You have heard the case demonstrating how ineffective calorie restriction is. Today you will hear an equally surprising story. It demonstrates the most important dietary change for effective fat loss.

At about the same time I was becoming more perplexed over why patients weren't responding to restricting calories. I encountered a patient at the opposite extreme. We'll call him S.T.

S. T. also weighed 170, the same as the young lady from your last letter. But S.T. wanted to gained weight. He had been told to put on more muscle he had to eat more protein. When this didn't work, he added more protein. He continued until he came to see me, frustrated. He said, “Doc I'm up to eating like a pig 6 times a day. I'm stuffed all the time and I can't gain a pound”

When I asked for a log of his food, I could hardly believe it. He ate a dozen egg whites a day. He ate 24 ounces of steak at a time, sometimes twice a day. He drank a 40 oz protein shake twice a day. In between meals, he would scarf down 36 oz of canned tuna and frequent pure protein snacks.

When I totaled the calories, he ate from 4500 and 5000 calories a day for the previous 12 weeks and his weight had gone down 6 pounds.

The answer must be in his exercise. But he said, “No Doc, I'm doing very little. I go to the gym 3 times a week but I do no cardio and I'm out of there in 20 minutes. I don't want to burn the calories.”

Then it must be the difference in the rate these two individuals burn calories at rest or Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). But to account for this dramatic a difference the BMR would have to vary by more than 500%. The problem is, research has shown only marginal variation in BMR nowhere near that magnitude. Clearly, something else was at play.

* The Answer Was Staring Me in the Face *

What S.T. had done was discover by accident the most important principal of healthy weight loss. To make weight loss relatively easy and healthy you must over consume protein.

I mean you must eat more protein than your body is going to use. Why do this? Because this is what throws the metabolic switch. It tells your body that times are good. When times are good, it doesn't need the stored fat. It can now burn it for other things.

I know that this is true from hundreds of patients that have proved it through their own results. If you want healthy weight loss, eat more than you requirement for protein.

Why this is true, I can only speculate. I suspect that this is nature's way of knowing that the hunting is good. If you are getting more protein than you need the game is plentiful, your food source is secure. What do you need a lot of body fat for if you will eat again tomorrow?

* How to Get More than Your Requirement of Protein *

I recommend that you normally eat at least a half a gram of protein per pound of body weight.

If you are trying to become leaner, you should increase that to one gram per pound of body weight. For instance, if you are a 180-pound man you should eat 180 grams of protein per day during the time you are trying to make yourself lean. Once your goal is achieved, you can decrease it back to 90 grams per day.

For all of you nutritionists out there – Please don't write to tell me that this is more protein than you need. I know that. That's the point, to consume more protein than you will use.

I prefer lean sources of protein like steak, turkey, chicken and, perhaps the best source of lean protein - fish.

This is the key to effective fat loss. Remember your body sets your body fat at where it wants it. It has mechanisms with considerable power to maintain it.

It can shut down building new muscle or bone. It can down regulate your immune surveillance to conserve calories. It can decrease your metabolic rate or turn off repair mechanisms. This capacity to vary and control all of these processes is the most important determinant of whether your body fat goes up, down or stays the same.

In other words, your body will lose the fat if you prove it doesn't need it. But if you try to force it to lose weight when it thinks it needs the fat, it will fight you tooth and nail –and in the end, it will win.

Next time, we will talk about the other dietary change you need to building your dream body.

Al Sears, MD