As many of us know, protein is an important component in our muscle building and repairing process. It rebuilds the damaged tissues and keeps you healthy. Thus, an average person has to consume about 0.5 grams of protein for every pound of their body weight on a daily basis.

  This is required to keep ours muscles fit and fine during the day today activities. Now one might wonder what connection between protein and dieting is. When you reduce the amount of calories that you consume, your body also loses mass.

  This means that muscles are reducing in size, but your aim of dieting is to lose fat. Thus, to keep your body fit while you are on your way to becoming lean, you need to consume almost double the amount of protein than you would normally do. That is about 1gram per pound of body weight.

  Protein proves to be very helpful in maintaining you diet plans because foods containing protein are healthy, contain fewer calories and make your tummy feel satisfied. They are not at all a burden on your digestive system and in fact burn away more calories than other food items. Isn’t that great news that you get to eat well and maintain strong muscles and at the same time get to shed good amount of weight.

  There is a huge variety of food filled with protein for you to choose form while you are dieting. Try some delicious fish like tuna, cod, halibut, shrimp, flounder and bass. These are low in calories but high in protein as compared to fatty fish like salmon. In the meat category you can try turkey, lean beef, chicken breast, egg white, bison, ostrich, which contain less cholesterol but are packed with protein. You can always add some low fat milk, yogurt or cottage cheese to your daily diet.

  One has to choose food items very consciously while they are shopping. If you want to gain weight then; any meat or fish or daily products which is high in both fat and calories, will do for you. But for those on diet, you need to spend some more time to look for the right things. But then to stay strong and yet to look slim and attractive, you have to take a little trouble.