The key to this study, conducted at the University of Illinois, resides in the interactive effect that exercise has to unite with a protein-rich diet. “Both elements work together with greater efficiency, correcting body composition people lose more weight, but specifically fat, not muscle,” said Donald Layman, professor of food science and human nutrition, in that college.
A diet high in carbohydrates and low in protein reduces its effectiveness, according to Layman.

Forty-eight adult women participated in Layman’s study for four months. The members of a group followed a protein-rich diet designed to contain specific levels of leucine, one of the essential amino acids. The second group ate a diet that had higher amounts of carbohydrates.

Both groups ate the same number of calories, but the second substituted for foods rich in high quality protein such as meat, dairy, eggs and nuts, for foods high in carbohydrates such as bread, rice, cereal, pasta and potatoes.

Both diets are effectiv

e because, when you restrict calories, you lose weight. But people with high-protein diet lost more. Some experts see this as a clear metabolic advantage for protein-rich diet.

The study included two levels of exercise. One group was prescribed add walking to their habits. They walked two or three times a week, not exceeding 100 minutes of added exercise. Meanwhile, another group required to perform each week five walks and two 30-minute weightlifting sessions of 30 minutes. In both groups of dieters, the required exercise program helped preserve lean muscle tissue and lose fat. But in the group with high-protein diet and high exercise, Layman noted a statistically significant effect. This group lost more weight, and almost 100 percent of the loss was fat. In the group with high carbohydrate and intensive exercise, between 25 and 30 per cent of the weight lost was muscle.

Although this high-protein diet is successful in anyone, it seems even more effective for those with high triglyceride levels and excess weight concentrated in your abdomen, a combination of health problems known as Syndrome X.

The high-protein diet strikingly down triglycerides and had a statistically significant effect on trunk fat, both risk factors associated with heart disease. The exercise helped the people who did the diet to lose in the abdominal area a higher percentage of body fat.