Why PROTEIN is the QUEEN of WEIGHT LOSS FOODS?

I was out to lunch with a friend a while ago and we were eating at an organic vegetarian restaurant. The food was delicious but I said to her on leaving “I bet we are both going to feel hungry again in about 2-3 hours”. She texted me 3 hours later and said I was right. She was hungry and her tummy was telling her it was time to eat again – it was only 4pm in the afternoon!

How did I know we were both going to be hungry? It was simple. The lunch we ate looked beautiful, tasted delicious and was made from healthy wholefood ingredients. But it had hardly any protein in it. Nothing on the menu had much. It was mostly vegetables, wholegrain rice, olive oil and spices. A meal without protein isn’t a good idea, especially if you are trying to lose weight.

WHY IS PROTEIN SO IMPORTANT FOR WEIGHT LOSS?

There are a few reasons why protein is a good thing to focus on if you are trying to lose weight:

• Eating a protein rich meal helps to reduce your appetite. It makes you feel fuller for longer. This helps you to avoid snacking which is really a ‘no’ if you are trying to burn off excess body fat. It also makes you less tempted to pile huge portions onto your plate because you’re feeling really hungry as your serving up the next meal.

• Including a good amount of protein in your diet can boost your metabolism and increase the number of calories you burn off each day. Research has suggested that by consuming 20-30% of your calories as protein results in boosting metabolism by up to 100 calories per day.

• Our muscles need the amino acids from protein to help them stay strong. A lot of people can struggle to keep their muscle mass up when they are dieting. Increasing muscle mass leads to an additional increase in the calories you burn off each day. Though it can be harder build muscle mass while you are on a diet.

• As well as helping with weight loss, eating protein rich foods is also a good way to prevent weight gain. On study showed that by increasing protein levels by even a small amount, from 15% to 18% of total calories, resulted in reducing the amount of fat people put back on after weight loss by 50%.

HOW MUCH PROTEIN SHOULD YOU BE EATING?

UK government guidelines recommend that adults should be consuming 0.75g of protein per kilogram of their body weight per day. On average that is about 45g for women and 55g for men. This is the rate needed to prevent deficiency. However, the optimal amount you actually need will depend upon your age, activity level, muscle mass and health and weight goals.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSP) recently recommended that strength and endurance athletes eat up to double the recommended amount of protein to stay fit for performance training and competitions. Word of caution here, The Department for Health advises all adults to be careful not to eat over twice the normal recommended levels as high protein intakes have been associated with bone and kidney diseases.

The good news is that most adults in the UK do eat the recommended levels of protein. But often when people go on diets they start eating more salads, soups and start skipping breakfast and juicing instead. This can be okay, but only if you make sure you add in protein foods as well if you are doing it for more than a few days.

GREAT PROTEIN FOODS TO HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT

The brilliant thing about protein is that it hides itself in all sorts of foods, not just the obvious ones you might think of. Whether you are a meat eater, vegetarian or vegan, there are lots of healthy choices out there. I’ve put a list of the main protein rich food groups below – and a link you can use to print it off if you’d like to keep it handy.

THE NUTRI YOGI'S - Protein Foods List .d

Download D • 47KB

Two things to be aware of with protein foods:

- Too much red meat can be bad for you as it has been linked to increased risks of heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. The British Heart Foundation recommends that you eat no more than 70g of red meat per day. If you eat more than that it is suggested that you should avoid meat on other days so you are eating less than or 500g per week.

- If you are a vegan and only getting your protein from vegetables, nuts, pulses and beans, make sure you eat a wide variety of these each week. Animal protein provides the complete range of essential amino acids but plant food doesn’t. Different plants have different types. You need to eat a wide range of plant protein to make sure you are getting the full range.

Help to make sure you are eating the right amount ......

An easy way to get a handle on how much protein you are eating at each meal is to use a MACRONUTRIENT App. It will tell you how much protein is in your food. Using one for just a week or two can really help you make sure you are eating enough protein each day. Jot down on a piece of paper the amount of protein contained in your favourite foods and then you don’t have to measure them again.

Here are a couple of easy-to-use macronutrient Apps you that you can download if you’d like to give it a go. The first two have free versions:

MyPlate MyFitnessPal MACROS+

So next time you are having lunch with a friend and don’t want to eat again until dinner, make sure you pick a dish that is rich in protein – that will up your chances of not feeling hungry before it's time to eat again!