High Protein Diet: Does It Work?

If you are like most people and you struggle with your weight, then chances are you’ve looked into pretty much every diet fad there is. Depending on your specific goals, each type of diet will have it’s own merits. The best thing to do is to try a diet for at least a month before deciding if it’s working for you or not, and it’s much more important to find a program that works for you rather than try and fail over and over again.

One popular diet that has emerged recently is known as the high protein diet, and it is particularly popular among bodybuilders and highly active individuals. However, even if you’re just an average person looking to lose weight, the high protein diet may have the right stuff to help you lose a few pounds while being a relatively painless type of eating change.

Benefits of Protein

Protein has a lot of benefits, but most importantly it’s crucial for the development of new muscle. This is vital while trying to lose weight because your body will try to cannibalize your muscle at the same time it’s eating through your existing fat stores. Additionally, each pound of muscle on your body burns many more calories than fat to sustain itself, so you can literally stoke the fire inside your own body. Lastly, studies show that people who start their day off with large amounts of protein for breakfast rather than fats or carbohydrates end up eating an average of 300 calories less per day. That means that protein can curb you’re your appetite, protect your muscle, and increase your metabolism.

Exercise is Crucial

If you’re interested in reaping the benefits of a high protein diet, you need to be focused on strength training as well. You won’t see many benefits if you avoid exercise like the plague, and that means that you’ll need to hit the gym at least three times per week; preferably four or five times. I’m lucky since I work from home selling 36” wedding sparklers on the internet, but making time to exercise can be tough. However, you need to remember that calories are calories, regardless of which macro nutrient they happen to be, and your body can only turn that protein into muscle if it feels like you’re straining and need more build to function through your day. All it takes is some persistence at the gym and you will see results in just a month or two if you take your workouts seriously.

Avoid Crashing Your System

One major pitfall you need to avoid when trying the high protein diet is crashing your system. This happens when you deplete your body of carbohydrates and fats beyond the point of being healthy. Of course, the main idea with a high protein diet is that you want to replace carbohydrates and fats with extra grams of protein, but there is a big difference between cutting down and starving your body of those nutrients. Make sure that you keep things balanced in your diet and only increase your protein intake by a reasonable amount to avoid any unhealthy consequences.