We’ve been told time and time again that the key to weight loss is very simple…

Consume Less Calories Than You Burn

It’s simple math we are told.  Create a calorie deficit. If you burn 2,000 calories and consume only 1,500 calories a day, your body will need to burn 500 calories of stored fat.  Boom you are losing weight.

Want to lose more weight?  Either increase your exercise (increasing the amount of calories you burn) or decrease the amount of food you eat (decreasing the calories you consume).

So Simple…and So Misleading

The piece of the puzzle that people leave out is the fact that the body will burn muscle, not just fat.  So, when you take in 1,500 calories and burn 2,000 calories – those 500 extra calories may come from burning muscle, not just fat.

In fact for every 10 pounds of weight we lose, 3 pounds of it can come from muscle.

What’s wrong with burning muscle?  

Excellent question, let’s turn to this excellent article form 2/3/16 of the New York Times for the answer…

“The problem with losing muscle is that, unlike fat tissue, muscle burns calories. Having less muscle means a lower resting metabolic rate, so you burn fewer calories throughout the day. Losing muscle may also discourage physical activity, which is important for maintaining weight loss.”

–A Diet and Exercise Plan to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle, NYT 2/3/16

What Ingredient Can Stop Our Body From Burning Muscle?

You sitting down?  You ready for the big reveal?  Hold on to your hat…

PROTEIN

Yep, as simple as that.

A new study, which was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, rounded up 40 overweight young men who were willing to commit to an intensive weight-loss program and divided them in half.

Both groups did intensive exercise and cut calorie intake by about 40%.

One group had a diet of 15% protein,  35% fat and 50% carbohydrates.

The other group had a diet of 35% protein, 15% fat and 50% carbohydrates.  This meant they were having about 3 times the RDA (recommended daily allowance) for protein.

While both groups saw weight loss of 11-12 pounds after 4 weeks, the higher protein group actually saw their muscle mass increase by 3 pounds!

“The routine had succeeded in incinerating pounds from all of the participants. The men in both groups weighed about 11 or 12 pounds less, on average.

But it was the composition of that weight loss that differed. Unlike most people on low-calorie diets, the men on the high-protein regimen had actually gained muscle during the month, as much as three pounds of it. So in these men, almost all of the 11 or 12 pounds they had lost over all had been fat.

These results strongly suggest that extra protein is advisable during weight loss, Dr. Phillips said, to avoid stripping yourself of muscle.”

 Shameless Plug Alert –

This new study provides one more reason to try out our Perfect Hydrolyzed Collagen.  Our pasture-raised, grass-fed all natural collagen is 97% protein and completely dissolves in water and has no taste.

Read that last sentence again.

You add a scoop of collagen to the water you drink after your workout.  It tastes exactly like water.  However, it has 10 grams of protein from grass-fed cows.  By feeding your body protein you make sure the calories you are burning come from fat and not muscle!

Shameless Plug Over.

More Information:

NYT – A Diet and Exercise Plan to Lose Weight and Gain Muscle

Discover The Science and Health Benefits of Collagen