Cutting Calories? Don’t Cut Out This!
One of the most common weight-loss methods is to reduce your overall calorie intake. We’re all pretty familiar with this approach; if your daily caloric needs are 2,200, for example, you might reduce your overall intake to 1,700 calories per day across the board (500 calories is the magic number, after all).
But a December 2019 study published in Advances in Nutrition reveals that this might not be the best way to go about it. The meta-analysis reviewed 18 studies and found that those who are actively cutting calories should actually eat more protein. Say what?!
The study found that for most adults, the current Recommended Daily Allowance of 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight gets the job done — it meets our everyday needs. But there are two specific instances when it’s beneficial for us to eat more protein than is typically recommended: when we’re strength-training to build muscle or when we’re eating a reduced amount of calories — essentially, if you’re in an anabolic (building) or catabolic (breakdown) stage.
Excerpted from LiveStrong
