The TREND towards HIGH PROTEIN

THERE'S A BUZZ AROUND EATING MORE PROTEIN IN THE LOW-CARB WORLD AT THE MOMENT. WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?

- NICKY PERKS

A low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet facilitates fat loss and promotes good metabolic health by reducing blood sugar and insulin levels. But is manipulating the quantities of carbs and fats you consume enough? When people struggle to achieve results on LCHF, the standard advice is often to lower your carbs and/or to eat more fat. These strategies often work well, but sometimes they don't: reducing carbs too much can upset hormonal balance in certain individuals, and increasing fat indiscriminately can stall weight loss.

So how would you go about supercharging fat loss?

Increasingly, low-carb experts think it might be about eating more protein. There has been controversy around high-protein diets in the past, but it is clear from scientific research that they are perfectly safe. They are only contraindicated in people with pre-existing kidney disease. In fact, increasing the quantity of protein you eat could be the single most important thing you could do for your health and weight-loss goals.

Unlike fats and carbs, protein cannot be stored in the body.

This is why we humans are hardwired to consume the required amount of protein our bodies need each day. Understanding the drive for protein embedded in our biology is the first step in addressing obesity.