If I told you there was a pill that you could bye without a prescription at your local grocery store that:
Naturally decreased your calorie intake
Increased your metabolism helping you burn fat
Helped build and hold onto lean muscle mass
Helped you sleep better
Decreased stress, mood disturbance, fatigue, and cravings
all without any negative side effects, I am guessing you would be half way to the store by the end of this blog post.
You're a smart little nugget, you already know where I am going with this.
It's not a pill.
It's called getting the right amount of protein in your diet.
So let's look at the research behind this.
This study done at the Sports Performance Institute of New Zealand found that it decreased mood disturbance, stress, fatigue, and cravings in athletes that were set to a calorie deficit dieting phase.
This study done at the Harvard School of Public Health compared the Thermic Effect of Food (how many calories you burn digesting the food you ear) among the three macronutrients and found that protein's thermic effect was more than double carbs and more than 5X that of fats.
This study done at the University of Birmingham found that during a calorie deficit and weight loss phase that test subjects lost nearly TWICE as much muscle mass in a low protein group when compared to a higher protein group.
And this study found that people with diets consisting of 30% protein consumed nearly 600 calories less than groups with either 5% or 15% without tracking or trying to consume less food.
The effects of protein are incredible not just for body composition, but mental health too. If you want to find out how much protein you need as an individual, check out this calculator to find a good window to aim for.