Busting The Myth: An All-Protein Diet Is The Ideal Weight-Loss Plan

October 21, 2015

While we’re all for high protein diets, there’s a difference between upping the intake of one of your macros, and giving up on all the others in exchange (no carbs, no fats, just protein).

It’s not uncommon to opt for eggs and lean meats when you’re trying to lose weight, but it would serve you well to have them with a side of veg, and maybe even some baked potato. An all-protein diet will help you lose weight and gain muscle, but compromise the nutritional value your body needs and cause a lot of other setbacks, such as:

Eating only protein can bring a quick drop in weight, but will make you pack the pounds if you steer even slightly off course. It’s because your body is no longer used to processing and digesting carbs and fats.
You see a drop on the scale with an all-protein diet because it causes water loss, which was otherwise packed in with the stored glycogen. So yes, the first 8lb you lose could just be water weight, which is not a measure of any real change.
Rapid weight loss caused by an all-protein diet does not mean fat loss. From a healthy BMI perspective, you could be way off the mark.
While a high protein diet is a good bet when moderated, eating only protein (over 90 percent of the time) will result in your body using fat for energy. It will help you lose weight, but put a dampener on your energy levels and make you lethargic.
You need carbs for the maintenance of healthy lean muscle mass. Sticking to just protein will hamper the health of the muscles, which in turn will lower the metabolic rate and increase the fat content in the body.

Make note that your daily calorie intake should be broken down as such—40 percent comes from protein, 40 percent from carbs and 20 percent from fats. You can tip the scales in favor of protein by another 10 percent if you workout or indulge in muscle building and weight-lifting exercises.

For those who are solely relying on diet to lose weight, an all-protein meal plan will prove to be detrimental to your progress, and will impact your skin, hair, appearance, hydration and energy levels, while also damaging the muscles.

PS: Here’s an exhaustive list of Diets For Weight Loss.
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