Hi

As I touched on in the last email (which was over a week ago now, sorry!), I wanted to offer some advice that could help to better deal with the "side effects" of dieting that people tend to struggle with. To recap on what I mean by that, recall the following:

Low energy, poor sleep, lower stress tolerance, uncontrollable appetite, increased cravings, strength loss, lack of motivation to train and in some cases, even loss of libido or amenorrhoea.

Now, like I said last time, there are more, but I don't want to get fixated on the wide range of symptoms that people experience. Rather, I want to give you some practical advice to apply to your own dieting phase(s).....

The first tip that I offered in the last email was:

This time, I want to touch on protein intake.

I am sure that you have heard countless times before that eating more protein is generally helpful for body composition. This is the case for a number of reasons, but here are 3 of the biggest reasons, along with some practical recommendations.

When we are dieting, we have less energy available. We are essentially initiating a controlled catabolic state. That catabolism (referring to breakdown) is not isolated to your fat tissue, but also your muscle tissue and other components of lean body mass (bone, organs etc.). Therefore, if you want to ensure that it is actually fat you are losing, then you want to ensure that you have adequate protein to spare those tissues. This goes for those of you who want the most muscle possible, but also those who simply want to look "toned" or maintain good health and reduce the risk of rebound weight gain. 

Out of the 3 macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, fats), protein happens to have the most satiating effect. This means that you will be fuller for longer after a high protein meal. You have probably noticed this. We tend to gravitate toward meals that have meat, eggs or dairy included, as meals that are lacking in protein tend to leave us hungrier a bit sooner. This is something a lot of people notice with breakfast in particular; when they consume a high carbohydrate breakfast, such as cereal, that is low in protein, they feel hungry soon after. However, if you add some eggs, dairy or even a whey protein supplement, you will be fuller for longer.

In simple terms, this refers to the total amount of energy burned when digesting and assimilating the nutrients from a given food. Protein actually burns more energy during that process than carbohydrates or fats. Therefore, it's just another thing to keep in mind when constructing your dietary approach.

Now, we could get further into the details, looking at the nutrients that tend to accompany high protein foods, the role of certain amino acids in facilitating sleep etc., but realistically, you shouldn't need much more than that to tell you that a high protein diet is great for fat loss.

All we need to do now is give you some recommendations. We typically recommend 2-3g of protein per kg of your bodyweight per day. Therefore, if we were to opt for the middle of the range, here would be some examples:

60kg female consuming 1800 calories: 60 x 2.5 = 150g

80kg male consuming 2800 calories: 80 x 2.5 = 200g

At that level, you should still have plenty of room to consume sufficient fat in the diet (0.7-0.1g/kg of bodyweight would be our general recommendation), while still having a decent chunk of calories left to allocate to carbohydrates.

I hope you found this helpful. If you did, why not share some of the tips on social media? Just tag us!

Yours in Health,

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