3 Reasons Why Prioritizing Protein Helps With Weight Loss

Protein is massively overhyped in the mainstream health and fitness industry. It is often used as a buzz word and marketing tool.

However, it is helpful for you to understand why it is important and how it can help you achieve your weight loss and body composition goals.

3 reasons prioritizing protein can help with weight loss:🌱

𝟏. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨 𝐧𝐮𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭

Out of protein, fats and carbs, increasing protein can help you feel fuller for longer.
This can help fend off hunger cravings or binge eating, which can help you adhere to a caloric deficit needed for weight loss.

𝟐. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 (𝐓𝐄𝐅)

The thermic effect of food are all the calories burned off through digestion and therefore not absorbed by the body.

This can also be very useful when trying to stay in a consistent caloric deficit.
The TEF of the 3 macro nutrients are approximately as follows;

Protein: 25%
Carbs: 7%
Fats: 1%

To put this in real terms, let’s say you consume 100g of protein in a day.
Protein has 4 calories per gram, so that would equate to 400 calories from protein.

A quarter of those calories (100 calories) would be burned off through digestion and not absorbed by your body.

Now if you ate 400 calories of fat, you would burn off only 4 of those calories through the TEF. Your body would absorb the other 396!

This is not to scaremonger fats, by the way. Fats are essential. This is simply to illustrate how important protein can be in helping you achieve a caloric deficit through its high TEF.

𝟑. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲

Increasing your protein intake can help preserve and increase your muscle tissue.

Muscle tissue is more metabolically active than adipose (fat) tissue. So, the more muscle you have, the higher your basal metabolic rate (BMR) will be.
Your BMR is the amount of calories you burn at rest and is responsible for a whopping 70% of your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE).
Increasing this is very advantageous when creating a caloric deficit, for weight loss to occur.

via GIPHY

𝐒𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠?

Firstly, there is no magic number or specific amount you should be eating.
You don’t need to worry about particular calculations.

If your protein is low, just aim to consume more this week than you did last week.

For most of you, 80-100g of protein will be a good target to aim for.
Remember 50-60g of protein per day is perfectly healthy.

However, we’re not just going for healthy here…we’re going for optimal

via GIPHY