Why High Protein Diets Help Lose Weight

This one’s for those of you who are using high protein diets as a weight reduction program.

Scientists have discovered the scientific evidence of such diets. Based on their studies involving normal-weight and obese people as well as knockout mice, incorporating high amounts of protein in your diet staves off hunger by triggering the production of a hunger-fighting hormone called peptide YY (PYY).

Pyy null mice (photo, right), genetically modified such that it is unable to produce the PYY hormone, showed to be selectively resistant to the satiating and weight-reducing effects of protein.

The findings show that PYY deficiency can cause obesity and that PYY appears to mediate the beneficial effects of increased-protein content diets,” Batterham said. “One potential weight loss strategy is therefore to increase the satiating power of the diet and promote weight loss through the addition of dietary protein–harnessing our own satiety system.

“Such a diet is perhaps more typical to that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors,” she added.

She issues a caveat, however, that extensive, long-term clinical trials will have to be done before any particular diet could be recommended. Also note that such a diet would be different to the Atkins Diet, which is typically high in both saturated fat and protein.

For further reading, you may want to take a look at the published manuscript in Cell Metabolism or the BBC report.

[Photo: Cell Metabolism]