Associate Professor at Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Lydia Bazzano has spent the past five years caring for patients as a physician with Ochsner Health System in New Orleans. Dr. Lydia Bazzano was awarded the Lynda B. and H. Leighton Steward Professorship in Nutrition Research, and she continues to study the role of dietary patterns in weight management.
While a diet rich in protein can help you lose weight by making you feel full longer, the amount, quality and timing of protein you eat each day can impact on the magnitude of weight loss. Stick to proteins low in saturated fat and calories and rich in nutrients, such as lean meats, eggs, seafood, and beans. Short-term studies of appetite and fullness have shown that a meal rich in protein increases the feeling of satiety and fullness and increases the hormone signals associated with fullness.
A 2015 study that appeared in the journal Obesity, the journal of the Obesity Society, found that a high protein breakfast with 35 grams of protein prevented body fat gain by reducing hunger later in the day among teens who were used to skipping breakfast.
The timing of protein intake, for instance at breakfast, may impact weight loss through appetite signaling. Most Americans consume more protein at lunch and dinner than breakfast. Average consumption of protein at breakfast is well under the proposed 30 g/meal protein-satiety threshold, and up to 60% of certain age groups, like teens, skip breakfast alltogether.
