Is this even possible? If you’re thinking, “well yeah, you just have to exercise more,” then you’d be right, but that’s too easy. Let’s assume no change in exercise. If you’re thinking, “okay then, you must mean just eat 800 extra calories for one day,” then you’d also be right, but again, much too easy. We’re talking about eating 800 extra calories per day over normal levels for a couple months and not increasing daily exercise and not gaining weight. Is this possible? Indeed, it is.
A study led by Jose Antonio that tracked body composition of 30 young adults for 8 weeks shows compelling evidence supporting this idea. Now, there is a catch, albeit a very small one considering the magnitude of this finding. If you’ve ever tried a diet, you may have heard of the basic formula that 1 pound of fat = 3,500 calories. Burn an extra 3,500 calories and you’ll lose 1 pound, store an extra 3,500 calories and you’ll gain 1 pound. This simple formula has been used for years and would appear valid since energy can’t be created or destroyed (if an apple has 100 calories of energy, that can’t just disappear into nothingness, it needs to always be accounted for). However, if we do that math for this experiment: 800 extra calories per day x 8 weeks (56 days) = 44,800 calories. 44,800/3,500 = 12.8 pounds of fat.
13 pounds of fat! That’s what the math says these participants should have gained. Why then, didn’t they?
So, here’s the catch, nearly all the extra calories they ate came from protein. They actually ended up eating 5.5x the recommended daily intake of protein. Their approximate distribution of calories were:
Protein: 40% (higher than normal)
Fat: 30% (normal)
Carbs: 30% (lower than normal)
Three people even dropped out of the study because they couldn’t eat all the extra protein.
Study participants were split into a normal protein group and a high protein group. The high protein group ate more than double the protein as the normal group. Participants were instructed not to progress in their exercise routines, but to keep it constant to maintain caloric expenditure. The researchers collected daily food logs and workout logs to verify compliance.
It Gets Better: Gain Muscle and Lose Fat
At the end of the 8 weeks, not only did the high protein group not gain 13 pounds of fat, they actually lost about 1 pound of fat and put on about 4 pounds of lean mass. Pretty crazy!
The researchers concluded that a calorie is not just a calorie, and that protein calories in excess of requirements are metabolized differently than carbohydrates. This is partially explained by protein’s higher “cost to digest” than carbohydrates. Meaning, in order for our bodies to digest protein, we have to burn calories in the process. To digest 100 calories of protein, we need to burn 20 calories; therefore, net we’d have 80 calories available. Again, this only partially explains these findings and the other metabolic processes are not yet fully understood.
However, this is still very helpful for anyone trying to gain or maintain weight. When trying to put on muscle, it’s often easy to gain some fat along the way, but this study implies eating extra protein may help prevent fat gains while promoting lean mass gains in a caloric surplus. For those trying to maintain weight it also might be helpful to choose protein since excess protein calories appear to be more “forgiving”.
It’s important to note that calories still play a very important role in weight management, this study only shows that the formula we are used too may be an oversimplification. To lose weight, it’s absolutely necessary to eat less than we burn. Additionally, not surprisingly, eating higher amounts of protein when trying to lose weight is helpful because of it’s muscle sparing effect, it’s higher caloric cost to digest, and its increased satiety.
Thanks for reading!
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