Stacey
Protein diet
A friend recommend a protein diet to me to lose weight, 6 meals throughout the day 100g of lean protein for 2 meals and 120g for the other with a breakfast consisting of oats or granola and a protein shake for the other 2 meals with 40g complex carbs and/or cup full of fibrous carbs with the lean protein. I just wanted to know if this is a suitable diet to lose weight or if protein shakes that are labelled to lose weight, actually help? If this isn't a suitable diet could you please point me in the right direction to lose weight and then once the weight is lost i would like to tone and get muscle definition . Thank you
Elizabeth Cooper
6
votes(Highest rated answer)
Hi Stacey
Thanks for your question. I don't advise that anyone eats a lot of protein, as too much can have negative health benefits such as kidney damage. We should be eating enough but unless you're doing lots of exercise I would stick to about 1g of protein per kg of body weight. If you're doing lots of exercise then you could increase this but unless you're an elite athlete I wouldn't go above 1.4g per kg of body weight. The diet you mention also seems to avoid healthy fats such as oily fish, avocado, olive oil, nuts and seeds, and actually these are very important for our overall, long-term health and can actually help weight loss as fat doesn't cause a blood sugar or insulin spike like protein and more so carbohydrates. When insulin spikes it removes blood sugar either into cells for energy or is stored as fat. Also, eating little and often as your friend has suggested is not a healthy way to eat, as it causes frequent spikes of insulin, which is inflammatory as well as fat storing. In terms of the shakes you mention, quite often they are full of sugar or sweeteners and also possibly other additives. There are so many ways to lose weight but eating a healthy diet, three meals a day, is a more sustainable healthier way to lose weight. It would be a good idea for you to work out what your Basal Metabolic Rate is, and then multiply it by the rate of exercise you do using the Harris Benedict equation. This will give you an idea of how many calories you should be consuming and you can subtract 500 calories from this figure to lose 1-2lbs a week. Also, the 5:2 diet or daily fast, where you eat for 8 hours a day and fast for 16, has been shown to help with weight loss and also overall health. It also been shown to maintain muscle mass whilst losing weight. These are just some of the ways to lose weight but there really are so many ways and it is an individual thing where every aspect of your health and overall goals should be taken into account before embarking on weight loss. I would recommend you speak to a nutrition professional beforehand to get some further advice but certainly avoid 'diets', which could negatively impact your health in the long-term.
Good luck
Thanks for your question. I don't advise that anyone eats a lot of protein, as too much can have negative health benefits such as kidney damage. We should be eating enough but unless you're doing lots of exercise I would stick to about 1g of protein per kg of body weight. If you're doing lots of exercise then you could increase this but unless you're an elite athlete I wouldn't go above 1.4g per kg of body weight. The diet you mention also seems to avoid healthy fats such as oily fish, avocado, olive oil, nuts and seeds, and actually these are very important for our overall, long-term health and can actually help weight loss as fat doesn't cause a blood sugar or insulin spike like protein and more so carbohydrates. When insulin spikes it removes blood sugar either into cells for energy or is stored as fat. Also, eating little and often as your friend has suggested is not a healthy way to eat, as it causes frequent spikes of insulin, which is inflammatory as well as fat storing. In terms of the shakes you mention, quite often they are full of sugar or sweeteners and also possibly other additives. There are so many ways to lose weight but eating a healthy diet, three meals a day, is a more sustainable healthier way to lose weight. It would be a good idea for you to work out what your Basal Metabolic Rate is, and then multiply it by the rate of exercise you do using the Harris Benedict equation. This will give you an idea of how many calories you should be consuming and you can subtract 500 calories from this figure to lose 1-2lbs a week. Also, the 5:2 diet or daily fast, where you eat for 8 hours a day and fast for 16, has been shown to help with weight loss and also overall health. It also been shown to maintain muscle mass whilst losing weight. These are just some of the ways to lose weight but there really are so many ways and it is an individual thing where every aspect of your health and overall goals should be taken into account before embarking on weight loss. I would recommend you speak to a nutrition professional beforehand to get some further advice but certainly avoid 'diets', which could negatively impact your health in the long-term.
Good luck
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