Many people try to lose weight by limiting intake of carbohydrates and fat, but simoultaneously they increase protein intake. Some people recommend eating protein in unlimited amount, however how good of advice is it?
Here I'm going to keep things simple. I won't get into complex biochemistry and I'm going to focus on the bottom line results.
Why is protein good for us?
Protein take a lot more time to digest than carbohydrates and that's one of the reasons why feel satiated for longer period after a meal. The other reason is that it actually signals different cascade of hormones in our body.
Proteins help in the process of weightloss in a way that they prevent excessive muscle loss when dieting. Up to the point. It's important not to lose lean muscle mass when dieting for a lot of reasons. For example muscles have a lot of insulin receptors and store a lot of sugar in themselves, they keep us strong and being strong has been correlated with longevity. To name the few.
However, excess protein intake is possible!
Let's get to the simple math and focus just on the weight gain or loss. One gram of protein has about 4 calories. If you eat excess protein you it does add to the overall caloric intake in the same amount as carbohydrates as carbs have 4 calories per gram as well.
What happens with excess protein in your body?
More protein doesn't mean more benefits. Few of us require more than 0,5-0,8 grams of protein per kilogram of body mass. Only elite athletes need more than 1 gram of protein per kilo of body mass.
If you eat more protein (energy) than you expend during the day you will store it as fat. Protein gets digested to ammonia and aminoacids which can be converted into fat which is stored in your belly.
That's the reason why one should not overeat with protein when it comes to controling body weight. There a lot of other reasons why you shouldn't do it but I'll cover that in another topic.
Sources:
- all images are found on Google and belong to their respective owners.
- all data is found in Harper's Medical Biochemistry which I used for my medical studies
Have a nice day,
@fitdoc
Nice explanation! I am underweight 55kg can you suggest me how much protein should I take in a day?
When I was 80kg I ate about 80g of protein per day and gained muscle. Try to target about 1g/kg, however if you want to gain weight you have to eat more calories than you expend. Weight training helps tremendously