We talked about the benefits of eating protein from our previous blog post. The question now stands, does eating protein help you lose weight?  It’s also confusing to know how much protein helps you lose weight.  I know for me I’ve tried eating a lot of protein and eating no animal protein.  It’s so hard to know what to do and there is no one size fits all plan.

Keep your metabolism high

Eating protein throughout the day will keep your metabolism up as well as your energy. Everybody wants that, right? You also get your energy from carbs. But sadly, there are empty carbs that only raise your sugar level, give you a fast burst of energy, then drain it all away. These roller-coaster ups and downs aren’t good for you and can derail your weight loss plans.

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Then, you’d be thinking, does more protein help you lose weight? Knowing how many proteins you need is as important as knowing the amount of carbs you’d consume in one meal. Why? When it comes to eating for weight loss, most people struggle to get in the amount of protein they need while getting in too many carbs.

Give me the Numbers

Do you know if you’re eating ENOUGH protein or you need more? Does more protein help you lose weight? It depends on your lifestyle.

Knowing how much protein you should eat is a fairly easy fix. You need approximately .8 grams for every kilogram of weight. If you break that down, it’s between 40-50 grams of protein for women who are not active and 50-60 grams for men who aren’t active. These numbers change once you add an exercise program.

Your Lifestyle and Protein

Does more protein help you lose weight automatically? Of course, not!

Your current weight and how much you move or exercise is what you need to go by to figure how much protein you need to have.  For people who work out heavily and have a focus on wanting to build muscle, you’ll need more protein than someone who wants to lose weight and doesn’t plan on building muscle.

The more active you are every day as well as the harder you work out, the more protein you’ll need to eat. Someone who’s trying to lose weight and has a light activity level won’t need as much for their body as someone who has a harder, more intense activity level.

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Getting lean means that you should eat plenty of protein – but not all at once in big, heavy meals. Instead, you need to spread out the protein consumption throughout your day.