The word protein comes from Greek words “pro” meaning first and “tein” meaning food. When it comes to nutrition - and weight loss - the Greeks knew what they were talking about!
Protein is an important structural and functional component of every cell in the body. Protein is needed to build and repair muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, skin and organ tissues. Protein is used to make essential enzymes and hormones. Even your hair and nails are mostly protein.
And, as you will see, protein is the first word for both weight loss and weight maintenance.
Eat More, Lose More
Perhaps the best known high protein weight loss diet is the Atkins diet.
First published in the 1960s, the Atkins diet, which limits carbohydrates but allows unlimited consumption of high protein animal foods, has enjoyed a recent resurgence in popularity. And with good reason: It works! *
In a survey of more than 32,000 dieters over a third claimed they had successfully lost weight by following the Atkins diet. And in a randomized clinical trial, the Atkins diet produced greater weight loss at both 3 and 6 months than a low fat, high carbohydrate diet based on the US dietary guidelines.
Since the publication of the Atkins diet multiple studies have clearly demonstrated that high protein, low carbohydrate diets lead to greater weight loss than either low fat or low protein diets.
One study, for example, showed that over a six-month period, people who ate a diet that contained an unrestricted number of calories but contained 25% protein lost over 7 pounds more than those who followed an unrestricted diet that contained only 12% protein.
And a similar study found that people who followed a high protein, low carbohydrate diet achieved significantly greater weight loss over a 12-week period than those who followed the National Cholesterol Education Program’s meat- restricted diet.
Weight Loss Magic
High protein diets appear to work their weight loss magic, at least in part, by increasing satiety. Protein has been shown to be more hunger satisfying than either carbohydrates or fat.
As a result, people who eat high protein diets experience less hunger between meals and eat fewer calories at the next meal than people whose diets contain less protein. In one study women who ate meat at lunch ate 12% fewer calories during the evening meal.
But Wait! There’s More!
If all that protein did was to increase satiety so that we felt fuller and ate less that would be a good thing. After all, hunger and lack of satiety are the main reasons people give up on weight loss diets. But protein works its weight loss magic in other ways as well.
In addition to decreasing hunger, protein appears to actively stimulate fat loss.
Studies comparing groups given the same number of calories but different amounts of protein have shown that people lose more weight when more of the calories they eat come from protein rather than from fat or carbohydrates.
In addition, more of the weight lost by those on high protein diets comes from fat rather than from lean body tissue. The mechanism for this increased fat loss is not entirely clear, but high protein diets appear to increase the body’s basal metabolic rate resulting in greater energy expenditure at rest.
The End of the Yo-Yo Diet!
Adding more protein to your diet will not only help you lose weight, it will also help keep you from gaining that weight back! Increasing the amount of protein in one’s diet after losing weight has been shown to help prevent the weight re-gain that typically follows dieting.
And it doesn’t take much to do the trick. In one study, increasing protein from 15% to just 18% of calories consumed following weight loss resulted in a 50% reduction in weight re-gain!
While it’s not clear if protein affects weight re-gain by increasing satiety, increasing one’s metabolic rate or by some other means, it is clear that increasing the amount of protein you eat is one way to finally put an end to the yo-yo diet!
Say “Good-Bye” to Belly Fat
Another benefit of adding protein to your diet is that it will help you lose fat from your abdominal region and make your tissues more sensitive to the hormone insulin.
Fat cells, particularly abdominal fat cells, produce chemicals that cause tissues to become resistant to the effects of insulin. When tissues become resistant to insulin, blood sugar levels remain high so the pancreas produces more insulin. This process results in blood levels of insulin that are higher than they should be.
Insulin stimulates the synthesis of fat and blocks its breakdown, so high levels of insulin facilitate weight gain and make it very difficult to lose weight.**
Protein Increases Sensitivity to Insulin
If you are overweight and carry much of that weight around your middle you probably have insulin resistance and higher than normal levels of insulin.
You can improve your sensitivity to insulin and begin to lower your insulin levels by eating several small meals a day rather than a few large ones, by exercising, and, you guessed it, by adding more protein to your diet!
High protein diets have been shown to help people with insulin resistance and high levels of insulin both lose weight and improve their insulin sensitivity. In one study, men with high levels of insulin lost 28% more weight over a 4-week period when they followed a diet that consisted of 45% protein compared to a diet that contained the same number of calories but only 12% protein.
And in another study, people with insulin resistance had a 50% greater loss of body fat when they ate a high protein diet compared to a diet that was lower in protein - and this fat loss occurred mostly in the abdominal region.
Adding protein to your diet will also improve your sensitivity to insulin.
Blood levels of a chemical known as “triacylglycerol”, a key marker for insulin resistance, have been shown to decrease more on high protein diets than on diets containing less protein, indicating an improved sensitivity to insulin. While some of this improvement may be due to the loss of abdominal fat caused by these diets high protein diets appear to improve insulin sensitivity even in the absence of weight loss.
Take Control of Diabetes!
If you are a diabetic, a high protein diet can also improve your blood sugar levels.
Researchers have found that high protein diets lower levels of hemoglobin A1C in diabetics. Hemaglobin A1C is an indicator of average blood sugar levels, so a lower level indicates an improvement in overall control of blood sugar.
Adding protein to your diet will also reduce the rise in blood sugar that occurs after meals.
PROTEIN – IT’S WHAT’S FOR BREAKFAST People who eat breakfast are more successful at losing weight and maintaining weight loss than those who do not eat breakfast. Since added protein increases satiety and facilitates fat loss it would make sense that adding protein to the breakfast menu would be a particularly helpful.
And it is.
Studies have shown that eating high quality protein at breakfast is important if you want to obtain the metabolic advantages of a high protein diet. Replacing the traditional high carbohydrate breakfast with foods like steak, eggs, salmon, chicken or pork will result in greater satiety and will also prevent mid-morning fatigue and hunger.
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* Although many people have successfully lost weight on the Atkins diet, I do not recommend this diet for several reasons.
• The first phase of the Atkins diet severely limits all carbohydrate foods. This forces the body to utilize its own fat for energy and induces a metabolic state known as ketosis. Ketosis suppresses the appetite causing people to eat less. However, ketosis can be dangerous and it is not necessary to induce this state in order to lose weight. Ketosis also increases the body's elimination of fluids, so much of the rapid weight loss that occurs in the first few days of the Atkins diet is actually due to a loss of water rather than fat.
• It is not healthy to eliminate carbohydrate foods like vegetables and fruits from your diet even for a week or two. Although later phases of the Atkins diet do add in these healthful carbohydrates many people never get beyond the first phase.
• Finally, while many people lose weight on the Atkins diet, like other “dieters” few Atkins followers manage to keep the weight off. A study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that, although Atkins dieters lost twice as much weight at 3 and 6 months as conventional dieters, there was no difference between the two groups after one year (However, the Atkins dieters did have significantly greater increases in HDL (good) cholesterol and greater decreases in triglycerides)
** High insulin levels are also associated with generalized inflammation and a variety of degenerative diseases including coronary heart disease and diabetes.
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
1. Protein increases satiety and actively stimulates fat loss.
2. Protein improves insulin sensitivity and lowers blood insulin levels making it easier to lose weight. Reducing insulin levels also decreases inflammation and the risk of developing many degenerative diseases including CHD and diabetes.
3. Adding protein to your diet can also put an end to yo-yo dieting because it will help keep you from re-gaining weight after you lose it
3. High protein diets lower blood sugar levels in diabetics.
Great information in this post, thanks! I know that for myself eating protein in the morning in the form of eggs keeps me full so much longer than anything else and my blood sugar is stable. I completely agree with adding protein to diets.
jen
http://www.bodaweightloss.com/blog
Posted by: jen boda | May 19, 2009 at 10:35 AM