One of the biggest struggles when it comes to successfully losing weight is the constant feeling of hunger, or not being fully satisfied after eating! Hunger and cravings for foods are extremely common during weight loss and can often be very difficult to overcome.

Increasing the feeling of satiation (fullness) after eating is a great way to stay on track and maintain healthy weight loss – One of the most effective ways to increase satiation is to increase the amount of protein that you consume throughout the day.

• Protein powders are a great way to easily add a significant amount of protein to meals such as smoothies, oats, baked goods etc.
• Adding a good source of protein to your breakfast in particular is a great method for reducing hunger and making sure you don’t overeat later in the day.
• If you are feeling hungry between meals, a protein shake is a low calorie (& high protein) choice that is very filling and will help to reduce excessive snacking caused by hunger and cravings.
• Having a good source of protein in each meal/snack is one of the most effective ways to manage hunger and increase your chances of successfully losing weight and keeping it off!

When we lose weight, we tend to lose both fat mass and muscle mass at the same time.

• Losing muscle mass is usually not the desired outcome, but an unavoidable side effect of being in a calorie deficit.
• While we cannot completely avoid losing some muscle mass, there are ways we can maintain as much lean muscle as possible and maximize fat loss instead.
• The benefits of lean muscle are not only to increase your strength & functionality – but also to help shape your body, giving you the strong & toned look we all want!
• Having more lean muscle means your bodies metabolic rate is higher, so you burn more calories throughout the day.
• The best way to maintain muscle mass while losing weight is to combine resistance training with sufficient protein intake.

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One of the biggest mistakes people make when trying to lose weight is forgetting to keep their protein intake up!

• Although you need to reduce your calorie intake in order to lose weight, you shouldn’t be reducing your protein intake.
• Having sufficient protein in your diet  means your muscle tissue is less likely to deteriorate, and you are more likely to maintain muscle while losing fat! Win win scenario!
• Scientific evidence suggests that consuming approx. 2g of protein per kilogram of bodyweight is the optimal daily protein intake for maintaining muscle mass while losing weight.

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It can be hard to increase your daily protein intake while also decreasing your overall energy intake – This is where protein supplements become really useful.

• Protein powders are low in calories but very high in protein, they are the most effective way to consume protein without consuming excess calories.
• For example, one serving of Inline Lean Protein powder provides you with 24g of protein, and only 116 calories.
• One serving of Inline Plant Power Protein provides you with 18-19g of protein, and only 100 calories.
• For comparison; to get 24g of protein from sirloin steak, you would need to consume ~230 total calories. So, you can clearly see that protein powders are by far the most energy efficient way to increase your protein intake without going over your daily energy requirements.  

The food we eat contains energy (calories) to fuel our body, but it also requires energy to be used as we digest and break down the food. .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The process of digestion is very energy intensive – breaking down our food burns a significant number of calories. However, some foods require more energy for digestion than others.

• The amount of energy burnt while digesting food is known as the ‘thermic effect of food’.
• Out of the three macronutrients (fat, carbohydrate and protein), protein has the highest known thermic effect.
• The exact numbers for this process are still unknown, but there are estimates that are commonly considered to be fairly accurate.

Fat – 0-5% of calories consumed are burnt through digestion.

Carbohydrate – 10-15% of calories consumed are burnt through digestion.

Protein – 20-35% of calories consumed are burnt through digestion.

As you can see, protein requires significantly more energy to be used in the digestive process.

If you consume 200 calories of protein, between 40 and 70 of those calories will be used up via digestion, meaning the ‘net’ number of available calories will be reduced.

The thermic effect of protein can be a useful tool to help improve weight loss, since eating a higher protein diet will help to increase the number of calories burnt each day through your digestion. Adding a protein shake or serving of protein to your daily food intake will increase the amount of energy you burn via digestion throughout the day, contributing to more weight loss, while also providing you with all the other health & weight loss benefits associated with an increased protein intake.