Protein burns about 30% of its calories during digestion and protects muscle while you lose weight. On a diet, cut carbs but keep protein high, then fill up on fibrous vegetables to stay full on fewer calories.
Because we don't have enough protein, we're not going to build muscle. The other great thing about protein is that it has a thermogenic effect, which means that approximately 30% of what we eat, the calories of what we eat from protein, is just going to be utilized in terms of the digestion of that protein. So we absolutely need it as part of a body composition plan. The thing about carbohydrates and protein is carbohydrates are protein sparing, which means that if our carbohydrates do go up, we're not going to have to eat as much protein. But Here's the kicker. On a weight loss plan, we're always going to eat more protein because we're eating less carbs. And most of our carbohydrates, you guessed it, is going to be made up of fibrous carbohydrates. Now the reason why we do that is to keep our calories low.
