If you are aiming to shed significant pounds of weight and at the same time keep a lean figure, it is imperative that include a protein in every meal.
Proteins are the nutrients that facilitate muscle and tissue buildup, they also take a lot of energy to digest.
A scientific study published in the prestigious and highly credible American Journal of Physiology has been proven that a high protein diet is effectively aiding faster burning of stored calories in the body. The study was conducted to involve two groups of people. A group was subjected into high-protein diet, while the other one was made to consume a diet that has protein less than or equal to the recommended daily allowance for nutrients.
The study found that the group with a high protein diet lost more fat deposits in the body than the group with less than or equal to RDA protein serving. Scientists have come up with a very convincing explanation for this.
Because protein-rich foods are usually highly fibrous and also are digested slowly, it takes up a lot of calories to digest, assimilate and metabolize protein foods.
Fats and simple sugars are much easier and faster to digest and easily gets into the bloodstream, whereas protein and fiber are hard and longer to digest, expending and requiring more calories just so they could be digested, burned and assimilated in the body. Normal carbohydrate-rich foods burn 10% of total calorie intake to be digested, fats take about 2% to 3%, while protein takes more than 10% usually.
Back to the scientific study mentioned above, the group with high protein diet had a thermic effect rate of 42%. In comparison, the group with low-protein diet had a thermic effect rate of just 16%. The difference in calorie or fat burning is about three times.
Fat burning
Protein intake is also ideal for balancing blood sugar level in the bloodstream, which dictates hunger and craving for food. And as you know too much glucose or blood sugar is in the bloodstream due to indulgence in food produces more insulin to balance the blood sugar level, a process that leads to further starvation and craving. Thus, there can be excessive weight gain or obesity.
Because protein takes longer and is harder to digest, blood sugar level is kept minimal to optimum, avoiding the need for the body to declare hunger or craving. In other words, slow digestion helps make blood sugar balance attainable. And protein does exactly that—helping slow digestion though the necessary calories are still provided. In the process, the body burns stored fat in the body. And when protein is assimilated, instead of being stored as fat deposits, it is stored as lean mass or muscles.
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