Why High Protein Diets Won't Help You Lose Weight

There are all kinds of diet recommendations all over the bodybuilding magazines, fad diet books, and websites that advise to divide your eating into different "ratios" and "percentages" for weight loss and fat burning.

Some recommend high fat, low carb, others say moderate carbs, moderate fat, high carbs, low fat, etc.

But the one thing that each and every one of these "weight loss" / "fat burning" diets say is it must be HIGH in protein.

Well, I'm here to tell you the TRUTH.

It is NOT necessary at all to eat a diet high in protein to lose weight.

Just about everything you read says to eat 1-2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.

Some even go as high as suggesting you have to not only eat high, but massive amounts of protein to lose weight and burn fat.

This MYTH is due to 3 reasons:

1) Everyone thinks that muscle tissue is made up mostly of protein

2) Everyone thinks that either high amounts of fat or high amounts of carbohydrates will cause you to get fat

3) Everyone thinks that protein has a "thermogenic" (inner-body temperature raising) effect, which helps burn fat

All three of these beliefs are completely wrong! (In this article I am going to give you a very brief explanation, but in later articles I will go into more detail)

First, muscle tissue is NOT made up of mostly of protein. Muscle tissue is 70% WATER.

The other 30% is made of GLUCOSE, and AMINO ACIDS.

Your muscles need just as much glucose (which is what carbohydrates are converted into), if not MORE than protein.

You should know that one of the KEYS to weight loss is to have a significant amount of muscle tissue (that doesn’t mean you have to look like a bodybuilder if you don’t want to, though) on the body.

Why???

Because the more muscle you have, the faster and higher your metabolism gets, meaning you can literally burn hundreds of calories a day even when you are just sitting around watching TV.

The more muscle you have, the higher the amount of calories that you can eat while still losing weight / burning fat (trust me, no one likes having to eat an extremely low amount of calories in order to lose weight).

So, whether you are male or female, regardless if you want to look like a bodybuilder or just be toned up and in shape, you need muscle!

Those that have medically studied the physiology of the human body know that amino acids are what make up protein.

However, the body uses whatever amount of amino acids it needs at that particular moment.  The rest it stores for later use.

It is NOT true that you need to be eating a "steady stream" of protein to lose weight / burn fat.........your body keeps a little "pool" of stored amino acids.

Protein is by far the most difficult macronutrient to break down and digest.

The higher the amount of protein you eat the more stress you are placing on your digestive system.

Oh, by the way, what do you think happens to any excess protein??? It turns it into FAT!

Have you ever noticed how you feel when you eat a huge burger or steak?

Even after several hours have passed, it still feels like you've got that entire piece of meat just sitting and rotting in your stomach.

How much benefit in weight loss do you think that's going to give you?

Have you ever drank those disgusting protein shakes or eaten those chalk-tasting protein bars?

You get gas, you feel bloated, and you might even get the "runs" (diarrhea).

That's a major sign that your body is NOT properly digesting all of that protein!!!

There are several real-life examples of athletes that don't consume massive amounts of protein to gain muscle weight, yet have tremendous physiques, have extremely defined and toned bodies, are in excellent health, are powerful, fast, and agile.

To just name some of them:

Andreas Cahling - Swedish champion bodybuilder and Olympic gold medalist in the ski jump

Keith Holmes - World champion middleweight boxer

Bill Manetti - Powerlifting champion

Stan Price - World weight lifting record holder; bench press

Art Still - Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs MVP defensive ends, Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame

Chris Campbell - Olympic wrestling champion

Peter Hussing - European super heavyweight boxing champion

You can eat all the protein in the world and not lose one pound of fat weight if you are eating too many calories!!!!!

Remember, it doesn't matter what we've been fed by the magazines, fad diet books, and companies trying to sell us their latest protein concoction. It all comes down to the calories!

In my next article I'll cover the 2nd and 3rd misconception everyone has about protein.

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How the Perfect Weight Loss Diet Ought to Be

So you are looking to lose weight, and you know that in order to do that you need to eat right and exercise. The latter part of the equation isn’t that hard to learn because after all, we have the internet nowadays and finding exercise routines is easier than taking candy from a baby. However, when it comes to nutrition things get much trickier; you need to know what to eat, when to eat, how much of it to eat, and how often you should eat it. In other words, you need to be have considerable knowledge at your disposal in terms of nutrition, and unless you are a professional nutritionist, chances are you won’t have it. However, all hope is not lost as many self-proclaimed fitness experts, nutritionists and gurus have released their own version of what they believe to be the best weight loss diet.

So how precisely is one to make a choice amongst all those diets? After all, we all have a limited time to make this weight loss thing work, and it is really only possible to correctly follow one diet at a time. Your choice needs to be made as carefully as possible, and what follows are a few pieces of advice which should help you do just that.

Flexibility

This is may very well be the most important part of the diet: how well it can be adapted to you. As you are probably aware, everyone has a different body type, and what’s more, a different genetic code. In other words, the same foods and supplements affect different people in a variety of ways; some will respond well to a diet while others won’t notice any progress at all. In order for a weight loss diet to truly be worth trying it needs to have some level of flexibility, meaning that it can be adjusted in order to fit your age, gender, body type, genetic profile, capabilities and goals. There aren’t too many diets which follow this profile out there, but you can rest assured they do exist.

Compliance with Recommended Daily Intakes

The point of a diet isn’t just to make you lose weight fast, but it is also to improve your overall health, and that can only be done when the body is provided with the proper amount of nutrients it requires. If the diet you are looking to follow recommends cutting out a type of food or nutrient from your meals, then you should stay away from it; it may help you lose weight, but you are going to be left in a weakened state. Every country has a medical board which sets the standards for recommended daily intakes, and you would do well to verify that your diet matches with them.

Maintenance Plan

Finally, the way you need to eat while in the process of losing weight differs noticeably for how you need to feed yourself for maintenance purposes. A weight loss diet can only be considered as truly complete once it features plans which you can use when you are satisfied with your weight and would like to remain the way you are. The need for this type of plan becomes most apparent when it is absent from the equation; without one, you will be likely to revert to your old eating habits, starting the cycle of weight gain all over again.

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