It has long been an issue of whether or not high protein meals or high carbohydrate meals are better for you when it comes to burning fat and losing weight. One wonders what to eat to lose weight in all the controversy. New research, however, may have an answer for us.
A small study now tells us that eating a high protein diet may, in fact, help those who are obese and overweight actually burn more fat than high carbohydrate diets. The study measured the efficiency of burning fat in overweight individuals when compared to thinner individuals after eating a high protein diet. The findings?
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Protein may be what to eat to lose weight as the study clearly showed that those who were overweight and who ate a high protein breakfast and a high protein lunch burned more fat after these meals than thinner people. Overweight individuals seem to have a deficit in fat-burning and protein may be the answer to correct that deficit.
Additionally, protein blocks appetite more than do carbohydrates or fat, although fat does have some effectiveness in satiety. While the study looked at fat burning powers, it did not look at what to eat to lose weight, nor did it look at the amount of weight the participants lost during the study. So researchers cannot say that protein definitely helps one lose weight.
The study was based on 18 subjects who had their post-meal metabolic rate assessed on three different days after meals containing varying amounts of protein. On the initial day, they ate a low protein diet and on the other two days, they ate a diet in which up to a third of the calories came from protein in the diet. Some of the subjects were obese, some were overweight and others were of a normal weight. What they found was that, after the high protein meal, the overweight and obese subjects showed increased fat burning ability as compared to normal control subjects. The increase in fat burning ability lasted up to eight hours after the breakfast and lunch meals. Normal subjects did not have any trouble burning fat with either meal type.
The protein given to the study subjects included lean meats, eggs, and low fat dairy. This was coupled with vegetables and bread to make a carbohydrate load. The researchers haven't taken a look at vegetarian sources of this kind of protein but plan to in an upcoming study.
Their recommendations? Try to increase the protein in your diet to include healthy sources of protein like low-fat dairy products, poultry like turkey and chicken, beans, fish, and nuts.
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