Protein For Health and Weight Loss

How Much Protein We Need?

When we don't get enough protein in our diet, all our organs are affected -- from the kidneys to the heart . The immune system also suffers greatly, so you are more likely to get sick and get infections.Protein Make your Metabolism Strong and keep healthy.

But What About All That Weight Loss?

Is it the protein or the calorie cuts that lead to weight loss? The high-protein diet programs and gurus will most certainly tell you it's the protein. But two recent studies say it's the restriction of calories rather than the protein that is the most important determinant of weight loss. In an Australian study, 36 obese adults, mostly women, were assigned to a 12-week energy-restricted diet that was either moderately high in protein (27% calories from protein) or lower in protein (16% calories from protein). The weight loss was similar in both diets. Researchers at Stanford University analyzed all research published on low-carb or ketogenic diets over the past 37 years. They concluded that the successful weight loss from low-carb diets was "principally associated with decreased caloric intake and increased diet duration but NOT with reduced carbohydrate content."

One of the most popular features of the low-carb, high-protein diet is thequick weight loss. Don't be fooled here. You cannot physiologically lose more than 2 pounds of body fat a week. So what are all the pounds that people lose in the first few days of starting the diet? Water. To make up for the lack of dietary carbohydrates, the body uses its own carbohydrate stores in the liver and muscle tissue (called glycogen), which in the process also mobilizes water. Many of the early and rapid pounds lost are due to -- that's right -- excessive urination!

Can a Certain Type of Protein Lead to Weight Loss?

Apparently, it doesn't matter whether your protein primarily comes from lean beef or chicken. As long as you reduce your total calories by 500 a day and participate in an exercise program (in this study it was a walking fitness program), you will most likely enjoy some weight loss and improved cholesterol levels. This evidence comes from a recent study with overweight, sedentary, nonsmoking women conducted by the Rippe Lifestyle Institute in Shrewsbury, Mass.

A recent six-month trial demonstrated that replacing "some" dietary carbohydrate with protein improved weight loss -- but this was when the diet was still, overall, a reduced-fat diet.

Higher protein is in vogue these days because of the publicized success of quick weight loss. But studies also show that there might be long-term health consequences of such a diet, and slow but sure weight loss can take place with a healthy high-fiber, moderate-protein, and moderate-fat plan -- a way of eating that we can live with for the rest of our lives. Yes, we do need protein, but at levels of 15%, not 50%, of calories from fat. So when it comes to protein, it looks like moderation is the healthiest choice of all.

How Much We Need on Daily basis It depends on our Age, Sex, Weight.

A normal person need 1 gm Protein as per body weight like if your body weight is 70 kg then you need approx 70 gm protein per day.

Protein Recommendations for Men
19-30 years old	0.8 gram per kg per day (about 56 grams per                               day)
31-50 years old	0.8 gram per kg per day (about 56 grams per day)
51-70 years old	0.8 gram per kg per day (about 56 grams per day)
Protein Recommendations for Women
19-30 years old	0.8 gram per kg per day (about 46 grams per day)
31-50 years old	0.8 gram per kg per day (about 46 grams per day)
51-70 years old	0.8 gram per kg per day (about 46 grams per day)
SOURCE: the Dietary Reference Intakes report by the Institute of Medicine, 2002   SOURCES: Institute of Medicine Dietary Reference Intakes report, 2002. International Journal of Obesity, (volume 27) 2003. The Journal of the American Medical Association, April 9, 2003. Nutrition, May 2003. Journal of Nutrition, March 2003. Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, 2002. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, November 2002.