@brettboettcher1: You hear a lot about eating mo...

You hear a lot about eating more protein to lose weight

Here’s the science behind why it will actually work for you:

Let’s start with the benefits of a high protein diet:

1) Increased thermogenic effect
2) Reduced caloric intake through improved satiety
3) Muscle repair and maintenance
4) Lifelong plan that tastes great

Let’s expand on each point. If it’s strictly about calories, then high protein has you covered.

You’re burning more by just digesting the protein compared to carbs or fats:

It’s estimated the thermic effect of protein is 20-30% while carbs and fats are <10%.

This means that a gram of protein that has 4 calories in it, really only yields 3 net calories after digestion.

This is significant when considering you can boost your daily calorie expenditure by 200+ calories per day just by getting 30% of your calories from protein.

All things equal, that’s the equivalent of 20lbs of fat burn per year if you consumed the same number of calories, just with different foods.

Additionally, people eating higher protein feel full longer. This can mean less snacking and fewer calories consumed at the next meal.

More calories burned and less calories consumed means the fat melts off in time.

But there are other benefits to protein that are just as significant to your health and metabolism.

Most diets fail because they focus heavily on cardio and calorie restriction.

They work, but only temporarily.

As you lose weight, some of which is muscle, your metabolism slows which means you need to eat less to maintain weight loss through caloric deficits.

But when you add in resistance training and a high protein diet, you have the ability to build or at least maintain muscle mass as you lose fat.

This maintains or improves metabolism allowing you to drop pounds without needing to consume less.

Protein is the foundation of muscle and ingesting protein is necessary for normal muscle maintenance and repair.

Getting 30 grams of protein in a meal allows muscle protein synthesis to occur and the process of building muscle takes place.

This should be the minimum number you look for in a meal.

On top of that, it’s important to remember that not all protein is created equally.

Some sources include all of the amino acids (little building blocks of protein) while others are missing.

For your muscle, this is like trying to build a house without all the necessary tools.

You can put some sort of structure together, but it’s not properly built unless you have all the equipment.

Many of the best sources of protein include:

-fish
-beef
-pork
-eggs
-milk
-yogurt (Greek)
-cheese
-poultry

The best protein sources per calorie are:

-cod
-tuna
-shrimp
-egg whites
-Greek yogurt
-chicken breast

Foods that are often misconceived as high protein but are higher in calories include:

-oats
-beans
-seeds
-almonds
-peanut butter

That doesn’t mean they are unhealthy but they shouldn’t serve as the primary protein source in your meal.

While getting 30 grams of protein is important per meal for muscle growth, getting AT LEAST 0.7 grams of protein per pound of ideal body weight should be a goal to work toward.

The reality is that to lose weight, you need to be in a calorie deficit. But you don’t need to count calories forever to get there.

You also don’t need to eat completely boring or bland food to get there.

It will take some time and effort to build a sustainable plan that fits your lifestyle.

Make protein the center of the meal and focus on eating real foods and you are 80% of the way there

The rest is being consistent.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this thread.

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