Studies have shown that while on a low calorie diet, subjects in a group who had a higher percentage of protein in their diet and fed more frequently (5 times a day), preserved more lean muscle mass than all of the other groups.
Preserving your lean muscle mass and other vital tissues in your body is of vital importance when attempting to lose weight. It is for this reason that you should stay away from low calorie or starvation diets or diets that require little or no protein.
Did you know that the word protein means "prime importance"? It is the vital nutrient that builds up the body. It's needed to build muscles, internal organs, nails, hair, hormones and much more. The human body cannot survive without protein.
People who tend to have weight problems generally consume much less protein than their bodies need. This is especially true for people who exercise, as your protein needs will be much higher.
One of the reasons why protein is a useful addition to any weight loss plan is for it's thermic value. It actually has the highest thermic value of any food type. This means it requires more calories to digest and it is the most difficult nutrient for your body to turn into fat.
Being harder to digest, proteins will help you to feel more satisfied longer after meals and help to keep your blood sugar levels normal.
Another thing about protein is that it is made up of amino acids. There are 12 essential amino acids that the body cannot produce itself and must get them from food sources. Many people are actually deficient in some of the essential amino acids because they either don't consume enough protein or they don't consume quality proteins.
Eggs contain protein of the highest biological value. This means that our bodies can assimilate and use this protein much better than most other sources. Another great source of high quality protein is whey or soy protein powder.
If you eat foods that are very low in nutrients and essential amino acids, then your body will naturally make you feel hungry all the time so that it can extract the small amounts of these nutrients from the large amounts of food that you eat.
If you were to start eating foods that are "high" in nutrient content, then your body will become satisfied much sooner and you won't get the desire to eat as much, because the body needs more than just "calories" from food and this is one of the biggest reasons why people fail on starvation or low calorie diets, they just aren't getting the nutrition that their bodies need.
It would also be wise to point out to you that cooking protein actually destroys some of those essential amino acids. Some of them are very sensitive to heat, so you should try to add some "raw" sources of protein to your diet such as fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds or protein powder or any other source that hasn't been heated or cooked.
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