Many people say it is, and have the results to prove it. On the other hand, there are also many people who have not had such success with the high-protein diet. First, although weight loss during the first few weeks on a high-protein diet is definitely more impressive than when eating a mixed diet, it's been discovered that almost all the difference is a result of water loss. But you can only lose so much water, so eventually that rapid weight loss slows down.

There are different ways of interpreting that. Some people think it's good, because the rapid weight loss during the first month can be very encouraging. In contrast, when eating a regular or mixed diet, no weight loss at all may be experienced for the first week, because the water is temporarily retained, and that can be discouraging.

On the other hand, what happens when people on the high-protein diet discover after two months that the same diet that was initially causing them to lose 4 or 5 pounds a week is only producing a 1- or 2-pound weight loss now? Maybe they think they're not dieting carefully enough and cut back their calories still more, only to find that the difference hardly shows up on the scale. That, too, can be very discouraging.

One of the supposed benefits of the high-protein diet is that it produces a mild state of metabolic ketosis and, as a by-product of that process, certain chemical substances called ketone bodies are created, which are said to suppress appetite. However, whether or not that really happens, or whether the effect is lasting, has now been seriously questioned.

Another theoretical benefit of the high-protein diet is that it "spares" body protein, some of which is always lost along with body fat when dieting. But that theory also has been called into question. The most recent study, in fact, reveals that eating a mixed diet actually spares more protein than a high-protein diet, although the difference is not statistically significant.

But the biggest objection I have to the high-protein diet is that it is unnatural. Some people don't believe in any diet plan that forces you to eat in a radically different manner than you're accustomed to. Eventually, either when you give up or reach your desired weight, you are going to go off the high-protein diet and revert to the same old eating patterns that made you overweight to begin with. And there is evidence that when you go off the high-protein diet, you may put your excess weight back on very rapidly indeed.


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