THE EFFECT OF DIETARY PROTEIN ON SATIETY AND WEIGHT LOSS DURING INTERMITTENT FASTING IN OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE WOMEN

Abstract

Energy restriction, including IER regimens, is one of the most important obesity treatment and weight-control strategies. These regimens provide health benefits associated with weight reduction. With energy restriction regimens, however, noncompliance and hunger- induced fatigue are common issues that may interfere with this diet’s success. According to evidence, dietary protein may impact satiety and therefore mitigate certain noncompliance-related difficulties. Therefore, this dissertation primarily investigated the effect of dietary protein on satiety and body weight, with a secondary focus on health indicators (i.e., lipid profile, HbA1c, and CRP) in overweight and obese women. The data showed that plant-based protein sources increase satiety at a level comparable to that of animal-based protein. Positive results were also observed with the higher protein diet: increased satiety, decreased body weight and waist circumference, and the improvement of other health indicators, including triglycerides and C-reactive protein. Nonetheless, the differences in effect between protein groups (high protein diet versus low protein diet) were not statistically significant, possibly due to the small sample size. We found that the telehealth method was effective in facilitating the research, despite some limitations in conducting dietary interventions using telehealth. Further studies with larger sample sizes are required to clearly demonstrate the effect of dietary protein content on satiety and weight under intermittent fasting conditions and over the long term among overweight and obese women.