Eli5: why do people say to get at least 1g of protein for desired body weight when it comes to losing weight?
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Protein requires more energy to break the chemical bonds, say 20%, so it contributes less energy to maintaining your body’s systems. I’ve actually heard that number for building muscle mass, not dropping weight. However, research has shown that those trying to lose weight who engage in resistance training see increased benefits. The muscles use energy that would be otherwise stored, used for building muscle as well as performing the exercises. Since protein has ~4 cal/gram as opposed to fats (9 cal/gram), increased protein intake will also lead to less calories consumed. For example, eating 3oz of chicken breast vs 3 oz cheese. Both are filling but the caloric content is roughly half. So the 1g protein per pound body weight would be for building muscle with resistance training, leading to more muscle which burns more calories even in a resting state. The number itself seems to come from Ohio State research.
Because you don’t want to lose muscle mass, only fat. If you lose muscle mass your metabolism will drop too, so when it comes to losing weight you will want to have calorie deficit and at the same time to maintain a high protein intake.
It is filling , also the 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight is just a quick-and-dirty way to make sure you are eating enough of the macro nutrient while also minimizing muscle loss on a cut.
Just because you stop eating it, doesn’t mean your body doesn’t still need it.
If it’s not given protein to continue building, it will just sacrifice parts of itself (generally in the form of muscle).introducing a modicum of protein helps minimize that consumption… as does good exercise.
It should be 1 gram per kg of bodyweight unless you are working out intensely 5-6 days a week but yes, adequate protein is super important when you are losing weight to help preserve as much muscle mass as possible.
Many people when dieting think that they just need to eat less food. And technically that is correct. When you eat less calories than your body needs to survive it converts stored fat to calories to make up the difference. However the brain does not just need calories to run the body, it also needs protein to function, if you cut calories while dieting and don’t provide any protein your body will not just break down stored fat, but it will also break down muscle tissue. So when dieting it is important that of the food you do eat during the day some of it should be protein
Most people who want to “lose weight” actually have something more specific in mind. What they really want is something called body recomposition. This is a fancy way of saying they’d like to lose fat, but keep or gain muscle.
To do this, you need to provide your body the building blocks required to build or maintain muscle. Protein is an important nutrient for muscle building. If you simply reduce the amount you eat, you may not get enough protein to sustain your current muscle mass, so you’ll lose more muscle than you intended.
Put simply, body recomposition requires diet recomposition.
It’s not a hard rule, but it’s kind of a bodybuilding folklore rule of thumb that 1g per lb of bodyweight is enough to increase muscle mass when doing high-intensity strength training. If you don’t eat enough protein to at least maintain your existing muscles, your body will break them down for energy when you are running a caloric deficit. If you lose muscle mass, you not only get weaker and look worse, but your resting metabolic rate goes down which makes it harder to continue losing fat.
It’s likely that you can achieve most weight loss goals without significant muscle mass reduction while eating less protein, but 1g/lb is not going to hurt you, and it’s almost certainly enough. It’s also easy to figure out so it sticks around as a rule.
The reason you need sufficient protein intake is that when your body goes into caloric deficit, it will start breaking down muscle tissue for energy. You want to minimize that as much as possible, so providing protein in your diet will both allow your body to keep/rebuild muscle tissue, and also provide a more ready energy source that isn’t as high-calorie or fat-storage-inducing as carbohydrates are.
To put it another way, if you want to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat. Let’s say you burn 2,000 calories a day between your resting metabolic rate (the amount you burn just to survive) and any exercise you do. If you eat 1,500 calories of sugar each day, you’ll still lose weight, but you’ll feel hungry most of the time, you’ll lose muscle mass, and you might develop diabetes. You’ll probably end up skinny-fat, and if your diet changes back, you’ll put the weight back on as fat right away because you basically trained your body to deal with huge spikes of energy by storing it immediately, then breaking down muscle tissue for the essential proteins it needs. If, on the other hand, you ate 1,500 calories of protein (not really possible, but for the sake of the example let’s pretend it is), you’d lose about the same amount of weight, but develop all sorts of different problems like kidney damage, headaches, and gastrointestinal issues.
So, a much better plan is to eat normal foods (meaning, healthy grains, proteins, fruits and vegetables) but to reduce the total calories (so that you burn fat) but still make sure that you are getting enough protein to meet your body’s needs and not trigger muscle breakdown.
All that said, the “real” number you need is probably more like 0.4-0.5g per lb of bodyweight, unless you are also actively trying to build muscle as you lose fat. If you are trying to lose fat and are finding it hard to eat that much high-quality protein, you can likely reduce it quite a bit before it will cause real problems.
And all of _that_ said, for most people, if they just cut out most sources of sugar and eat reasonably balanced meals, they’ll lose weight pretty quickly. This is particularly true for calories you drink, like those found in soda, fruit juices, alcoholic beverages, and fancy coffee drinks.
Your body needs protein to function, the exact amount you needs varies based on a number of factors (eg: you need more if you want to build muscle). Don’t believe the “1g” number someone pulled out of their ass, it’s more complicated than that, but your diet should consist primarily of: Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Fats.
When you lose weight you will always lose muscle along with fat. Your body will break both down for nutrients.
Muscle contains a lot of protein, and fat doesn’t. If you cut down your caloric intake, you may end up with a protein deficit and your body will turn to muscle to get that protein.
So a very high protein diet will help to minimize the amount of muscle your body breaks down instead of fat.
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