How to Lose Weight By Eating Protein

Video Transcript

"Protein, protein, protein, that's what we hear about as far as weight loss and diets go these days. My name is Mark Brinson, Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Human Performance and Physical Medicine Specialist. With the popularity of the Atkins Diet which recommended higher amounts of protein, we've seen many, many spin-offs are espousing that the more protein you eat, you don't really have to worry about calories and you'll naturally drop weight. Let me talk to you about that just a little bit to make sure that you understand the mechanism behind that. Our body does need high amounts of protein, lean meats etc., in order to function properly. It provides us a lot of amino acids, which are the building blocks for not only muscle, but also brain matter. In this day and age protein seem to be a little bit harder to come by rather than the carbohydrates that are in every snack machine or that are very simple and cheap to acquire. So, to an extent we all do need to up our protein intake just a little bit. But you don't want to go overboard with it. Because if you're only eating proteins, there's a lot of things that you're body isn't getting that can cause health problems, anything from problems with the kidney, liver, even problems somewhat in the intestines. So, eating protein also can have kind of an effect of being a diuretic, which is going to make you retain less water weight. So sometimes those quick results that you get are only going to last temporarily while you're on that high protein or on your, or that diuretic type diet. Now, generally speaking for health though, I would recommend more protein than people typically eat. So if you can get it in with each meal great, or per day, that's fine as well. In the proportions, when you're talking about protein, carbohydrates and fats, protein should be higher, maybe in the 40 to 60 percent range. Then then the carbohydrates maybe in around the 40 percent range, and the fats in the 10 to 20. Now that carbohydrate is definitely manipulable though. The more carbohydrates that you eat that are complex, your vegetables and fruits and things like that, the better. My name is Mark Brinson, Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Physical Medicine and Human Performance Specialist wishing you a happy, healthy and balanced day."