Protein for weight loss?

_lyndseybrooke_
_lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I always thought protein shakes and high protein diets were mostly used by men or women that lift heavy and are looking for more muscle mass and to tone their probably already slim bodies. However, I'm hearing a lot of people say that I should be eating more protein in order to lose weight.

I do exercise. I do workouts at home via FitnessBlender.com, but I only really use weights twice a week (Tuesday at home for upper body workouts and Friday at the gym for upper and lower body workouts). I usually do 30 minute workouts four days per week and my Friday workout lasts about 45 minutes. I'm looking to lose 10 lbs and, of course, tone my body, but I don't want to sabotage my weight loss by increasing protein if it's a bad idea.

I know that protein helps maintain lean muscle mass during weight loss, but I'm asking about protein helping with the actual loss!

Since I don't technically "lift heavy" or spend a lot of time lifting, would increasing my protein intake help me lose weight? If so, can someone explain why this works? I know that a low-carb, high-protein diet will help you lose weight (a la Atkins and all the other low-carb diets out there), but I'm not cutting carbs. Does your diet need to be low in carbs in order for protein to be beneficial where weight loss is concerned?

In addition to trying to squeeze in more protein in my meals, I'm thinking about purchasing one of the lower-calorie protein powders to give me a little protein boost. But before I do, I want to know if/why it will help. I'm ignorant on the subject. Educate me, please!

Replies

  • Iknowsaur
    Iknowsaur Posts: 777 Member
    Protein does not help you lose weight.
    Protein helps you build/repair muscle.
    People drink protein shakes to help meat their protein macro/goal for the day.
    It is a supplement, not a "diet" or "weight loss strategy."

    Edit - protein isn't hard to get. I use the shakes because I'm a vegetarian and eggs + beans + tofu get very boring. But meat has tons of protein. Nuts and peanut butter do if you don't mind the fat, milk has protein, blah blah blah. You don't NEED a shake if you are already getting a normal amount of protein. It won't really do much of anything unless you need the added protein.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    iknowsaur pretty much nailed it.


    Protein, in and of itself, doesn't do anything for weight loss or gain. And it doesn't matter what ratio of carbs, fat, and protein you have. If you need more protein, then protein powders are fine to help supplement. But they won't hinder or help your weight loss by themselves.
  • soehlerking
    soehlerking Posts: 589 Member
    What Iknowsaur said is true--protein powders/drinks are nothing magical; it's just a more concentrated way to get your protein in. Protein will help build muscle--but it is a lot more effective if you strength train. I'd encourage you to look into heavy lifting; I started on the Stronglifts 5x5 program, which was pretty easy to follow. If you couple that with approximately 1g of protein per lb of lean body weight, you can start building muscles and be on your way to being Wonder Woman. ;) But ultimately it's up to you--if you do pursue protein, just make it fit within your calorie goals. I use the cheap-o stuff from Walmart, and 1 scoop is 150 calories, but it has 30g of protein.
  • Lizzy622
    Lizzy622 Posts: 3,705 Member
    I increased protein and lowered my carbs by just a little bit. It made a difference in hunger. Protein tends to digest slower and keeps you feeling fuller for longer.
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
    If protein can help me resist putting a little extra food on my plate at dinner, that would help a lot. I didn't mean to sound as if I was suggesting that taking in more protein would magically make me lose more weight at a quicker rate. I know it won't. I was just wondering about the benefits regarding weight loss. Keeping me fuller longer is one of those benefits.

    As for lifting heavy - I would if I had time to be in the gym more often, but I simply don't. Doing a bodyweight workout from home just fits into my schedule better. It's not all cardio, though.
  • Rocbola
    Rocbola Posts: 1,998 Member
    Protein does not help you lose weight.
    Protein helps you build/repair muscle.
    People drink protein shakes to help meat their protein macro/goal for the day.
    It is a supplement, not a "diet" or "weight loss strategy."
    This.

    Too many times, in order to add protein to their diet, people will eat animal foods in larger quantity than is healthy, and those products come with a lot of fat. There is really no reason to supplement your protein if you are eating a proper diet.
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
    This.

    Too many times, in order to add protein to their diet, people will eat animal foods in larger quantity than is healthy, and those products come with a lot of fat. There is really no reason to supplement your protein if you are eating a proper diet.

    I was told I need to take in 1g of protein per lb. Right now, I'm eating about half of that. If I eat more protein in the form of food, I'll go over my calorie goal. Therefore, a supplement seems to be the only choice I've got.
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
    Protein does not help you lose weight.
    Protein helps you build/repair muscle.
    People drink protein shakes to help meat their protein macro/goal for the day.
    It is a supplement, not a "diet" or "weight loss strategy."
    This.

    Too many times, in order to add protein to their diet, people will eat animal foods in larger quantity than is healthy, and those products come with a lot of fat. There is really no reason to supplement your protein if you are eating a proper diet.

    Lol

    Anyways OP, protein is the most satiating of the macros and higher protein diets have been shown to have a slight metabolic advantage to other diets. So it's not a bad idea to have a moderate to "high" protein amount in your diet
  • Rocbola
    Rocbola Posts: 1,998 Member
    This.

    Too many times, in order to add protein to their diet, people will eat animal foods in larger quantity than is healthy, and those products come with a lot of fat. There is really no reason to supplement your protein if you are eating a proper diet.

    I was told I need to take in 1g of protein per lb. Right now, I'm eating about half of that. If I eat more protein in the form of food, I'll go over my calorie goal. Therefore, a supplement seems to be the only choice I've got.
    Who told you that number!?!? The CDC recommends only about 46 grams. http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/protein.html#How much protein
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
    This.

    Too many times, in order to add protein to their diet, people will eat animal foods in larger quantity than is healthy, and those products come with a lot of fat. There is really no reason to supplement your protein if you are eating a proper diet.

    I was told I need to take in 1g of protein per lb. Right now, I'm eating about half of that. If I eat more protein in the form of food, I'll go over my calorie goal. Therefore, a supplement seems to be the only choice I've got.
    Who told you that number!?!? The CDC recommends only about 46 grams. http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/protein.html#How much protein

    Plenty of people on here and information from quite a few websites gave me that number. I read in a study that the 46 gram recommendation is so you don't wither away and is the bare minimum of what you should actually consume. I'm not a nutritionist by any means, but I've read this same thing enough times to know that I'm not making it up.
  • Rocbola
    Rocbola Posts: 1,998 Member
    This.

    Too many times, in order to add protein to their diet, people will eat animal foods in larger quantity than is healthy, and those products come with a lot of fat. There is really no reason to supplement your protein if you are eating a proper diet.

    I was told I need to take in 1g of protein per lb. Right now, I'm eating about half of that. If I eat more protein in the form of food, I'll go over my calorie goal. Therefore, a supplement seems to be the only choice I've got.
    Who told you that number!?!? The CDC recommends only about 46 grams. http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/protein.html#How much protein

    Plenty of people on here and information from quite a few websites gave me that number. I read in a study that the 46 gram recommendation is so you don't wither away and is the bare minimum of what you should actually consume. I'm not a nutritionist by any means, but I've read this same thing enough times to know that I'm not making it up.
    Just be aware that the food industry is not above lying to you in order to sell their stuff. Food recommendations have a long history of being skewed towards what is profitable and mass produced.
  • LadyTalulah
    LadyTalulah Posts: 174 Member
    This.

    Too many times, in order to add protein to their diet, people will eat animal foods in larger quantity than is healthy, and those products come with a lot of fat. There is really no reason to supplement your protein if you are eating a proper diet.

    I was told I need to take in 1g of protein per lb. Right now, I'm eating about half of that. If I eat more protein in the form of food, I'll go over my calorie goal. Therefore, a supplement seems to be the only choice I've got.
    Who told you that number!?!? The CDC recommends only about 46 grams. http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/everyone/basics/protein.html#How much protein

    Plenty of people on here and information from quite a few websites gave me that number. I read in a study that the 46 gram recommendation is so you don't wither away and is the bare minimum of what you should actually consume. I'm not a nutritionist by any means, but I've read this same thing enough times to know that I'm not making it up.



    I agree, 46 grams is low if you do your research...

    "The RDA is 0.8 grams per kilogram of lean bodyweight (U.S. Food and Nutrition Board, 1980) for sedentary adults. (...) Exercise adds a new dimension to the issue (...) Recent research shows that the RDA doesn't appear to meet the needs of exercising adults."
    Read more: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/maki1.htm

    "The RDA of 0.8 g protein/kg bodyweight or 0.36 g protein/lb bodyweight assumes you are sedentary, uninterested in gaining muscle, and free of health issues that might compromise your lean mass. (...) Athletes need more protein than the average person, but perhaps not as much as most fitness enthusiasts think (or consume). A 2011 paper on optimal protein intakes for athletes concluded that 1.8 g protein/kg bodyweight (or 0.8 g protein/lb bodyweight) maximizes muscle protein synthesis."
    Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-much-protein-should-you-be-eating/#axzz2vxB7iZA4

    " You should try to get at least 20-30% of your daily diet from protein. If you’re eating 1800 calories…that means you should be eating 90 grams of protein a day or more."
    Read more: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/02/12/protein-and-tetris-building-blocks-of-muscle-development/

    Of course, most of this refers to adults that strength train but if you read through the sources and do your own research, you'll see that 46 grams is considered very low, and that number mainly applies to people who don't exercise.
  • Wetcoaster
    Wetcoaster Posts: 1,788 Member
    http://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/



    Take Home Messages

    • There is normally no advantage to consuming more than 0.82g/lb (1.8g/kg) of protein per day to preserve or build muscle. This already includes a very safe mark-up. There hasn’t been any recorded advantage of consuming more than 0.64g/lb. The only exceptions to this rule could be individuals with extraordinarily high anabolic hormone levels.
    • Optimal protein intake decreases with training age, because your body becomes more efficient at preventing protein breakdown resulting from training and less protein is needed for the increasingly smaller amount of muscle that is built after each training session. The magnitude of this effect is unclear.





    And from Alan Agaron

    http://ironwarriorstraining.tumblr.com/nutrition101


    While most people think that protein is most important before and after your workout, this isn’t true. Hitting your goal for the day is the most important aspect of eating protein, whether it’s for fat loss, building muscle, or just maintaining your weight. Setting your protein goals is a fairly simple process. Research shows that a range of .5 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight is ideal if you are active. If you want to be even more specific, a good general guideline is to eat about 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM). However, most people don’t know or can’t reliably measure their LBM. As an alternative, consume 1 gram of protein per pound of your goal body weight
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
    I figured I'd try to take in 3/4 of my weight in grams of protein. I'm 140 lbs, so that's 105 g of protein daily. 140 g just isn't realistic with my caloric goal.
  • anask4
    anask4 Posts: 86 Member
    I recently switched to a higher protein, low carb diet and it has definitely helped. It keeps you fuller longer and will help preserve and build muscle mass. This way, the weight you are losing will come mostly from fat loss.
  • richardheath
    richardheath Posts: 1,276 Member
    First off OP - you are leaving around 200 calories "on the table" every day for the past week or so. You could easily add in a protein shake, a chicken breast, a beef jerky snack... something high in protein that would help you reach your goal.

    Second: eating sufficient protein and doing some sort of resistance training while on a deficit will help you to maintain muscle while losing fat. It doesn't help weight loss per se, but it does help ensure that what you lose is fat. And let's face it - when we say we want to lose weight, we really mean we want to lose fat, right?

    As to how much - I like to think of it in these terms: Without being on a diet or exercising, your body turns over about 30 g of protein per day just in normal maintenance. I think this is basically where the 46 g recommendation comes from - it has a little bit of a safety net built in. So this is the minimum you should be eating. Add in a calorie deficit, and the body is going to start using protein for energy. A truly starving person will burn upwards of 150 g of protein per day. Add in some resistance training and you need to repair that damage, so you need more protein. Obviously, the actual amount you need will depend on the severity of the deficit and the intensity of the exercise. Most of the studies on exercising, dieting people suggest around 1 g per lb (see the Alaon Aragon quote above, for example). Unless you have faulty kidneys, there is no harm in overshooting your protein each day: there is no maximum recommended dose.
  • tine0574
    tine0574 Posts: 14
    High-protein foods take more work to digest, metabolize, and use, which means you burn more calories processing them. They also take longer to leave your stomach, so you feel full sooner and for a longer amount of time. The cumulative effect has obvious benefits for anyone who is watching her weight.
    But, the key to losing weight is burning more calories than you consume.

    I upped my protein intake, but I lift every other day and do cardio about 5-6 times a week. I have been losing weight, but I also watch what I eat and reduced my carb intake slightly. Eating protein meals helps you feel fuller so you don't have to eat more calories than you need. I try to eat protein with every meal so I am not craving foods at night or hungry at night. I usually drink a protein shake after my workouts.


    I found this...

    http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/what-eat-before-during-after-exercise?page=2
    Why do you need to eat protein or drink protein shakes after exercising?

    Muscles need protein for recovery and growth, and the best time to deliver protein appears to be right after exercise. Providing high-quality protein after exercise gives your muscles the fuel and the building blocks needed for both repair and for growth.
    Protein shakes and powders carry a certain allure, but your muscles don’t care if the protein comes from a hard-boiled egg, glass of chocolate milk or whey protein shake. Whatever you choose, more isn’t better -- only 10 to 20 grams of protein is needed to provide amino acids (the building blocks of protein) to muscles.
  • H0neybug
    H0neybug Posts: 47 Member
    I increased my protein intake to at least 100 grams a day and 120-130 grams a day when I do a heavy muscle workout. My 3 meals a day give me 75% of that and the rest comes from high protein snacks...nuts, greek yogurt, eggs, protein bars and anything else I can find with about 10-12 grams of protein.

    I notice that since I changed that I stay full much longer, although I generally eat every 2 hours.

    Good luck with whatever method you go with.
  • amysj303
    amysj303 Posts: 5,086 Member
    For me I know if I can increase protein and decrease carbs I find it easier to stay under calories and I feel fuller longer and have less cravings, so it isn't magic, but it does help.
  • TriShamelessly
    TriShamelessly Posts: 905 Member
    If protein can help me resist putting a little extra food on my plate at dinner, that would help a lot. I didn't mean to sound as if I was suggesting that taking in more protein would magically make me lose more weight at a quicker rate. I know it won't. I was just wondering about the benefits regarding weight loss. Keeping me fuller longer is one of those benefits.

    As for lifting heavy - I would if I had time to be in the gym more often, but I simply don't. Doing a bodyweight workout from home just fits into my schedule better. It's not all cardio, though.

    Even bodyweight weight exercises will help you retain lean muscle while losing weight. So Bravo! The protein will also help repair the muscles damaged form exercising (as it is internded to do). Good luck with continued success.
  • brboydjr
    brboydjr Posts: 43 Member
    High-protein foods take more work to digest, metabolize, and use, which means you burn more calories processing them. They also take longer to leave your stomach, so you feel full sooner and for a longer amount of time. The cumulative effect has obvious benefits for anyone who is watching her weight.
    But, the key to losing weight is burning more calories than you consume.

    I upped my protein intake, but I lift every other day and do cardio about 5-6 times a week. I have been losing weight, but I also watch what I eat and reduced my carb intake slightly. Eating protein meals helps you feel fuller so you don't have to eat more calories than you need. I try to eat protein with every meal so I am not craving foods at night or hungry at night. I usually drink a protein shake after my workouts.


    I found this...

    http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/what-eat-before-during-after-exercise?page=2
    Why do you need to eat protein or drink protein shakes after exercising?

    Muscles need protein for recovery and growth, and the best time to deliver protein appears to be right after exercise. Providing high-quality protein after exercise gives your muscles the fuel and the building blocks needed for both repair and for growth.
    Protein shakes and powders carry a certain allure, but your muscles don’t care if the protein comes from a hard-boiled egg, glass of chocolate milk or whey protein shake. Whatever you choose, more isn’t better -- only 10 to 20 grams of protein is needed to provide amino acids (the building blocks of protein) to muscles.

    This!
  • ParkerH47
    ParkerH47 Posts: 463 Member
    I wouldn't eat *more* protein than you need (0.8 - 1.2g /kg of body weight), theres no real NEED or benefit to go above and beyond, though many do...

    The important thing is to have protein at every meal and snack. It helps to keep you feeling full through out the day and therefore it becomes easier to eat a restricted calorie diet. I think thats what they mean when they say protein helps you lose weight but in the most basic sense reduced calories are more important for losing weight. Protein just helps keep us full :)

    Edit: Be careful with these "recovery drinks" if you feel its necessary try adjusting your regular meals or snacks to fall after a workout. Often times the recovery drinks that go above and beyond our normal meals are high enough calories to TOTALLY negate your energy expended during exercise. Think a 500ml container of chocolate milk is about 400 cal. ridiculous! Just be CAUTIOUS about recovery protein. IMO its only beneficial if you're lifting heavy.
  • Lifelink
    Lifelink Posts: 193 Member
    I use the cheap-o stuff from Walmart, and 1 scoop is 150 calories, but it has 30g of protein.

    It's cheap, the protein/fat/calorie is good, and it gets the job done. Highly recommended.

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