Is Protein Good For Weight Loss?

While exercise is key to a healthy lifestyle and vital to most sensible weight loss plans, what we consume is every bit as important.

We’ve all heard how a balanced diet is the way forward when attempting to reach and maintain a healthy weight. Yet how much do we really know about the various nutrients in our food?

Consider protein. We know it’s something we need to include in our diet, but is protein good for weight loss? The simple answer is ‘yes’.

Let’s explore the relationship between protein and weight loss.

What exactly is protein?

To give it its scientific name, protein is a ‘macronutrient’. One of three major macronutrients that make up our diet (the other two are carbohydrates and fats). Protein is made up of long chains of amino acids, which break down when you consume them. Those amino acids then help repair and protect your cells.¹

Protein is essential for a healthy diet and lifestyle. It’s also necessary for the general maintenance of your body. Avoid protein, and we lose muscle mass, see growth stunted, weaken our lung and heart function and compromise our immunity from things like bacteria, germs and viruses.²

How protein helps with weight loss

Protein is good for us and we need to be getting enough into our diet to stay healthy. Not only that, but there are numerous ways in which protein can help us achieve weight reduction targets – in a healthy manner too.

So does protein help you lose weight? Absolutely. Here are some of the major reasons why protein can be central to weight loss:

It can help reduce your appetite

Foods that are high in protein can help to noticeably reduce hunger. Appetites are lessened because of a chemical by-product that the body creates after digestion called Phenylalanine.³

Research has shown that phenylalanine promotes the production of a range of hormones, many of which help quell hunger.⁴

Effectively, protein-rich foods make the person eating them feel fuller than other types of food, even when portion size is reduced.⁵

Protein calories take more work to burn than other calories

It’s tempting to assume that protein-rich food must be bad for you, given that it’s often quite calorific. The opposite is true, however. These kinds of foods are tricker for the body to digest and metabolise. In order to do so, more calories are burned processing them. Due to protein’s complexity, our metabolism has to work harder. We burn extra calories without even knowing about it.⁶

Food cravings are controlled

Cravings are different from general hunger. When the body needs nutrients or energy, it creates the familiar feeling of hunger. Cravings are more psychological. They effectively reward demands that become hard to ignore. The desire to ‘treat yourself’ to a specific food can be very strong. Stopping or controlling cravings can be incredibly difficult.

Protein cuts down on the creation of these kinds of culinary desires, especially high-protein breakfasts. Studies have shown that extra protein in the diet can reduce late-night snacking by up to a quarter. And throughout the day? A 25% boost in protein intake can cut food cravings by nearly 60%.⁷

One of the ways protein helps with the irresistible hankering for snacks is that it improves the function of dopamine (a chemical that influences mood and motivation) in the human brain, cutting out the need for us to imagine a food-based treat and reward ourselves with it.⁸

Protein helps you lose fat mass, not muscle mass

Some weight loss techniques and fad diets work by reducing your overall weight. That may sound good, but it isn’t always. Ideally, weight loss involves healthy eating and exercise that sees body fat cut. You don’t want to lose muscle mass. Protein actually helps increase muscle mass, while specifically targeting body fat.⁹

Your metabolism is kept high

However we go about it, losing weight generally tends to lead to a slight slowdown in the body’s metabolic rate. When that happens, calories burn at a slower rate. Ideally, anyone on a weight loss program will keep their metabolism running high and their calorie intake burning off nice and quickly. Protein helps to do just that.¹⁰

What are the best sources of protein?

We know that protein’s good for us and can help us lose weight. So how do we go about getting more protein into our diets? Well, it’s pretty simple. First of all, we need to familiarise ourselves with where we can get our protein fix from.

Here are the foodstuffs to look out for when shopping:

• Eggs – Egg whites are high in protein, but so too are the yolks. So enjoy both
• Lean meats – Pork and turkey breast are good, with chicken breast being even better
• Seeds and nuts – Pistachios, peanuts, almonds, flax seeds, sesame seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, they’re all rich in protein
• Beans and pulses – Lentil, peas, any kind of beans, really
• Soy – Tofu and tempeh are great sources of protein
• Seafood – Prawns, cod, oysters, lobster, seabass, salmon, scallops, sardines
• Low-fat dairy – Low-fat milk and Greek/Icelandic yoghurts are especially worth keeping a stock of in the fridge¹¹

Other tools to help you reach your weight loss goal

Of course, a diet that focuses on protein isn’t our only route to weight loss success. It’s merely one of the tools we can use. Others include:

• Maintaining a balanced diet – Just because protein can help with weight loss, it’s vital that we don’t focus solely on foods that are protein heavy. Carbs and fats are still required, as are fruit and vegetables. So let’s not neglect all the other nutrients just because protein’s our new friend. See our tips for buying healthy groceries to help maintain a balanced diet.
• Cooking and eating smaller portions – Protein’s effect on the appetite should help with this, but making sure that plates aren’t overly loaded is important. One easy way to cut portion sizes is just to cut down on how much is cooked in the first place.
• Exercising regularly – We’ve dealt with calorific input here, but output matters too. Calories are burned with exercise. To really see weight loss results, a fitness regime is required. If you are wondering how to start exercising, we recommend checking out our tips.
• Cutting back on alcohol consumption – Not only do beer, wine and most other tipples contain a fair amount of ‘empty’ calories, they make us want to eat, whether it’s a bowl of crisps or a full-on late night raid on your local takeaway. A complete cutting out of alcohol isn’t required, but a scaling back will likely help.
• Making sure you’re drinking plenty of water – Hydration is vital for maintaining a healthy system. There’s a nifty little weight loss bonus to gulping down a nice cold glass of the stuff too – it can reduce hunger pangs. It also fills you up while you’re eating.

Protein can be invaluable on a weight loss journey, but there are many different elements to losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Factor protein into your overall healthy eating and living routine, and you should soon start feeling the various benefits.