The thermogenic effect of protein

While one gram of fat provides approximately nine calories, one gram of carbohydrate provides about four calories and similarly one gram of protein also provides about four calories. These figures explain why most slimming diets cut down on fat. However, although fat provides weight for weight, more than twice the energy of the other two food groups, protein has a built in factor known as its thermogenic effect or ‘specific dynamic action’, which burns calories and depletes fat stores.

The act of eating itself burns calories, since all food requires energy for its breakdown and digestion, absorption from the stomach and small bowel, chemical changes in the bloodstream, liver, etc as well as the storage of its nutrients. But while fat has a thermogenic effect of only zero to three per cent and carbohydrates of five to ten percent, protein has one of twenty to thirty per cent of its calorific value.

This useful, thermogenic effect of food is reduced from fifty to one hundred and fifty calories a day in obese people with a resistance to insulin, thus increasing the importance of protein in a fat loss programme.

Always seek professional assistance when wanting to make many changes to your weight loss plan.

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