wellhealthorganic: An essential nutritional substance, protein is required to keep the body healthy and make it as fit as possible. Protein plays a major role in muscle development and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and it can significantly assist in your weight loss journey. Impacting your metabolism, protein can help shed a substantial amount of fat while staying healthy.
Protein is one of the things which you need to take into consideration while continuing on your weight loss journey. Cutting calories, exercising and adequate protein intake are all the major factors which can help you lose a substantial amount of weight.
While its astute proteins can assist in losing fat, there still must be curiosity about how protein can help you lose weight, like what are the factors that allow the protein to help in weight loss. Let’s assess the factors impacting the weight loss through protein:
wellhealthorganic: Hormonal Impacts
Determining heavily how your body reacts to various foods, the brain has some control over your weight. A part of the brain known as the hypothalamus is responsible for such weight-related activities.
When you eat, your brain processes many types of information and based on that assesses how much you need to eat. Hormones are responsible for such signals passing information which determines how much you eat, eventually determining your weight.
High protein intake allows your body’s appetite to be full through the signalling of hormones GPL- 1, peptide YY and cholecystokinin which makes you feel full. Due to decreased hunger levels through protein, you eventually get on the path of consuming less food thus losing weight.
Affects Digestion & Metabolism
When eating food the digestion of it requires the calories you ate to be used for the metabolization of food. The process is commonly known as the thermal effect which the body does for consumption of the food and its adequate digestion. Since the digestion of food requires the use of energy, calories are used which eventually leads to your body working more.
While each food has a different level of calorific effect a rough figure suggests that consumption of protein-rich food creates a 30% effect. According to this rough figure, for every 100 calories you consume, only 70 are left for your body to use. Carbs and fats also create a thermal effect but protein has the highest impact out of them all.
Prevent Muscle Loss
On the path of weight loss, you are bound to lose both muscle and fat, it’s not possible for you to lose only fat while retaining all the muscle mass. Losing muscle mass is a hard choice for many but removing too much subcutaneous and visceral fat equates to some amount of muscle loss.
To prevent muscle loss to a great extent, consumption of protein-rich food is highly recommendable. Eating protein allows you to keep your metabolic rate high allowing you to lose more body fat than muscle. Another way for you to reduce muscle loss is through strength training which allows you to have better metabolic depletion.
Fills Your Stomach
Protein significantly assists you in having a full appetite and reducing hunger for a longer time. Feeling full for a longer time through a satisfied stomach enables you to eat less and be on your required diet plans. Over a period of time, this can enable you to save calories and lose weight.
Another thing you can do to have a full appetite for a long time is combine protein with carbs. Doing so allows slow absorption of sugar into the bloodstream keeping your blood sugar levels adequate.
Requires More Energy To Digest
Some studies suggest that for your body to lose fat, it requires help of carbohydrates and protein which allows fat to be used as energy. With the right protein intake you can shape your body to have lean muscles while losing fat. Protein is highly useful to retain muscle mass, as it allows the muscles to repair and grow after wear and tear from exercising.
Adequate Amount Of Protein For Weight Loss
Eating more protein is not the solution for weight loss, neither does eating more carbs or fat will help you lose weight loss. Too much eating of any carbs, protein or fat can all lead to weight gain which you don’t want to happen. It is necessary for you to consume protein in a calculated amount so it helps with weight loss rather than increasing it.
How protein can help you lose weight is by having it in the right amount the commonly suggested amount is around 46 to 56 grams. While this is one suggested figure, other studies suggest eating a percentage of your daily caloric requirements. If your daily calories intake is 2000 you should be eating 2000 * 0.075 = 150 grams of protein.
Wrap Up
Major protein is assistive in weight loss due to its quality of making your appetite satisfied for a longer time. Allowing you to stay full and eat less, the protein also makes a high thermal effect which burns more calories. All these factors and the benefits of less muscle loss makes the consumption of protein significantly beneficial.
