Japanese researchers have discovered that adding the amino acid isoleucine to a high fat diet in mice reduced weight gain by 6% and fat accumulation by 49%.
In their study, published in the Journal of Nutrition's January issue, researchers fed mice a diet consisting of 45% fat. Mice that were also given drinking water containing 2.5% isoleucine while on the hight fat diet not only gained far less weight, but had improved insulin sensitivity and lowered skeletal muscle triglyceride levels.
Now, we already know that protein is important for weight loss through several other mechanisms.
Protein keeps you feeling fuller, longer, so you tend to eat less. It also reduces levels of the appetite-driving hormone ghrelin much longer that fat or carbohydrates do. Adequate protein intake may also help protect from muscle loss such as sarcopenia.
What this study tells us is there is yet ANOTHER way that protein may help us lose weight. And the news is even better for Aminogen fans, because Aminogen was shown in a published clinical study to significantly increase the levels of isoleucine absorbed from protein.
