How can weight loss be easier?

The core of weight loss is that the calories taken in are less than the calories consumed, thus forming a "negative calorie balance." The key to any "weight loss food" or "weight loss method" is to form a calorie imbalance.

So, does protein help to form a "negative calorie balance"? Scientists have done a lot of research.

From the perspective of nutritional requirements, the human body does not need much protein every day. For the average person, 10%-15% of the daily calorie intake comes from protein, or 0.8 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight is sufficient to meet the body's metabolic needs. The former algorithm is based on the average person’s daily intake of 2000 calories, 10%-15% of the calories are equivalent to 50 to 75 grams of protein; the latter algorithm, for a 70 kg person, is equivalent to 56 to 84 Grams.

But this is just to meet nutritional needs, and does not mean that you can't eat more.

What scientists are interested in is what will happen if the intake is higher than these "recommended amounts"?

An interesting research article was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in July 2005. A total of 19 volunteers provided food according to the regular nutritional composition for the first two weeks, that is, the calorie source was 15% protein, 35% fat, and 50% carbohydrate. The amount of food was to maintain weight; after two weeks, the nutritional composition of the food was changed. It is 30% protein, 20% fat, and 50% carbohydrates, but the calories are the same as the previous two weeks; after two weeks, the nutritional composition of the food remains unchanged, but the amount of food is not restricted, and the volunteers eat freely.

To put it simply, replacing fat with protein with the same calorie has little effect on weight loss, basically maintaining weight. However, when providing a high-protein diet but not controlling the amount, but letting the volunteers decide their food intake according to their own hunger and fullness, the amount of food they ingested significantly decreased. The end result is continued weight loss.

In other words, after increasing the protein content of the food, volunteers need less calories to maintain a "full" state, so they lose weight on the premise of "not going hungry".

Regarding the conclusion that high-protein diets have a strong sense of satiety, thereby reducing food requirements, a paper in the June 2015 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition did a special study. In the study, 27 obese volunteers were found, and they were randomly divided into a high-protein group (the protein calories in the diet accounted for 25%) and the conventional group (the protein calories in the diet accounted for 14%). In the study, they ate a "weight loss diet" with a daily intake of 750 calories less than they consume, and they are prone to "hungry" and "want to eat" states. The experiment not only compared the effect of protein content, but also examined the effect of eating 3 or 6 times a day. It was found that although the total calories of the foods eaten were the same, the intensity of "hungry" and "want to eat" expressed by the high-protein group was less than half of that of the conventional group. And whether these foods are divided into 3 meals or 6 meals, there is almost no effect-the body is very sincere and will not be fooled by the tricks.

The effect of high-protein foods on weight loss is not only a strong sense of satiety and thus reducing food requirements, but also higher calories needed for digestion. On the one hand, calories are generated after food digestion, absorption and metabolism; on the other hand, this process also consumes a certain amount of calories.

Generally speaking, the calories consumed by digesting, absorbing and metabolizing protein are higher than fat and carbohydrates. After eating the same calories of protein, fat and carbohydrates, the body will absorb less "net calories" from protein. Although this difference is not very large, it is always "good for weight loss" in the direction.

High-protein diet not only affects the results of weight loss, but also affects the source of weight lost. Simply put, if the protein content in the diet is high, then the weight loss is mainly fat, and the part derived from muscle is relatively small. The specific numbers obtained in different studies are different, but they are roughly the same: the weight lost by the high-protein group is only about half of the weight from the low-protein group.

Finally, to summarize, if you just maintain your weight, then your daily protein intake can be estimated at 0.8 to 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight. But if you want to lose weight, regardless of whether you are doing a larger amount of exercise at the same time, you may wish to consider increasing your protein intake. In scientific research, the definition of "high-protein diet" is usually that the calories contributed by protein account for 25%-30% of the total calories input. If estimated according to the "weight loss recipe" of 1500 kcal, the protein is roughly between 95 and 100 grams. Or estimate according to body weight, you can use 1.5 to 2.2 grams of protein intake per kilogram of body weight per day. For a 70 kg person, roughly equivalent to 100 to 150 grams per day.

These proteins refer to all the proteins in food, such as meat, eggs, milk, rice, noodles, etc. However, it should be noted that when ingesting protein from food, additional ingredients (especially fat and sugar) need to be considered. Generally speaking, lean meat of pigs, cows and sheep, breasts of chickens and ducks, aquatic products, egg whites, etc., are high-quality protein sources with high protein content and low fat content; dairy products and whole eggs have high protein content and low fat content. Relatively high foods; while soy milk and tofu, compared with non-skimmed dairy products, the intake of the same protein is less fat, so the efficiency of consuming protein is higher.