Have you been working out and eating healthy, but struggling to lose stubborn fat? In other words, have you hit a “weight loss plateau?”
Well, there’s good news for you. In the September Issue of the Journal of Nutrition a study was published showing losing belly fat and gaining lean muscle is more easily accomplished by eating more protein from dairy. Specifically, the researchers credit the whey protein fraction of the milk.
The study followed 90 obese women (ages 19-45) for 16 weeks as they followed a weight-loss program. The women were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group consumed 0-1 servings of dairy each day (low dairy and adequate protein), while the second group consumed 3-4 servings of dairy each day (medium dairy and adequate protein), and the third group consumed 6-7 servings of dairy each day (high dairy and high protein). Each serving of dairy was equivalent to 1 cup of milk or about 1.5 ounces of cheese.
The diet was designed so that the women consuming the most dairy were eating two times more protein and lower carbohydrates than the other two groups, and twice the amount of dairy than the medium group. All women also engaged in an aerobics program five times per week and resistance training twice per week.
At the end of the 16 week program, the women in the third group (high dairy and high protein) lost significantly more weight, particularly belly fat, and gained more muscle mass than the other two groups. All of the women lost weight, but as the lead author of the study Andrea Josse from the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University pointed out, “One hundred percent of the weight lost in the higher protein/high dairy group was fat. And the participants gained muscle mass, which is a major change in body composition.”
All weight-loss programs will lead to the loss of fat, but muscle is typically lost as well, which may explain the “plateau” effect. So, the fact that the body composition changed as well is crucial. Muscle plays an important role in regulating levels of glucose and fats in the blood, which means losing muscle could have negative effects on long-term metabolic health. Visceral fat, or “belly fat”, is also bad for metabolic and cardiovascular health. Thus, the fact that the study showed increasing calcium and protein in the diet may help promote fat loss from the worst storage area in the body is an important finding.
According to the authors, the increased loss of fat with higher consumption of dairy is “likely related to other bioactive components such as the protein fraction [whey] rich in branded-chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine).”
If you’ve reached a plateau in your weight-loss journey and are looking to boost the protein from dairy in your diet, I recommend taking a look at the IsaLean Shakes and IsaPro developed by Isagenix.
Source: Increased Consumption of Dairy Foods and Protein during Diet- and Exercise-Induced Weight Loss Promotes Fat Mass Loss and Lean Mass Gain in Overweight and Obese Premenopausal Women.
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