How Eating More Protein Can Help You Achieve Your Health Goals
Jan 15, 2024
Protein is one of the most important nutrients for your health. It supports many bodily functions, such as muscle growth, tissue repair, immune response, and hormone synthesis. But did you know that eating more protein can also help you control your appetite, lose weight, and get in better shape? In this article, we’ll explain how protein can benefit your health and fitness and how to include more of it in your diet.
Protein and Appetite Control
One of the main reasons why protein can help you lose weight is that it can reduce your hunger and cravings. Protein takes longer to digest than carbohydrates and fats, which can keep you full for longer. Eating more protein can help you eat fewer calories throughout the day without feeling deprived or hungry.
Protein also affects the levels of several hormones that regulate your appetite and satiety. Eating more protein can lower the levels of ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates hunger, and increase the levels of GLP-1, peptide YY, and cholecystokinin, the hormones that satisfy you. These effects can lead to a significant reduction in calorie intake and weight loss (1,2).
Protein and Weight Loss
Eating more protein can also help you lose weight by boosting your metabolism and increasing your calorie expenditure. Protein has a higher thermic effect than carbohydrates and fats, meaning your body uses more energy to digest and metabolize it. This can increase the calories you burn by up to 100 per day (3,4).
Protein can also help you preserve muscle mass and strength while losing weight. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat, which burns more calories at rest. However, when you lose weight, you also tend to lose some muscle and fat.
Losing muscle mass can slow your metabolism and make it harder to lose weight. Eating more protein can prevent or minimize this muscle loss by providing your body with the amino acids it needs to repair and build muscle. Eating more protein can help maintain or increase your metabolic rate and improve your body composition (5,6,7).
Protein and Fitness
Eating more protein can also help you improve your fitness and performance, especially if you exercise regularly. Protein is essential for building and maintaining muscle mass and strength, which are necessary for physical activity.
Protein can also help you recover faster from your workouts by reducing muscle damage and soreness and enhancing muscle repair and growth (8.9).
Eating more protein can also improve your endurance and stamina by sparing muscle glycogen stores and preventing fatigue. Glycogen is the stored form of glucose in your muscles and liver and is the primary energy source for moderate to high-intensity exercise. However, when your glycogen levels are low, your performance and energy levels can suffer.
Eating more protein can help you conserve your glycogen by providing your body with an alternative fuel source: amino acids. This can help you exercise longer and harder and improve your results (10,11).
How to Eat More Protein
Now that you know the benefits of eating more protein, you may wonder how to include more in your diet. The protein you need depends on your age, weight, activity level, and health goals. The National Academy of Medicine recommends that adults get a minimum of 0.8 grams of protein for every kilogram of body weight per day or just over 7 grams for every 20 pounds.
However, some people may benefit from eating more protein, especially if they exercise a lot, are trying to lose weight or have certain medical conditions (1,2).
The quality of protein is also essential, not just the quantity. You should choose protein sources low in saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, and additives and high in other nutrients, such as fibre, vitamins, minerals, and healthy fats. Some examples of high-quality protein foods are lean meats, fish, eggs, low-fat dairy, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, tofu, and quinoa (13,14).
Another factor to consider is the timing of your protein intake. Research suggests that eating protein earlier in the day, for breakfast or an early snack, is more beneficial for muscle growth and function than eating protein later in the day, for dinner. Eating protein earlier in the day is important because protein consumed in the morning can stimulate muscle protein synthesis and prevent muscle breakdown throughout the day. In contrast, protein consumed at night may not have the same effect.
To eat more protein in the morning, you can try some of these tips:
- Start your day with a protein-rich breakfast, such as eggs, yogurt, or oatmeal with nuts and seeds.
- Snack on healthy protein foods like nuts, cheese, hummus, or edamame.
- Choose lean cuts of meat, poultry, or fish, and limit your intake of processed meats, such as bacon, sausage, and deli meats.
- Add protein to your salads, soups, and stir-fries, using cheese, nuts, seeds, eggs, chicken, tuna, or tofu.
- Experiment with different cuisines and recipes that feature high-protein foods, such as Greek yogurt, Indian dal, Mexican beans, Japanese tofu, or Thai peanut sauce.
Eating more protein can benefit your health and fitness if you do it in a balanced and moderate way. By choosing high-quality protein sources, eating them earlier in the day, and combining them with other nutritious foods, you can improve your appetite control, weight loss, and performance and achieve your health goals.
