A recent study shed some light on the importance of eating a lot of proteins when trying to lose weight. It has been a moot point whether high carb or high fat diets were better to lose weight. High fat diets are somewhat counter intuitive, but have been promoted by Atkins and a number of other proponents. The Paleo Diet for Athletes also promotes a low carb medium to high fat and high protein diet.
One thing that has become clear in weight elated nutritional studies in the past years is that satiation plays an important role. Weight gain is generally linked to the amount of calories consumed. If in a study the amount of calories is carefully measured and each participant of different diets given the same amount of calories, the differences in weight development may be small to none. The more important question, however, is how people who carry out these diets “in the wild” will feel. Will they feel hungry on a specific diet and tend to eat more?
Exactly that is the point that proponents of low carb diets usually make: That people who eat low carb diets are less hungry and subsequently eat less. The mechanism is that high carb diets cause blood sugar to peak which will cause release of insulin, which in turn pushes the energy into the cells and causes fat to be made up and stored away.
This new study here now shows that high protein diets also help to create a feeling of satiation on less food. This effect was observed in a general high protein diet, but also when a “regular” diet was enriched by a single amino acid. This makes it likely that the effect is due to nitrogen metabolism — proteins and their building blocks, amino acids, contain nitrogen that must be excreted through the kidneys. This causes a person to be thirstier and drink more. The consumption of water will reduce the feeling of hunger. This happens automatically and the person will naturally eat less.
Read up on the full study here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22847780