We get this question many times: Is protein diet good for weight loss or not? Protein certainly helps in weight loss and there are so many studies to show the evidence of weight loss with the protein diet. It plays a big role in your weight loss journey if you incorporate in your diet properly.
Protein is one of the best nutrients for weight loss and also for the overall growth of your body. Protein helps not only in weight loss but it has many other health benefits.
It is good for gaining muscle mass; stabilizing blood sugar levels, mood swing, healthy brain function, strong bones, slows aging process etc.
So it helps in overall growth of your body. There are so many studies which prove protein diet can help you lose significant weight.
If you are on a weight loss journey then high protein diet can play a big role. High protein diet will help in a low-calorie intake, metabolism boost, and reduced appetite. You will feel fuller for a long time as it curbs the craving.
There are so many high protein foods that you can include in your daily diet schedule. We will discuss all of them in details later on. Here in this article, we will also discuss in details how protein helps in weight loss.
Do you really want to lose weight? Then you will need to burn more calories than you consume daily. Protein-rich foods help in burning more calories by boosting your metabolism. This is called thermal effect. High protein intake increases the thermal effect and boosts metabolic rate. So one who is eating more protein will burn more calories and will get help in weight loss process. A few studies suggest that protein intake boosts metabolism and helps in burning more calories
Eating fewer calories will help you remain away from gaining extra weight. One more benefit of protein diet is that it helps curb the craving. You will not feel hungry as it reduces appetite and you eat fewer calories. So one-way protein diet is helpful in burning more calories and on another side it helps in consuming fewer calories. There are so many shreds of evidence which confirm that protein diet helps in eating fewer calories during the day. So we can notice there are so many advantages of high protein diet if you are looking to lose weight fast.
Do you eat snacks regularly in evening? Most of us will say yes. When you take low protein diet, you will feel hungry and your desire for eating will increase, that is why we eat snacks in evening and this is the one major cause of weight gain. High protein diet will make you feel less hungry and will reduce your snacks eating habit. Breakfast is the most important meal of your day so take high protein diet in breakfast like eggs, cheese, yogurt etc. so you feel fuller for a long time. You can also consume almonds in between your meals as snacks because almonds also have good protein content and will make you feel fuller. A study confirms that eating protein-rich diet will reduce late night snacks desire and help you adopt a healthier lifestyle.
When you lose some of your body fat while losing weight, some of the muscles mass also get reduced. The process is automatic and which is not good for your health, however, this generally happens when you are losing weight. So we need to minimize this muscle mass loss effect. Another thing is weight loss process also reduces the metabolic rate to some extent. So to minimize these two negative effects of weight loss, we need to increase protein content in the diet. Protein diet will help in muscle gain and will also increase metabolic rate. So you will not look weak while you lose fat. The important thing is to lose fat, not the muscle mass and protein diet will help in reducing muscle loss effect during the weight loss process. There are so many ways to increase protein intake that we will discuss now:
Protein-rich foods that you can include in your diet. Just a Few For example are:
Chicken, beef, salmon, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt, kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils etc.
The best way to get high protein diet is by starting a protein-rich breakfast. You can use Eggs, milk, yogurt, cheese in your breakfast. One large egg has 6 g of protein, similarly, 100 g milk contains 3.4 g protein and cheese contains 25 g of protein per 100 g. You can take almonds and cashews as snacks after 2-3 hours of your breakfast if you feel hungry and keep consuming water throughout the day.
Water will help reducing appetite also. So the objective should be to increase protein-rich foods in your diet to get more weight loss benefits. Now we will discuss full list of protein-rich foods that you can incorporate into your diet.
Eggs: 1 egg, 85 calories, 7 g protein
Almonds: 1 oz, 164 calories, 6 g protein
Chicken : 3 oz. cooked breast, 142 calories, 26 g protein
Oats: 2.4 g protein in 100 g, 68 calories
Cottage Cheese: 11 g per 100 g. 98 calories
Greek Yogurt: 10 per 100 g. 59 calories
Milk: 3.4 g per 100 grams, 42 calories
Broccoli: 2.8 g per 100 grams, 34 calories
Lean Beef: 14 g per 100 grams.
Whey Protein Supplements: 0.9grams per 100 grams.
Lentils: 9 g per 100 grams, 116 calories
Pumpkin Seeds: 19 g per 100 grams, 446 calories
Fish (All Types): 22 g per 100 grams, 206 calories
Peanuts: 26 g per 100 grams, 567 calories.
Cashews: 18 g per 100 grams, 553 calories
Teff: 3.87 g per 100 g. 100.9 Calories
Peas: 5 g per 100 grams, 81 calories
Spinach: 2.9 g per 100 grams, 23 calories
So all these foods are high in protein and you can use them in your meal plan regularly. Some of them like almonds, cashews, yogurt, and peanuts can be taken as snacks. Now let’s discuss how much protein per day is good for you.
There is a different set of parameter for different circumstances. It depends if you are very active or you are in middle age group or you are above fifty. So according to a survey by National Health and Nutrition Examination, American women already eating 65-70 g of protein per day. So if you are looking to lose weight then 1.8 to 2 grams per kilogram (roughly 0.8 to 0.9 grams per pound) of body weight per day is a good amount to consume per day. Now let’s discuss some other important benefits of the protein-rich diet.
There are so many benefits of protein-rich diet other than weight loss. So increasing protein in your diet will help in many ways. Here we have listed some major benefits of protein-rich diet:
As we already know protein intake help in muscle mass. That is the main reason protein diet is important for strength training because the body needs extra protein to repair damaged muscles and tissues.
Protein-rich foods have minimal effect on glucose level so the diet rich in protein will always be low in glucose level and will naturally slow down blood sugar level. So protein foods reverse the effect of blood sugar levels increased from the high carb and high sugar foods.
Amino acids in protein foods are helpful in controlling mood and act as a natural remedy for anxiety. People who lack amino acid in their diet start feeling weakness, mood swing, anxiety, depression. So protein diet lowers moodiness, irritability, and depression.
Our brain requires a regular supply of certain amino acids and these amino acids are important for concentration, focus, and increasing energy levels. So diet low in amino acid will have the negative effect on your brain functioning and increased protein intake helps in getting more amino acids and helps in good functioning of the brain.
Another major benefit of protein diet is stronger bones and good heart health. Protein diet also helps in healing broken bones and prevents bone weakness.
Some studies have shown that protein diet is very effective in preventing the risk of heart diseases as it is the natural remedy for high blood pressure.
Protein diet can slow down the aging process as protein diet is helpful in keeping muscle mass intact, making stronger bones and managing a good immune system. The main cause of aging is muscle loss, eye weakness, heart problems and mood changes issues. So if you eat protein rich diet it will help in keeping your memory sharp, making you more energetic, and strengthening your body.
So anyone who is looking to get fast results in their weight loss journey and want to improve overall health then he or she must eat protein-rich diet regularly. This will have a significant effect on weight loss and there will be no negative effect on your body as it helps in bones and muscle mass strength.
Don’t forget to share this helpful information with your friends and family.