Protein does play an important role in a healthy program for weight loss.  It is considered as “building blocks” as it is responsible for the growth and repair of tissue (especially muscle tissue) in the body as well as functions as enzymes, as transport carriers and as some hormones.

We need to eat protein in a healthy program for weight loss as protein has the highest thermogenic effect if compared to carbohydrate and fat.  Thermogenic effect refers to the calorie-burning process of digestion. It occurs when protein molecule is simplified to amino acids, carbohydrate to simple sugar, and fat to fatty acids.

Studies revealed that it took as much as 30% of the calorie value of protein to break down to acid amino, while it took only 2% of the calorie value of fat to break down to fatty acids.  This means for every 1000 calories of protein we consume, 300 calories are used in digest process, leaving only 700 calories for body usage. Isn’t it pretty cool? We only have 700 calories counted for every 1000 calories of protein we eat.  That is why you must include protein in your program for weight loss.

Put in another word. You can say that your metabolic rate will increase by up to 5% in response to eating fats.  When you consume carbohydrates, your metabolic rate will increase by approximately 10%, and protein can increase your metabolism by up to a whopping 30%.  So, I guess you won’t feel surprised next time if you are asked to consume protein in your program for weight loss.

Do not get me wrong.  You are not supposed to discount your carbohydrates and fat consumption for optimal results in your program for weight loss.  Please refer my essential nutrients articles for suggested nutrients proportions in a healthy program for weight loss.

Protein we should consider in a program for weight loss

Let’s go further about protein if you want to include protein in your program for weight loss.  Proteins are complex organic compounds and broken down in either essential or nonessential amino acids. Our bodies need about 20 amino acids for the synthesis of its proteins. Our bodies do make some amino acids, but there are 9 amino acids we must obtain through food sources.

Proteins from animal sources, such as fish, eggs, milk, meat, and cheese are sources of complete proteins, as they provide all 9 indispensable amino acids in adequate amounts.  Proteins from plant-based sources such as grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds tend to be deficient in one or more of the indispensable amino acids and thus considered incomplete proteins.  Incomplete proteins can be combined to make a complete protein.  Rice and beans, milk and wheat cereal, and corn and beans are examples of these combinations.

It is recommended that people enrolled in a healthy program for weight loss consume about 25% to 30% protein in your daily food intake.  Please refer my essential nutrients article as you will get the answer there.

Please refer some examples of appropriate protein sources that help in your program for weight loss:

Plant-Based Sources and Protein Content
Rice, brown (1 cup) 4.5gm
Pasta, cooked (1 cup) 6.5gm
Tofu, firm (½ cup): 10gm
Soymilk, plain (8 oz.) 10gm
Kidney beans, cooked (½ cup) 8gm
Pinto beans, cooked (½ cup) 7gm
Lima beans, cooked (½ cup) 5gm

Animal-Based Sources Protein Content
Chicken, boneless, cooked (3 oz.) 27gm
Turkey, roasted (3 oz.) 25gm
Ground Turkey, cooked (3 oz.) 23gm
Ground Beef, lean, cooked (3 oz.) 24gm
Beef Sirloin, cooked (3 oz.) 24gm

Conclusion: Include protein in your program for weight loss

Please include protein in your daily diet if you are serious in your program for weight loss.  Anyway, always remember to have a balance diet as well as right exercise in your program for weight loss.
Good luck in your program for weight loss!

In fact, there are all types of relationships people have with food and all types of different things that people may try to get from food.  For example, feeling of relief, love, distraction, fulfillment etc might cause you having emotional eating.  Understand the causes and relationship between the food and you will definitely assist in your healthy weight loss program.

Eat Food for Love

Some people might have emotional eating, trying to fill the void of love in their lives.  It might be the habit build since they were a child, as they felt unloved by their parents or family members.  As an alternative choice, they use food to fill that void and help themselves to feel loved.  Finally, they become overweight and need a program for healthy weight loss purpose.

Eat for Fulfillment

Many times, there could be a feeling of lacking something in any aspect of your life, and you replace the feeling with eating food.  You might feel lacking something as a person or maybe some sort of success in career, especially when you make comparison between you and your life to someone else and you think something is missing somewhere.  As a result, you try to use food to make yourself feel fulfilled, end up with overweight issue and urge for any healthy weight loss method.

Eat for Revenge

Maybe you feel a little bit silly, but it is too true to say about this point.  In fact, some people who are unhappy in marriages or in a family use food and gain weight as a way to punish their spouse or their parents.  The common thing they accuse is “I gain weight because of your fault or the thing you do….”  In fact, they forget that it is their responsibility towards their body and lives.  Make clear of this issue will make you automatically search for a healthy weight loss program.

Eat for Relief

A very common trigger for emotional eating is whenever a person has a feeling of stress, anger, or other strong emotions. In this case, they use food as a relief or distraction from those feelings. Sometimes, people will also have emotional eating if there is something they do not want to face or confront in their lives.  They will drive right into food for a relief when they feel challenges in lives.

Eat for Fun

Some people are really food lovers, they eat food for fun.  For them, it is the only fun thing they do after a busy working day.  Besides, they chase for good food during holidays, as a rewarding for the effort made in their works.

There are many other things that you may try to get from food when you eat them.  Find it out yourself before you can solve your overweight issue, and enjoy a healthy body weight.  Remember, eating habit cannot be changed, but it can be replaced.  Hope you can enjoy in healthy weight loss path.  Of course, understand well about weight loss concept before you begin your healthy weight loss program.

If you really concern about healthy weight loss, you might find out that most of these diet plans do not really address personal diet styles, working environment as well as exercising.  That is why one diet plan that works for others might not work for you at all.  So, you need to know that the best diet plan is the one that works for you, after consider 5 important questions stated below:

1) How many meals you eat in a day

Although a lot of weight loss experts encourage frequent mini meals (at least 5 meals in a day), it does not mean that you can’t shed pounds away if you have less than 5 meals in a day in your diet plan.  So, please determine your daily quantity meal according to your working environment and time factor.  You might prefer to eat 3, 4, 5 or 6 meals in a day.  They are all fine.  Once you know your diet schedule, divide your calories accordingly.  You can refer the BMR calculation article if you need to know more detail about how many calories you need to support your daily activities.

2) Do you often dine out?

People with busy lives nowadays prefer to dine out after the whole busy working day.  If you are one of them and would like to see healthy weight loss results, you need to find out the food calories you eat most often.  Pay attention especially to soup item, that most people probably unaware or ignore it.  Some soup contains surprisingly high calories, such as 650 calories per serving for baked potato soup.  Even cheddar broccoli soup contains 460 calories per serving.  If you deserve for 1200 calories in your daily diet plan, it means nearly half has used up just for the soup.

3)  How much time will you spend for food preparation?

Preparing a meal is as simple as 123 to some people, but it might be a headache thing for others.  If you don’t like or have limited time to cook, get some healthy diet recipe information online, most of them are simple enough to follow.  You may also get some diet tips from eating smart article if you like. Learn different simple cooking method will make your diet plan more attractive to follow.

4) Shall you stop eating all the food you love previously?

You might think to stop all the food you love, including chocolate, muffin, cookies etc for healthy weight loss purpose.  However, stop eating a particular type of food will make you more crave for that particular food.  Smarter people will reserve 100 calories for a single-serve package of chips or chocolates, or any other type of foods you love to eat.

5) What kind of support you need for your diet plan

Always find a diet buddy if you are in your fasting diet plan.  Human beings need to be cared and encouraged in the weight loss progress, especially when the initial excitement for adjusting bad habits begins to wane.  Get support from your family members, friends, or new friends made through any weight loss forum.  Most of the time, a friendly remind or encouragement will make you persist in your diet plan.

In fact, healthy weight loss will not last unless you change your eating habit for good in a way that meshes with your food preferences, daily schedule and lifestyle.  Besides diet plan, understand weight loss concept and start exercising.  Start with a simple walk for 20 minutes, or do some gardening jobs.  Without maintaining both good eating habit and exercising in your daily life, it is quite tough for a person to enjoy long term healthy weight loss results.

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Virtually, all the data we have that link the saturated fats and heart disease does not distinguish between saturated fat and trans- fat.  This makes us hardly to know whether or not saturated fat got the blame for something that was really being done by trans-fat.

Study published in Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease points out that saturated fat lower the lipoprotein, a risk factor for heart disease, and increase protective HDL cholesterol; while trans-fat not only do the exact opposite but also raise LDL cholesterol level.  This clearly shows that many of us who believe that saturated fat has gotten the blame for damage that is actually caused by trans-fat.

Apart from that, saturated fat is not a homogenous entity.  In fact, saturated fat consists of many different types of fatty acids, and some of them are downright beneficial for overall health and healthy weight loss purpose.  For instance, lauric acid has antimicrobial and antiviral properties and is able to fight bacteria, and caprylic acid is used to fight yeast.  In addition, short and medium chain saturated fatty acids such as those found in coconuts are actually much more likely to be burned for fuel than stored as fat, and thus can be an excellent adjunct to a healthy weight loss program.  Others such as stearic acid has no effect whatsoever on cholesterol, except to possibly increase protective HDL in our body.

So, not all saturated fats are bad fats.  In fact, a better way to categorize fats is by whether they are damaged or undamaged.   You can damage fats in numerous ways such as overheating oil by frying at high temperatures.  This will create toxic substances known as lipid peroxides.  Another way is through industrial process, named partial hydrogenation.  This will create trans-fat, which is the most dangerous of all fats.

We are easily come into contact with trans-fat nowadays.  Trans-fats are found in almost all fast foods such as french fries, most margarines made products like cake, cookies and other baked products as well as movie popcorn.  That is why you need to avoid it in your food and nutrition aspect, especially when you are on any healthy weight loss program because they are associated with all of the degenerative common diseases in this modern world.

Although we know that the most dangerous fat is trans-fat, we still need to aware and keep saturated fat intake at a reasonable level for healthy weight loss and overall health purpose.  For some people, consuming saturated fat can increase insulin resistance.  Apart from that, the fast food meats that are our biggest sources of saturated fat are loaded with bovine growth hormone, steroids and also antibiotics.  The danger is probably not so much from saturated fat itself, but from what is in the kind of saturated fat we typically eat.  Besides, too much of fat causes the imbalance in our diet between omega-6 fats and omega-3 fats, bringing a big health issue.

If you are on your program for weight loss, it is recommended that you consume not more than 20% fats in your daily food intake. You can get further information in my essential nutrients article if you want.  Besides diet adjustment and minimize the consumption of trans-fat and saturated fat, perform regular exercise is also important for healthy weight loss and overall health purpose.