High Protein Diet

Good fats, bad fats, good carbs, bad carbs and protein. A high protein diet, somehow this macronutrient has escaped having bad or good in front of it's name. The CSIRO diet which has alot of red meat in it's program was designed to be a high protein diet. It became a best seller in the ludicrous weight loss book market. While the high protein aspect of the diet was beneficial (more on this later). The source of the protein, well not so good. The research in this book is sponsored by the meat and livetsock industry. Research that came out late in 2007 showed that more than 500 gms of red meat a week, leads to high risk of bowel cancers! Ah what's one to do eh.......everything gives you cancer.....

The thing is we do not to put an adjective in front of protein yet, the closest is "lean proteins". Not enough detail, I mean I could eat lean red meat all week, get thin and get a bowel disease. So how much is too much and is a high protein diet a good idea. The answer is yes! It is the hardest of all the macronutrientz to store as fat. It provides the amino acids that build muscle. As muscle it self burns fat, protein has good relationship with preserving and building fat burning muscle.

How much is too much? I'd like to think for an exerciser 30% of total calories is plenty. Carbohydrate should still make the majority of your calories. Considering fruit, vegetables and wholegrains are all cartbohydrates, this makes sense.

Too much protein will just be excreted or will turn to fat. Yes it can turn to fat, it is a myth that protein does not turn to fat. It may be harder to convert to fat than other food, but too many calories will always be too many calories.

Protein has a very high thermogenic effect. Thermogenesis = calories burned in digestion. It will burn 30% of it's calories in digestion. Your body has to work hard to to this. 100 calories of a lean protein is really only 70 calories. You should eat a lean protein at each of your 5-6 meals per day. You can see the process of eating this way gives you 30% off your calories! Not a bad way to lose some fat, by eating.

Relying on chicken breast and grilled fish as your main sources isn't bad, but gee it can get boring. Let's say you are eating 5-6 meals a day, there is not much room for variety. One easy way to top up your protein requirements, without adding to your fat requirements and not start clucking from the amount of chicken breast you have been eating is to consume a whey protein shake.

There have been several studies that have compared a high protein diet to regular diet with equal calories. Both groups lost the same amount of weight in the same time. The high protein diet group however lost more body fat and retained more muscle. The reasons for this, 1)thermogenesis and 2) the muscle the protein builds acts as a fat burner.

Do not go crazy and eat as much protein as you can thinking the more the better, too much food of any sort turns to fat. Too much protein will strain your kidneys. Do increase your protein intake, using low fat and fat free options. As protein does not store in your body try and eat some every 2-3 hours to keep the metabolism fire burning.

Return from High Protein Diet to Diet Nutrition