Losing weight can be tough, and strict diets, heavy exercise and endless meal planning and prep can often leave you feeling worse than when you started. Crash diets are always a bad idea - instead you want to focus on lasting healthy changes that will allow you to gradually lose the weight and keep it off.
Protein shakes can be the perfect addition to your weight loss plan, keeping you healthy and energized while you lose weight even faster. Here’s 5 important ways protein shakes help you stay healthy while losing weight.
- Feel Full and Banish Cravings
Increasing the protein content of your diet has been scientifically proven to make you feel fuller and more satisfied[1]. Constantly feeling hungry and not feeling full enough after eating a meal are some of the most common complaints when it comes to weight loss diets. Feeling hungry and unsatisfied can worsen cravings and lead you to snack on unhealthy foods, blowing out your calorie intake. Supplementing your protein intake by adding weight loss shakes to your diet means you can feel fuller for longer and say goodbye to cravings and rumbling stomachs. You’ll also be less likely to snack or binge on unhealthy foods, helping you stay healthy while losing weight.
- Boosts Energy and Metabolism
Including whey protein shakes can actually boost your energy levels and fire up your metabolism, helping you to feel great while losing weight.
Whey protein contains essential BCAAs which have been shown to directly fuel your muscles and give you a burst of energy[2]. This energy boost helps you get through your workout (or the workday!) without the energy slump. Whey protein is also the most thermogenic protein type available. This means that it activates the body’s natural fat burning powers, and speeds up metabolism, giving you better weight loss results with less effort[3].
- Fuels Muscles
Using protein powder for weight loss helps you to easily meet the needs of a high protein diet, while boosting your overall protein intake to fuel muscles and keep your body healthy. Whether you use Branched Chain Amino Acid (BCAA) supplements or whey or pea protein which are both naturally rich in BCAAs, these essential amino acids are directly involved in building healthy muscles. While you might be wondering why you need to build muscles when losing weight, this is actually important because building healthy muscles helps you cultivate a fit, toned and strong body while also burning more fat, as muscle tissue is more active than fat tissue[4]. But the reality is that without protecting our muscles, 25% of the weight we lose when on a diet can actually be simply muscle! Protect your muscle and fast track weight loss by using protein shakes for weight loss.
- No Skipped Meals
One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to lose weight is skipping meals. You may try to intentionally skip meals to cut down calories, or you may accidentally skip meals because you simply don’t have time to prepare a healthy breakfast or sit down for lunch. Either way, skipping meals will eventually catch up with you, resulting in strong hunger or cravings later in the day. People who skip the earlier meals of the day often end up overeating at night, causing spikes in blood sugar in the least active part of the day. This means that skipping meals usually leads to weight gain[5]. Protein shakes are quick and easy to prepare, they taste great, and contain all the vitamins and minerals you need for optimum health. This makes protein shakes the ideal meal replacement for any meal and at any time of day, so you never have to skip a meal again, and you can focus on losing weight the healthy way.
- Meet Your Nutritional Requirements
Weight loss shakes are specially formulated to contain all the vitamins and minerals you need for a healthy, active life. When you’re cutting down calories while trying to lose weight, it’s natural that you end up eating less. However, eating a smaller amount of food can also mean you don’t get enough of the essential vitamins and minerals you need that are naturally found in our food. Worse still, studies have found that being vitamin or mineral deficient can actually lead to further weight gain[6]. Supplementing with an enriched protein shake once or twice a day helps you to meet your nutritional goals for the most essential vitamins and minerals, as well as providing a high quality serve of protein.
How To Use Protein Shakes for Weight Loss
Protein shakes really can help you stay healthy while losing weight, allowing you to shed fat faster while building healthy muscle. When using protein shakes for weight loss be sure to follow these tips!
- Choose a protein shake that uses high quality whey or pea protein.
- When using protein shakes for weight loss, replace 1 or 2 meals daily with a protein shake. Fill up on healthy snacks like low-calorie vegetables or calorie-free drinks.
- If you’re using protein shakes to replace meals, make sure they contain essential vitamins and minerals.
- Combine changes in your diet with a healthy exercise plan. Consume your protein shake within half an hour before or after a workout to see maximum results for muscle toning.
[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15466943
[2] https://www.livestrong.com/article/554880-drinking-whey-protein-to-wake-up/
[3] https://www.nutritionexpress.com/showarticle.aspx?articleid=1486
[4] https://www.self.com/story/how-to-lose-fat-and-gain-muscle
[5] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-skipping-meals-can-make-you-gain-weight_us_588a37d8e4b01ea6978989bc
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2905334/
About the Author
Cara Dibdin is a Dietician & Exercise Scientist and a writer, originally from Sydney, Australia. Specializing in health, nutrition, behaviour change and meditation, Cara is passionate about finding innovative ways to nourish mind and body.
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