Protein intake is key to weight management, study finds
Protein intake is the most important factor in maintaining a healthy weight after dieting, according to an EU-funded study led by the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. The findings were an outcome of the Diogenes ('Diet, obesity and genes') project, which is financed with EUR 14.5 million under the Food quality and safety Thematic area of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). The purpose of the six-month study was to establish methods for preventing obesity, particularly through diet. The researchers studied 548 overweight or obese adults and their children from 8 countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK. All the adults taking part in the study completed an eight-week weight loss programme with a fixed low-energy intake. After this, they were put into one of five dietary groups. Each diet differed in carbohydrate, glycaemic index (GI) and protein content. The results showed that the people eating the higher-protein diet managed to retain their weight loss after the end of the initial eight-week weight-loss programme. 'Protein intake holds the key to effective weight maintenance after weight loss,' said Professor Arne Astrup of the University of Copenhagen, coordinator of the Diogenes project. 'Taking all 8 centres together and the results from 548 adults, we are able to see that those subjects [randomly assigned] to the higher-protein diet after weight loss were able to maintain that weight loss most successfully. Some subjects [randomly assigned] to the lower GI diet also had some success with weight maintenance but it was less marked than those on the higher protein diet.' Many modern diets claim that eating more protein is the key to weight loss, and the results of the study lend credence to this. According to the researchers, eating more protein does make you feel fuller than eating fats and carbohydrates; moreover, protein also has a more stimulating effect on energy expenditure compared with fats and carbohydrates. 'This study confirms the view that the diet chosen after weight loss does help with weight maintenance, contrary to other recently released studies which concluded that the diet makes no difference,' added Professor Astrup. 'We can have confidence in our findings and conclusions as each subject was closely monitored during the study, and there was a much lower drop-out rate in the high protein group - possibly due to successful weight management during the study period.' Professor Astrup concluded: 'For consumers, the good news is that successful outcomes for weight management with the higher-protein diet have been achieved with relatively minor changes in diet composition. Most families would be able to make these dietary changes and help safeguard their health through better weight management.'
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