About the Clarke High Protein Diet

Charles Clark is a professor in the United Kingdom who has long professed the benefits of a carb-restricted, high-protein diet. While certainly no dieting approach is perfect, a high protein, low carb diet does seem to offer some dramatic advantages over other diet methods, including increased satiety and additional calories burned through the process of thermogenesis. If you are considering embarking on a high protein diet, you could do much worse than Clark's plan.

Why High Protein?

• High protein diets are becoming increasingly popular due to research demonstrating their superiority when it comes to overall levels of satiety, or fullness. A study conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health demonstrated that high protein diets have statistically significant increases in reported satiety levels when compared to low or moderate protein consumption. Thus, a high protein diet can help you avoid cravings due to stomach rumblings brought on by other types of diets.

Clark High Protein Diet

• Dr. Clark's diet is called "The New High Protein Diet," as it attempts to redefine and improve upon the Atkins model. While the diet is low-carb, it is not nearly as carb restrictive as the Atkins approach, allowing for the consumption of Atkins-forbidden carbs like non-green vegetables and some dairy. Thus, the diet is more accessible to individuals trying to lose weight within the confines of the typical modern diet.

Following the Clark High Protein Diet

• The diet is divided into two phases--weight loss and maintenance. During the weight loss phase, you are restricted to no more than 60 g of carbs per day, with the recommended carb sources including fruits, vegetables and dairy, while restricting intake of refined (white flour) carbs like normal pastas, breads, rice, cakes and the like. Keep your protein sources to items low in saturated fats like fish, chicken, turkey and low-fat cuts of beef. Once you reach your target weight, slowly increase your daily carb level until you find the ideal point where you are neither gaining nor losing weight--maintain this level indefinitely.

Benefits

• The primary benefit of following the Clark High Protein Diet is weight loss. Individuals have reported losing several stone (one stone is equivalent to 14 pounds) after only several months on the plan. Other benefits of consuming a high protein diet include retention of a higher percentage of your lean mass (muscle) while losing weight and an overall increase in thermogenesis, which refers to the number of calories burned through daily processes.

Considerations

• Dr. Clark emphasizes that his diet is not meant to be a overly-restrictive affair. Instead, he suggests that you view dieting as an opportunity to forgo old, useless habits and adopt a new and healthier approach to eating. Thus, the Clark High Protein Diet is meant to become a way of life, as opposed to a transitory fat loss plan that can be thrown away after meeting your goal weight. By adopting Dr. Clark's principles as habit, you can ensure that you never need to follow a regimented diet again.