High protein diets have a number of benefits for those wishing to improve their body composition. Protein supplies nitrogen and this facilitates the synthesis of new skeletal muscle. This is especially true in cases when high intensity exercise such as resistance training are concomitantly performed. Additional skeletal muscle increases the resting metabolic rate and this can significantly increase the potential for fat loss by increasing baseline levels of energy oxidation. Protein has also been shown to reduce the appetite, and this may relate to the ability of protein to remain in the stomach for longer periods compared to fat or carbohydrate, producing a beneficial glycaemic effect that stabilises blood glucose levels and prevents large fluctuations in insulin levels. Further, the eating of higher protein levels necessitates the removal of other macronutrients from the diet, and this can in turn reduce in the consumption of refined starch and sugars, the main drivers of weight gain and obesity.
High protein diets seem to offer a number of health benefits when compared to lower protein diets. One such benefit may be that they facilitate improved sleep quality. A number of studies have shown improved sleep quality for higher protein diets in overweight individuals. This might be as a result of a direct physiological effect, or it might be an indirect effect of other improvements in the health of the individual. Either way, taken with the weight loss effects of high protein diets, the sleep quality improvements they bring may significantly improve the quality of life for overweight individuals, particularly through improvements in alertness during the day, and a substantial reduction in stress levels.
Another possible benefits of a higher protein diet may relate to improvements in sleep quality. In one study for example, overweight subjects were fed 10, 20 or 30 % of their energy as protein mainly from legumes, or pork and beef. At baseline and after following the diet for 4 weeks, the global sleep score was assessed for the subjects. The results of this study showed that as the level of protein increased the sleep quality of the subjects improved. As 10 and 20 % is quite a low protein intake, it might be fairer to claim that low protein diets decrease sleep quality. In a second study, the same authors fed overweight subjects a diet at 0.8 grams per kg body weight per day or 1.5 gram per kg body weight per day protein. As the subjects followed this diet over time, there was no changes in the sleep quality of subjects following the lower protein diet, but subjects following the higher protein diet reported improvements in sleep quality. Both of these studies suggest that higher protein diets provide some benefits to sleep quality in overweight individuals.
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