As of: February 1, 2024, 5:08 a.m
By: Steffen Maas
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Some influencers are currently promoting easy weight loss with protein shakes.
The protein diet is not new and can work well - but there are also risks.
Hamburg - There are tips for all situations in life on the Internet: whether it's the classic "life hacks", advice on parenting or even cash trends.
However, it is questionable whether you should really trust every influencer - especially when many social media users are generally unsure about what is advertising and what is well-intentioned advice.
The current advice hype revolves around the classic health topic: losing weight.
This is said to work particularly well with protein shakes.
Whether this really works is – as always – not as easy as the colorful 60-second videos make it seem.
Lose pounds with delicious protein drinks: Protein doesn't just help strength athletes
The idea isn't all that intuitive anyway.
Most people associate protein shakes with pumped-up strength athletes who use the additional protein consumption to gain weight instead of losing weight.
But a protein diet is not a new weight loss tactic and is based on solid scientific foundations.
What are proteins and what function do they have in the body?
Proteins, popularly known as egg whites, are made up of amino acids.
Our bodies, in turn, are made up of thousands of different proteins, each with a unique function.
They form structural components of our cells and tissues as well as many enzymes, hormones and active proteins secreted from immune cells.
These body proteins are constantly renewed and replaced throughout our lives.
This process requires a continuous supply of amino acids.
This means that we need to eat dietary protein to meet our body's demand for amino acids.
(Source: European Food Information Center (EUFIC), 2019)
The protein consumed does not end up in fat deposits in the body, but is used as a building material, as the health magazine
Fit For Fun
knows.
Athletes rely on muscle building, for which proteins are responsible.
Because the protein also stimulates the metabolism, it even actively breaks down fat cells through the heat generated.
“It burns 20 to 30 percent of the calories in the protein straight away!
For comparison: For carbohydrates this is only 5 to 10 percent, for dietary fat it is a maximum of 5 percent,” emphasizes the magazine.
Many positive effects with more nutritional focus on protein - calories still have to be counted
The internet guides also rely on these positive effects.
However, they cannot avoid one basic rule: If you want to lose weight, you have to reduce your calorie intake.
So the idea is: A full meal should be replaced with a protein shake or drink.
So there are fewer calories that are easier to break down - and the large selection of drinks with banana, chocolate or other flavors still creates a satiety effect.
Delicious protein shakes can be a factor in successful weight loss - if they replace a meal.
(Symbolic image) © Pond5 Images/Imago
There is even another medium-term advantage in such an attractive scientific theory.
Actually, when the calorie intake is reduced, the body first builds on the muscle reserves - which ensure that energy is burned in the first place.
The protein, on the other hand, protects the human motors and ensures that the body continues to consume just as many calories and the weight loss effect remains high.
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No miracle diet: There are also greater risks than the yo-yo effect and too few satiety hormones
However, losing weight with protein drinks is not without its pitfalls.
So the search for the miracle diet will have to continue.
Because the famous yo-yo effect doesn't stop at the egg white method.
As soon as you fall back into old eating patterns, the weight comes back very quickly.
If you continue to consume the drink or shake, you will ultimately have added more calories.
What makes it even more difficult is that the liquid meal requires no chewing.
“This leads to fewer satiety hormones being released,” warns Dr.
Britta Schautz, nutrition expert at the Berlin Consumer Center, told the ZDF magazine WISO.
According to AOK health insurance, the protein-rich diet could have even more serious, long-term health consequences.
In their health magazine they report on studies that show an increased risk of diabetes or heart failure in men.
There are also other unexplained phenomena: weight loss with such a method would become less and less over time.
Finally, studies also suggested that people with high protein consumption would actually die earlier.
Many of the negative effects are particularly noticeable when consuming animal proteins, writes the magazine.
How much protein should it be?
Expert recommends 1 gram per kilogram of body weight
But what is excessive protein consumption and how much helps with weight loss?
Experts agree that anything over 2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight per day is too much.
However, the common recommendation of 0.8 grams per kilo is maintained by Prof. Dr.
Andreas Pfeiffer from the German Institute for Nutritional Research (DIFE) for the absolute minimum.
His (easy to convert) recommendation: 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight.
If you want to weigh less, protein shakes could help.
(Symbolic image) © Annette Riedl/dpa
“This ensures that you still get the great benefits of protein that make losing weight so easy, and yet don’t eat too high in calories,” Pfeiffer told
Fit For Fun
.
Those who want to lose weight should calculate their desired body weight accordingly.
So: If you want to weigh 70 instead of 80 kilograms, count on 70 grams of protein per day.
So it turns out that the protein diet can also work - but it is not a miracle cure.
It works with conscious nutrition, exercise and the necessary amount of discipline.