What is protein diet and how it works?

Protein diet - this is perhaps the most effective diet, especially if combined with sport.

Foods rich in protein

Meat and fish
Eggs
Dairy - cheese, milk

There is no big variety of foods rich of proteins and low on fats and carbohydrates. The natural state of most of the foods has percentage of these three main nutrients. Basic principle of the protein diet is that you avoid eating foods that easily transforms to body-fats. You eat mostly food that contains a lot of proteins plus many vegetables (excluding potatoes). You combine the diet with exercises to keep your muscle mass.

It is important to loose mainly fats, not fats and muscles. The principle is simple: when the body lacks energy, it starts melting fats and muscles from the body, to take energy. 

We need to make the body “think” that it shouldn’t use the muscles to get energy, that is why we need to use the muscles – if you do workouts then the body will “think” that the muscles are important and it will melt only fats.

Protein diet is using this principle, because the proteins are food for the muscles. They can turn to body-fats only if they are taken more than you need.

Worlds scientific researches about how much protein does the human body needs for 1 day show that men need up to 3 grams per kilogram of body weight, it means that 80 kilogram man can take up to 240 grams of protein per day. The extra proteins turn to body-fats.

Women can take around 2.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Woman with weight of 60 kilograms shouldn’t eat more than 2.5*60=150 grams of protein per day.

What else should you eat when you are on a protein diet?

Huuuge salads and fresh vegetables. Salads can be found in every time of the year – tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, cabbage, zucchini, peppers, carrots and so on. They can be eaten in unlimited amounts. Tomatoes contain lycopene, that increases the effect of the protein diet (but you need to eat a lot of tomatoes to be able to feel the effect of lycopene, tomatoes are nutritional supplement where the ingredients are not highly concentrated).

What you shouldn’t eat when you are on a protein diet

Sweet things are forbidden – even the fruits (but if want to eat sweet so much better eat fruit than something else, 1 fruit per day is OK). Forbidden foods are cakes, biscuits, cream, ice cream – if something tastes sweet – you should not eat.
Foods made of dough – forbidden – bread, macaroni, spaghetti.
It is forbidden to fry and pane the food.

How to prepare the food when you are on a protein diet?

Meat and fish – baked or boiled without oil.

You should prepare the salads without oil – sunflower, olive or other oil!!! It is allowed up to 1 table spoon, do not pour on the salad directly, measure it with spoon. If you eat oily meat, cheese or eggs – in this case you should not use oil because these foods contain more fats.

Eggs – boiled or baked, only with salt and spices, no oil again. Its very tasty if you add 50 grams of cheese. In the yellow part of the egg there are 5-6 grams of fats.

Low fat cheese or curd can be prepared with tomatoes.

Other foods that contains lots of proteins, but also contain much carbohydrates and fats

Nuts (walnut, almond, hazelnut, peanut etc.) – 100 grams of nuts contain around 15-20 grams of protein, around 40-50 grams of fats and 20-30 gr. carbohydrates.

Beans, lentil, peas, chickpeas – 100 grams contain around 20 grams of protein and 60-70 grams carbohydrates

Graphic for meals when you are on a protein diet

It is better to eat 7-8 times per day.

The idea is – NEVER get hungry. If you get hungry your body will start “feeding” from your muscles. Also you can easily break the diet. That’s why you should eat every 2 hours or as often as you can.

Example meals for 1 day
7-8 o'clock – breakfast (200 grams yogurt)
10 o'clock – second breakfast (tomatoes and curd)
12 o'clock – lunch (meat/fish with salad)
14 o'clock – small breakfast (200 grams yogurt)
16 o'clock – second small breakfast (eggs with spices and salad)
18 o'clock – dinner (meat/fish with salad)
20 o'clock – light late dinner (handful of nuts)