Are You Eating Enough Protein to Lose Weight?

When it comes to losing weight, most people think they need to eat as little as possible, but that’s incorrect! And, what you eat is even more important than how much you eat during your fat loss phase. 

It’s not just a magic calorie number- it’s about your balance of macronutrients. Macronutrients are made up of 3 buckets: Protein, Fat and Carbs. All foods will fall into one of these 3 buckets. 

The most important bucket for you to focus on is protein. Ensuring that you eat the right amount of protein each day is integral to your ability to lose fat and stop yo-yo dieting for good. 

So why is protein the most important when there are diets out there like Keto that focus on healthy fats or Atkins which cuts out carbs? Well, protein has a plethora of important roles in the body from repairing tissue to creating hormones AND we have no mechanism to store protein in the body, unlike carbs and fat. This means that we have no stores to fuel our body when we run out so we need to constantly replenish it. 

Research shows that a high protein diet is the most effective for fat loss because protein consumption increases the speed of your metabolism, increases satiety and reduces appetite. It does this by boosting thermogenesis and altering the production of a number of hormones like ghrelin and leptin, both associated with hunger and fullness signalling.

You should aim to eat .8-1g of protein per ideal body weight per day. So if your ideal body weight is 150lbs, you should aim to eat 120-150g of protein per day. Something important to add to this is that you also need to maintain a calorie deficit. 120-150g of protein is the equivalent of 480-600 calories per day, so if you’re aiming for 1500 calories per day with your deficit, you’ll need to fill the rest with healthy fats (like olive oil and avocado) and fiber-full carbs like fruits and veggies. 

So why does this approach work the best at specifically losing fat pounds? When you are eating in a caloric deficit that is low to moderate in protein, you are likely to break down muscle mass. This may make you lose more body ‘weight’, so the number on the scale will go down, but you’ll just be losing muscle rather than fat. This is not helpful for long-term weight loss and often leads to yo-yo dieting.

Want to lose fat according to science? Let’s work together. Working with a Board Certified Holistic Integrative Health and Nutrition Coach can help you understand nutrition from a scientific, evidence-based perspective, to give you the tools you need to reach your health and fitness goals.