Countless studies have been done on the role of protein in the muscle growth process. These studies have tried to determine exactly how much protein you need consume in order to build muscle mass.
Recently, several studies examined the role of dietary protein in helping you lose fat as part of what kind of foods increase metabolism.
Scientists have discovered that eating lean food rich in protein is important for regulating body composition because it decreases appetite.
In a study reported in the journal Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care (2003; 6(6): 635-638), protein exhibited more satiating properties (makes you feel fuller) than carbohydrates and fat both in the short term and long term.
Certain foods increase metabolism and protein is one of them. Eating lean protein foods has proven to be an effective strategy to help you burn fat and keep it off because of “dietary thermogenesis” (also known as "thermic effect").
In a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2005 (93(2): 281-289), researchers followed 113 overweight subjects after they had been on a very low calorie diet for 4 weeks, through a 6 month time span of weight maintenance. The subjects were divided into a protein group and a control group. The protein group was given an extra 30 grams of protein a day in addition to their usual diet.
The researchers discovered that during weight maintenance, the group with the higher protein intake was less likely to regain lost weight and the weight gain in the protein group was lean muscle tissue and not fat. The results were attributed to the higher thermic effect and an overall decrease in appetite.
Although calories are the bottom line when it comes to fat loss, studies such as the above one are confirming what bodybuilders have already known for many years: calories are not the only factor that influence your body composition. Your protein intake and your ratios of protein to carbohydrates to fat can play a big role in helping you lose fat and keep it off.
Of course, this is no news to bodybuilders or to anyone who is familiar with bodybuilding-style nutrition such as Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle. However, it’s interesting that positive results were achieved in studies where protein was increased so conservatively - only 30 additional grams of protein a day.
Many bodybuilding-type diets (such as Burn The Fat and Body For Life) call for 30% to 40% of the total daily calories to come from protein and some competitive bodybuilders further crank-up their protein intake (temporarily) all the way up to 50% of total daily calories before competitions.
It would be interesting to see if future research is conducted on these more aggressive protein intakes. If it is, I'm guessing that we will once again find that bodybuilders are ahead of science when it comes to manipulating their diet to improve body composition. They have always known that protein increases metabolism.
Thus, your take home lesson on which foods increase metabolism is simple: if you take out some carbs and replace them with protein - nothing too extreme; even as little as trading 30 grams a day of carbs for 30 grams of lean protein a day - this small change may decrease your appetite and decrease your body fat (and help you keep it off after you lose it).
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