Watching Your Protein May Be Key to Weight Control

Counting calories may not be enough to manage either your appetite or your weight, new research suggests.

Paying attention to the percent of calories from protein may be an important key, according to Alison Gosby, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney. Protein and weight control may go together, suggests her research. It echoes others' findings.

In her study, she found that men and women fed a 10% protein diet ate 12% more calories over four days than they did on a 15% protein diet.

"Any dietary intervention that results in dilution or restriction of protein in the diet will promote overeating in an environment where food is abundant," she tells WebMD.

While many experts believe that protein content in the diet plays an important role in determining how many calories we eat, and how hungry we are, the new study lends some solid numbers to that idea.

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