Why protein is so important during weight loss
What is protein?
Protein is an essential macronutrient found throughout the body in muscle, tissue, bone, eyes, skin, and hair. Protein is made from building blocks called amino acids. We have 20 different amino acids in our bodies, nine of which we cannot make on our own. These nine amino acids must come from the foods we eat, so they are referred to as essential amino acids. The remaining 11 amino acids are made by our body. These amino acids are involved in many important processes in the body beyond building muscle.
Functions of protein
Protein helps maintain a bunch of important bodily functions. For example:
- Protein provides structure for tissues like bones, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, skin, and muscles
- It supports tissue repair and wound healing
- Protein makes antibodies to protect us from infection
- It is involved in the production of some hormones that carry messages throughout the body (like by producing insulin in response to blood sugar)
- Protein helps to maintain fluid balance
- It’s involved in transporting and storing nutrients, and other important components for human life, such as oxygen
Why is protein important for weight loss?
There are three key reasons why protein is important for weight management:
- Eating enough protein can increase satiety and regulate appetite, resulting in overall reduced energy intake.
- Protein helps preserve and increase lean body mass.
- Having more lean mass, in turn, helps to increase energy expenditure — meaning, the more muscle we have, the more energy our bodies will burn throughout the day.
When we lose weight, it can be easy to lose muscle mass along with excess fat. Often, when people lose a large amount of weight in a very short period of time, they are likely losing a lot of lean muscle mass along with fat mass. For a healthy weight loss, we want to minimize muscle loss while losing fat mass. Eating enough protein helps prevent that muscle loss.
Studies have shown higher protein diets improve appetite control, fat loss, and preservation of lean mass or muscle mass when compared to lower protein eating plans. That’s why we encourage the consumption of protein throughout the day
What are sources of protein?
Animal protein: meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, and dairy
Plant-based protein: tofu, tempeh, seitan, beans, edamame, split peas, lentils, chickpeas, nuts, seeds (pumpkin, flax, sunflower), quinoa, farro, and other whole grains
When you’re on a weight-management medication, it can be hard to eat enough protein without feeling full. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of easy ways to eat more protein without feeling full.
How much protein do we need?
We recommend consuming at least 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. However, up to 2.1 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight may be considered appropriate for some.
You can calculate your protein needs using this formula:
Your current weight in pounds divided by 2.2 = your current weight in kilograms
Your current weight in kilograms x 1 - 1.5 = goal grams of protein per day
For example, if a person weighs 200 lbs (90 kg), we would recommend a total of about 90-136 grams of protein per day. That would mean eating about 30-40 grams of protein at each meal. It’s important to remember to include protein with snacks too, aim for about 10 grams with each snack.
Keep in mind, this number is just an estimate and something to aim for on average! The low end of this range is your baseline – you can absolutely eat more! If on a GLP-1 medication, use your GLP-1 program in the WeightWatchers app to track what you’re eating to see the grams of protein you’re consuming. Our WW GLP-1 program is designed to give you an individualized minimum protein target of 0.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight. We designed it this way because we know that eating large quantities can be challenging on a GLP-1 medication. So we’ve taken this into account, and give you a minimum goal to aim for. This is designed to be the floor of protein intake. Going above this individualized minimum protein target, if able, is beneficial.