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Does a High Protein Diet Help You Lose Weight?
| Posted on Jan 24, 2012 |
Food is made up of carbohydrates, fat and protein. The average person eats about 25% of their calories from fat, 15% from protein and 60% from carbohydrates. Hundreds of weight loss diets are based on some alteration of the ratio of carbohydrates, fat and protein. From Adkins (low carbohydrate diet) to The Zone diet (high protein ~30%), avoiding or emphasizing one of these 3 components has commonly been advocated as the solution to weight loss and good health.
Why would a high protein diet help you lose weight?
Weight loss plans that focus on a high protein diet are particularly popular. On the surface, this seems to make sense.
• Protein and carbohydrates are less calorie dense than fat.
• High protein foods typically have a low glycemic index (don’t increase blood sugar as much as high carbohydrate foods).
• Some scientists believe that protein is less likely to be stored as fat.
Although a high protein diet does make sense in some ways, the scientific studies have not been conclusive. However, a recent study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association may have settled the issue for good.
Researchers studied 25 individuals under very rigorous conditions. After several weeks of a weight-stabilizing diet, they were randomized to a very high calorie diet with either:
• Low protein diet (5% of total calories)
• Normal protein diet (15% of total calories)
• High protein diet (25% of total calories)
What made this study particularly strong was that all of the subjects were in an inpatient facility where all food intake was closely monitored. Also each subject was analyzed not only for weight, but body composition (fat or muscle) and resting energy expenditure (basal metabolic rate which is the amount of energy your body burns without moving).
What the researchers found was that each diet resulted in the same increase in fat. The low protein diet resulted in the least weight gain, but only because those individuals did not gain any muscle. The normal and high protein diets resulted in higher lean body mass (muscle) and resting energy expenditure (basal metabolic rate) but also a higher overall body weight.
Calories, not protein, determine fat loss and gain
So there seems to be no magic in a high protein diet, at least when it comes to weight gain. Although there are many “experts” that seem to have the easy answers to the best diet for weight loss….. don’t be fooled. The basis of healthy, permanent weight loss continues to be eating healthy and staying physically active.
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