Lose Weight “Automatically” with Protein Bars and Shakes The term “automatic weight loss” is used in reference to weight loss that occurs without a conscious effort to eat less. It’s weight loss that “just happens” due to some change in your lifestyle other than intentionally cutting back on the amount of food you eat. Examples of such changes include a spontaneous increase in your activity level, a dietary change that elevates your metabolism, and a dietary change that makes you less hungry.
Exciting new research has shown that men and women can achieve automatic weight loss simply by switching to a high-protein diet where 30 percent of daily calories come from protein. The most convenient and effective way to achieve this level of protein intake is by adding whey protein bars and shakes to your diet.
Feel Full on Fewer Calories Gram for gram, calorie for calorie, protein produces more satiety (fullness) than either carbohydrate or fat. Switching to a high-protein diet will cause you to feel fuller, so you eat less and lose weight automatically. It may sound too good to be true, but solid science proves that it really is true.
In a recent study from the University of Washington School of Medicine, 19 women were fed each of three diets sequentially. For two weeks they followed a weight-maintenance diet comprising 15 percent protein, 35 percent fat, and 50 percent carbohydrate. For the next two weeks they followed a high–protein diet of equal calories. The macronutrient breakdown of this diet was 30 percent protein, 20 percent fat, and 50 percent carbohydrate. Finally, the women switched to a high-protein diet with the same macronutrient breakdown but no calorie restriction—the women were allowed to eat as much or as little as they pleased (or “ad libitum”). They stayed on this last diet for 12 weeks.
The authors of the study reported that when the women switched from the low-protein weight maintenance diet to the high-protein weight maintenance diet, they started feeling much fuller despite the fact that they were consuming the same number of calories. Even more significant, during the unrestricted high-protein diet phase, the women voluntarily reduced their daily eating by 441 calories per day and lost almost 11 pounds, including more than 8 pounds of body fat, on average.
While this particular study focused on women, a more recent study from the Rowett Research Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, showed that the same strategy works for men, too.
Not All Protein Sources Are Equal So, where’s the catch? The only catch is this: You have to choose your protein sources wisely. A McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese gets 192 of its 740 calories from protein, which is close to 30 percent, but you won’t lose weight by eating a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Thanks to their high fat content, these types of foods pack so many calories into such a small volume of space that the hunger-killing benefits of protein are lost. You can easily finish a 1,000-calorie fast food meal in five minutes, before protein has had a chance to turn off your body’s hunger switch.
If you want to achieve automatic weight loss from a high-protein diet, you need to get your proteins from lean, low-fat sources such as skinless chicken breasts, fish, and egg whites.
The leanest protein sources of all are whey protein bars and shakes. One serving of PermaLean Vigorously Vain Vanilla Protein Powder mixed with water provides 20 grams of protein with just 104 total calories.
You can easily get approximately 30 percent of your calories from protein by including a lean protein source in each meal and
having one to three Permalean protein bars or shakes as snacks throughout the day. You don’t have to worry about counting calories or consciously eating less. The added protein will fill you up faster so you eat less and start to lose weight—automatically!
