How Much Protein To Eat For Fat Loss?

Lots of people assume if you're eating a high-protein diet and hitting the gym, you want to bulk up. But eating lots of protein isn't just great for building muscle; it is excellent when you want to shed fat too. 

Why is protein good for losing fat?

There are many reasons why you should consume more chicken, turkey, whitefish (cod and halibut), lean beef, pork loin, eggs, almonds and tuna when you're trying to shed inches. 

For a start, it is great at keeping you feeling full, as shown in a systematic review done by Halton et al, while also being nutrient dense. Take chicken breast as an example, which contains 165 calories and 31g of protein. 

This is the same number of calories as around two chocolate digestive biscuits, which have just over 2g of protein and very little nutritional value. 

There's no denying we should all be able to enjoy a treat every now and then, but you will feel considerably fuller eating the chicken breast than the biscuits, thus less likely to feel peckish later on. 

Another reason protein is great for fat loss is that it helps recover and maintain the muscle you have made in the workouts with your fitness coach. 

If you drop your calories too much, including your protein intake, you run the risk of muscle loss.

When you lose muscle, you burn fewer calories during the day, as lean mass is very energy-demanding, and if we burn less throughout the day, our calories need to be much lower to induce weight loss. 

Check out this meta-analysis, showing a high protein diet "provides modest benefits for reductions in body weight, FM [fat mass], and triglycerides and for more mitigating reductions in FFM [fat-free mass] and REE [resting energy expenditure]."

Dieting on fewer calories sucks, so it's in our interest to maintain or further develop muscle tissue by eating plenty of protein.

So how much protein constitutes a high-protein diet?

Well, the most comprehensive meta-analysis we have to reference was done by Robert Mortan and a bunch of other absolute Jedi's in the sports science world. According to this meta-analysis, the average amount of protein required to maximise lean mass is ~1.6 grams per kg of body weight per day.

Therefore, someone weighing 70kg should eat around 112g of protein per day. 

What does this amount of protein look like?

It can take a while to learn how much protein is within certain foods, but a good start is finding products that contain 20 to 40 grams of protein for the main component of each meal. 

This could be a steak, a chicken breast, a piece of salmon, three eggs or one cup of milk. 

Other foods that are high in protein include non-fat Greek yoghurt at around 17g per cup, lentils (18g per cup), peanut butter (7g per 2 tbsps), and black beans (15g per cup). 

By ensuring each meal has some high-protein foods, you'll be able to hit your target easily, helping to maintain muscle and support fat loss.