When I was in college, I remember going to a party at the home of four girls. While standing around in the kitchen, I realized they had almost as much cereal as the local convenience store. When I asked them about it, they said they often ate cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, because they thought a high-carbohydrate diet would help them lose weight.
That notion was popular back in the 1990s, and, unfortunately, they had bought into it. However, every year more and more research (not to mention experience) shows it to be untrue.
In the latest study, from the journal Nutrition and Metabolism, 50 overweight adults were put into one of two groups. One group was given a moderate-carbohydrate, moderate-protein diet, and the other group was given a high-carbohydrate diet. Both groups ate 500 calories less than they needed to maintain their weight.
The moderate-carbohydrate, moderate-protein group ate 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight (approximately 112 grams of protein for a 154-pound person) and less than 170 grams of carbohydrate per day. The high-carbohydrate group ate only 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight (56 grams of protein for a 154-pound person) and less than 220 grams of carbohydrate per day.
At the end of four months, the higher-protein diet group had lost more body fat (an average of 8.7 percent) than the high-carbohydrate group (an average of 5.7 percent). The higher-protein group also had greater reductions in triglycerides (an average of 34 percent as compared to 14 percent) and greater improvements in the good HDL cholesterol (an average of 5 percent as compared to 3 percent).
This study shows that you don’t need to make radical changes in your protein intake to get more fat loss and better blood lipid levels. Simply cut two slices of bread from your diet each day and substitute two 20-gram protein shakes.
[Ed. Note: Extending your life and living out your years in tip-top health is really a matter of making simple lifestyle choices - like cutting carbs and adding protein to your diet. For more easy-to-implement ideas about how to live longer and feel better, click here.
In addition to getting more protein, you can burn fat by following Craig's Turbulence Training exercise program.]
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