The Importance of Protein

Okay, I know in the past I’ve said that weight loss is about calories in and calories out. Meaning, if you take in less calories than you are expending, then you’ll lose weight. But, there’s an important piece that is understated, and that is that your body burns roughly 10 percent of its calories by digesting the food that you consume. This is known as the Thermic Effect of eating.

This is where dietary protein comes in. Protein is made up of various complex chemical bonds. When you eat protein, your body cannot immediately use that protein for energy, so it has to use energy to make that protein into energy. It’s easier for the body to breakdown and turn carbohydrates and fats into energy than it is to do this with protein. In fact, it takes 2 ½ times more calories to break down protein than is does to breakdown carbohydrates.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say you currently are getting 30 grams of protein a day. That equals 120 calories you’re getting a day from protein (side note: 1 gram of protein equals 4 calories, 1 gram of carbohydrate equals 4 calories, 1 gram of fat equals 9 calories). If you take 120 calories and multiply that by the thermic effect of protein (which is .2), you’ll find that your body has to burn 24 calories just to break down that protein.

So if you bump your protein consumption up to 100 grams a day, after doing the calculation, you’ll find that your body has to burn 80 calories a day just to break that protein down.

Bottom line, start increasing your protein intake and you’ll burn extra calories without even trying!

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