Protein and weight loss: How much protein should you eat to lose weight?

 

Lots of scientific research on nutrition and weight loss shows key markers on people’s success in winning the battle of the bulge:

Whilst exercise is massively important, your healthy eating habits probably matter more than the time spent working out. You can’t out train a bad diet! You need a calorie deficit for weight loss.

There is no single best diet to lose weight. The best diet is the one you can stick to consistently with total calorie balance – I just call it healthy eating.

Protein is one of the key facets in a diet that increases the likelihood of someone’s ability to lose weight.

 

Protein is one of three macronutrients, carbohydrate and fat are the other two. Protein is essential and it plays a key role in lots of

bodily functions and the recovery of the body after exercise.

 

Protein helps you feel full for longer.  You are less likely to stick to to a calorie deficit if you are hungry so protein helps keep you feeling satiated. Studies show roughly 1.8g – 2.9g of protein per kilogram of body weight daily provides substantial benefit on satiety.

 

Protein preserves lean body mass during periods of a calorie deficit. We want to preserve lean muscle mass to increase our resting metabolic rate, so we burn more calories. Most evidence suggests that 1.6g of protein per kilogram of body weight daily is a recommended target during periods of weight loss.

 

Protein also increases the thermal effect of food, this is the calorie cost of breaking down and digesting your food and then turning it into energy.  Protein has a thermic effect upward of five times greater than carbohydrates or fat.