by the increased blood supply to the burn wound, which is a normal response to any injury.