Higher Protein Diet Helps Maintain Muscle Mass

A diet that is higher in protein and lower in carbohydrates than is currently recommended may help people maintain a desirable body weight, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 27, 2001).

At the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in Orlando, Fla., the researchers presented their study of 24 women, ages 45 to 56, all of whom were above ideal weight. For 10 weeks, the women consumed a 1,700-calorie diet, with one group eating according to the U.S. Food Guide Pyramid (55 percent of calories from carbohydrates, 15 percent from protein and 30 percent from fat), and the other eating a different ratio of food percentages (40 percent from carbohydrates, 30 percent from protein and 30 percent from fat).

The average weight loss for all women was virtually identical; however, women on the higher-protein diet lost 12.3 pounds of body fat and 1.7 pounds of muscle mass, and women eating the Food Pyramid diet lost 10.4 pounds of body fat and 3 pounds of muscle mass. Say study authors, "These findings suggest that weight loss on a moderate protein diet … enhances changes in body composition."