A 16-week study with overweight premenopausal women shows that a diet higher in protein and calcium results in a greater reduction of fat while preserving lean muscle.  This is very important as losing muscle when you lose weight can actually make your health worse, even though you have lost weight.

This type of study is informative because the women subjects are all consuming the same amount of calories, but the composition of their diets is different.  This study had three different groups, with 30 women in each group.  The groups were:
1) high protein, high dairy (30% of calories as protein, 15% of calories from dairy), 
2) adequate protein, medium dairy (15% of calories as protein, 7.5% of calories from dairy),
3) adequate protein, low dairy (15% of calories as protein, less than 2% of calories from dairy).

The reduced calorie diet was also accompanied by a consistent exercise program.  Body composition was measured at the beginning of the study, at 8 weeks, and at the end of the study.  The high protein, high dairy group lost the most visceral fat (abdominal fat), while actually building lean muscle.  The medium dairy group was able to maintain their muscle while the low dairy group lost muscle.  This study shows that both calcium intake and protein intake are important for healthy weight loss.

Those who don’t consume dairy should ensure they take at least 1000 mg of supplemental calcium per day when trying to lose weight.  Whey protein is a great food for boosting both protein and calcium intake.

There are actually a number of important basic nutrients that facilitate weight loss.  I have outlined these in my comprehensive article, The Leptin Diet Weight Loss Challenge – Overview and Basic Needs.  Not only is basic nutrition important to help you get into a weight-loss mode, it is important to help you lose weight in a healthy manner.

Posted by Byron J Richards at 01:51 PM.

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