Proteinstats and their effects on weight loss

Alfredo Valdés 8 min. of reading Proteins Leave a comment

Have you ever tried to lose weight and failed? What if I told you that there is a scientific explanation for the rebound you experience after a period of restrictive dieting?

The one responsible for the miracle diets that make you lose 5, 10 or 50kg but make you fail in the end, as you regain and often even exceed your initial fat percentage, has a name:

It’s called the proteinstats.

Index

1 What are proteinstats and how do they work?
2 Tips for keeping the proteinstats in balance
3 HSN protein supplements you may be interested in

What are proteinstats and how do they work?

This concept refers to our body telling us how much muscle mass is normal for us to have because of our genes and lifestyle.

And if this is compromised, it complains and forces a return to a normal state.

Proteinstats are the body’s regulatory mechanism for the amount of muscle mass that we naturally have under unconstrained conditions.

Somewhat like a thermostat is used to keep the temperature of the house in a normal range.

Here is an example:

Let’s say you are a 50-year-old woman who does not exercise and follows a normal diet with an overweight physical condition, classic Western, but not obese.
In March you think about losing some fat because it’s getting warmer and as well as wanting to be in good health, you also want to look great on the beach.
You search on the internet and instead of finding the HSN Blog with quality information, you find the salad diet website, which promises you to lose a huge amount of fat in a short time. Let’s go for it!

The amount of weight you will lose over weeks of maintaining an extensive physical exercise protocol (often walking for several hours a day) and a restrictive diet (whether it’s the cucumber diet, the Atkins diet, the Zone diet, or whatever name they come up with for a new eating pattern that cuts out fat, sugar or X food), will be significant, however…

What happens then?

Then comes the dreaded rebound, the “I devour everything I see” and weeks after finishing the diet the “I weigh 10kg more than I started with”.

Who is to blame for this?

It is the misinformation that made us follow an inadequate diet and training protocol, however it is the proteinstats that have been responsible for making this rebound a reality.

Given that a very restrictive diet associated with a low protein intake, together with training without intensity, but with a high energy expenditure, produces a great loss of muscle mass;

Proteinstats are activated!!

You go back to eating like you used to and you don’t work out.

And when the diet is over or you reach your goal, it’s time to act, and a series of mechanisms are triggered that contribute to you developing hyperphagic behaviour. In other words, what we know as “I devour everything”, because your body wants to recover the muscle mass you have lost:

Recovering muscle mass is a slow process… And even more so if you don’t work out…

And while it is possible, it is generated through hypercaloric intake sustained over time.

This is why an obese person normally has more gross muscle mass than an average adult who does not train, and who is at a normal weight.

Since muscle mass is hard to regain, while fat comes back easily, by the time we have regained our pre-diet state (i.e. 20% of the muscle mass we lost), we have regained 60% of the fat we lost and also, as a bonus we have gained 40% more fat than we had initially.

Unbelievable, isn’t it?

The above picture is real, and shows how, in just 8 weeks of freedom after 6 months of dieting, people gained almost 100% of their initial fat, “bouncing back” over 70% more than they were before they started dieting, all for the body to regain the amount of muscle mass lost in those 6 months.

Tips for keeping the proteinstats in balance

Calm down, reading this scares anyone, so… Do I have to be on a diet for the rest of my life? Of course not.

You have to make a smart diet, and improve your eating habits, in general.

Strength training: it is essential to maintain a good muscle metabolism and promotes that you do not lose muscle mass during a process of dietary restriction.

Many people believe that weight training is not for them (“…How can I do weights when I’m 50 years old? Walking is enough…”).

This is a huge mistake.

Weight training, however short or simple and using any means (rubber bands, self-loading), is the most effective strategy to keep our proteinstats regulated.

Eat satiating foods: foods that are nutritionally rich (but not calorie-dense): Fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, legumes…

Restrictive diets are never a really good option for maintaining an adequate weight, because although they cause great weight loss, they are not sustainable in the long term.

While these foods are fairly low in calories, they help you eat a larger amount with less dietary impact. So your body will signal that you are satiated by eating fewer net calories than if you were to eat without vegetables, or with refined flours.

Intermittent fasting: this can have a positive effect on appetite control, especially if you are physically and mentally active during your fasting period.

Intermittent fasting is a dietary strategy that consists of gathering all the food of the day during a specific range of hours, often applying a 16:8 protocol:

No food is consumed for 16 hours during the day;
During the following 8 hours the food is concentrated in 2 meals.

Intermittent fasting generates a series of metabolic effects that help your brain to reduce the perception of hunger, and once you start eating, you feel much more satiated as you eat larger meals.

Increasing protein intake: this is one of the most important keys, along with strength training.

Evopro by SportSeries is a versatile protein, denser than regular whey and with a wide and delicious range of flavours.

Muscle mass is strictly dependent on protein metabolism insofar as protein is the main structural component of muscle mass. Therefore, protein intake must be sufficient during a period of weight loss in order to allow your body to maintain your muscle mass as much as possible.

The amount of protein recommended during fat loss is unclear, and depends largely on the person, but typically between 1.6 and 3g of protein per kg of body weight should be consumed.

As this can be complex, we recommend that you seek professional advice on dietary guidelines for weight loss.

HSN protein supplements you may be interested in

Protein is not a supplement as such, as it does not complement the intake of anything.

It’s just another food in your diet. What happens is that in the West, we are not used to having smoothies as part of a meal.

However, this is entirely possible, since:

Protein powder is highly satiating, especially when the type of protein consumed has organoleptic properties that make it denser, such as casein.
Protein powder has flavours that are not normally found in weight loss diets. How many custards have you eaten on the chicken diet? Well, with protein powder you can enjoy this flavour in a healthy way.
Protein powder is a much lower calorie option when it comes to providing protein-rich, low-fat foods than other common options such as many meats and fish.