This morning the New York Times published the results of a nutrition article regarding a diet and exercise plan to lose weight and gain muscle. What do you think the plan entails? Eating high fat and processed food and working too hard at your office? You wish-Incredibly, the researchers convinced people to live on a low calorie drink. In one month, with a grueling six day a week work out routine and eating 40% less calories than they would need to maintain their weight the men had lost 11-12 pounds. Half of the subjects were given an increased percentage of protein. This group actually increased their muscle mass during the weight loss. They lost only fat.
The take away is this. If you want to lose weight and maintain and even increase your muscle mass you must do two things. Strength training combined with a reasonable calorie level that includes a higher percentage of protein(this study went up to 35% protein-that's very high). To understand diet composition and see if your diet is at least 15% protein check out an app like myfitnesspal. Enter a few days of meals and track your intake. Or call me and we can work together to find your meal plan.