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What will you learn in this article:
Importance of protein in weight loss
How to check the nutrient density of your food
How you can keep an energy balance by adding protein supplements and lose weight
Protein is one of the most important building blocks of the human body. It is required to repair and build cells and tissues of course in unison with fats and carbohydrates. But when it comes to losing weight in the most effective manner, meaning you lose "fat" and not your lean tissue, which by the way is the common cause of "skinny fat" syndrome, then protein is of utmost importance, even over and above fats and carbs.
This is due to the fact that protein has satiety properties - it can keep you full for longer. It also has a higher TEF or "Thermic Effect of Food" which means that body needs to burn additional calories to digest protein as compared to the other macronutrients.
When you eat protein, you are not only supporting your tissues and organs but also keeping full for long. That way you don't have too much room to stuff in carbs and fats or any other high calorie foods, not just in that meal, but also 3-4 hours ahead of your meal. This leads to a lesser total calories overall and thus a big boon for fat loss.
For someone who is looking to lose fat weight should strive for roughly 2 to 2.5 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight.
On the contrary, if we eat a lesser amount of protein, we not only have room to add more carbs and fats in that meal, we are also liable to feel hungry too soon. Thus increasing our total calories for the day.
If someone is a vegetarian or vegan by choice, it shouldn't come as a burden to you to get your essential nutrients in while the non V's have it easy :P. But we all need to be a little aware of the composition of the foods we are putting in our bodies. For instance, a 100 gram of cottage cheese will have roughly 18-20 grams of protein, however, it will also have 30 odd grams of fats because cottage cheese is a primary source of fat. Similarly, 100 grams of cooked lentils will have around 10 grams of protein, but majority of the weight is carbohydrates because lentils/beans/legumes are primary sources of carbohydrates. Not only are you not eating a prime protein source (nothing wrong in it as these vegetarian sources are packed with essential micronutrients too), but when you are trying to lose fat and prioritize protein around 2-2.5 g per kg of bodyweight, you might be missing out.
Always look at the per gram protein content of your food source. This is also known as "protein density".
Moreover, if you try to increase protein through these sources, you are prone to overeat on unnecessary calories that can hamper your weight loss even if you hit your protein numbers.
Let's take an example:
Here's a meal distribution of someone who wants to lose fat weight and is a vegetarian and their daily caloric intake is 2000 kcal with around 140-150g of protein-
Meal 1 - Cottage cheese sandwich(100g cottage cheese) : approx. 500 kcal, 25g protein
Meal 2 - Cooked lentil x 100g with wheat pancakes : approx. 350 kcal, 13g protein
Meal 3 - Snacking on 100g peanuts : approx. 550 kcal, 25g protein
Meal 4 - Cooked black kidney beans x 100g and boiled rice : 500 kcal, 12g protein
Miscellaneous calories = 100 kcal
Total Calories = 2000 kcal
Total Protein = 75g
As you see, even through that person is hitting his daily calorie goal of 2000 kcal, his protein number is half of his daily requirement. If he wants to up his protein intake while keeping the calories the same, he will reduce the additional carb or fat sources in his meals and include more "pseudo" protein sources(I am calling them pseudo because they are not primary sources of protein).
Meal 1 - Grilled cottage cheese, 200g: approx. 550 kcal, 40g protein
Meal 2 - Cooked lentil x 200g with reduced quantity of pancakes : approx. 500 kcal, 20g protein
Meal 3 - Snacking on 150g peanuts : approx. 800 kcal, 42g protein
Meal 4 - Cooked black kidney beans x 200g and boiled rice : 700 kcal, 24g protein
Miscellaneous calories - 100 kcal
Total Calories = 2650 kcal
Total Protein = 106g
Now you see that the calories have shot up way higher while the protein still struggles nearly 40 grams below the daily threshold.
What if they now include couple of scoops of protein supplement - around 30 grams each instead of overeating on the same pseudo vegetarian protein sources?
Meal 1 - Cottage cheese sandwich(100g cottage cheese) : approx. 500 kcal, 25g protein
Meal 2 - Cooked lentil x 100g with wheat pancakes : approx. 350 kcal, 13g protein
Meal 3 - Snacking on 100g peanuts : approx. 550 kcal, 25g protein
Meal 4 - Cooked black kidney beans x 100g and boiled rice : 500 kcal, 12g protein
Miscellaneous calories = 100 kcal
++ Add 2 scoops of protein (whey or plant protein) - approx. 25g protein and 120kcal in each scoop. Additional calories = 240 kcal and additional protein = 50g
Total Calories = 2000 kcal + 240 kcal = 2240 kcal
Total Protein = 75g + 50g = 125g
If you notice closely, there is only a slight overshoot in calories (240 kcal) with a huge increase in protein(50 g). To cut back to the target calories and up the protein another 20-25g, they can either reduce the high calorie snacking on peanuts (a source of fat) and / or reduce calories from carbs/fats in other meals, but manipulating 240 odd calories is not difficult, while adding another good protein snack or portion of a protein source in any of the meals is also not too difficult.
You have seen that just by adding couple of scoops of protein supplement, it has become radically easy to hit nutrient and calorie numbers. If you would have noticed, the protein density of protein supplement is approx. 80% as against an average density of 20-25% in food sources. Therefore it becomes beneficial to "supplement" with protein so that the weight loss doesn't become big burden and one can eat freely without too much manipulation and getting too anxious.
More Strength!
Be the Outlaw!
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