Living Without Meat

I am studying to become a certified group fitness instructor. At this point, I am reading through Fitness: Theory & Practice, the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America’s (AFAA) text book. As I was reading chapter 2, “Energy Production During Exercise,” I came across something very exciting to me as a vegan.

The book was explaining how there are three main things that your body can use to make energy: carbs, fats and protein. There were several pages about the body’s breaking down of carbs into energy, and another few about the process of breaking down fat. Then it came to the section on protein. There was only one paragraph, and here is how it started:

“Finally, a brief word about the use of protein as fuel is in order. Protein usually does not provide more than 10 to 15 percent of the total energy requirement of an activity. As such, protein does not play as significant role as carbohydrate or fat as a fuel for exercise. … It is obviously not advantageous to use this source for fuel during exercise.”

The paragraph goes on the put the difference between the three components into perspective. It says that one unit of carbohydrate can produce 38 units used for energy; one unit of fat, 147 units; and one unit of protein, a measly 15 units.

That’s one point for vegans and vegetarians in the great protein debate.