Improve Metabolism At Any Age
The answer to giving the body a metabolic advantage may be Almased
A breakthrough 2020 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Oliveira, 2020) provides evidence that Almased can help people lose more weight and burn more calories than with regular diets.
Researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada investigated how a high-protein low-glycemic diet could ramp up metabolism. They carried out a randomized controlled study in a group of healthy, normal-weight adults.
The researchers assigned the study participants to one of two groups. They gave one group Almased in place of meals and gave the other group a standard North American diet.
The Almased group experienced:
- higher 24-hour energy expenditure (thermogenesis is increased, so absorption of nutrients is increased);
- higher fat oxidation rate (body is burning body fat instead of carbs as fuel, moving more fatty acids out of storage and into mitochondria to be used for energy, promoting fat loss);
- decreased energy balance (body’s natural resistance to weight loss is lowered and the ability to stay more satisfied is enhanced); and
- decreased carbohydrate balance (use of carbs is improved and tendency to gain fat is decreased).
The researchers note that this study offers further proof that “a calorie is not just a calorie,” meaning that a high-protein low-glycemic diet, one with the same number of calories as a regular diet, can provide better benefits for energy metabolism, fat burning, weight loss and more.
This new research confirms the results of a 2018 study (Oliveira, 2018), which showed that Almased can help the body lose weight and burn more fat with less effort.
In fact, researchers concluded that Almased provides a “metabolic advantage” compared to a conventional diet.
Sources:
Oliveira CLP, Boulé NG, Sharma AM, Elliott SA, Siervo M, Ghosh S, Berg A, Prado CM. A high-protein total diet replacement increases energy expenditure and leads to negative fat balance in healthy, normal-weight adults. American Journal Clinical Nutrition. 2021;113(2):476–487. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqaa283. Erratum in: Am J Clin Nutr. 2021, February 2;113(2):488–489. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33247306/
Oliveira CLP, et al. The impact of a high-protein diet on energy expenditure and substrate oxidation: preliminary findings of a randomized, controlled, cross-over trial. Presented at the 25th European Congress on Obesity, Vienna, Austria, May 23-26, 2018.
Reduces Waist Circumference
In 2007, researchers published a 12-month single-arm study in pre and post-menopausal women (Deibert, 2007). In the first 6 weeks, participants replaced two meals daily with Almased, followed by replacement of one meal per day for the next 4.5 months. After this period, subjects were free to use Almased, as desired, for the rest of the study.
Both groups reduced waist circumference and lost weight, approximately 14.7 pounds in each group, most of which was attributed to the loss of fat mass. In addition, in the post-menopausal women the weight loss attributed to loss of muscle was very small, in fact less than 3%.
In terms of metabolic health, in general, it is worth noting that, after participating in the intervention, the percentage of post-menopausal women with metabolic syndrome was reduced from 42% to 16%.
The significant reduction in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in post-menopausal women demonstrates that, despite a relatively smaller reduction in waist circumference and fat mass, the benefit of these changes is considerably greater in post-menopausal women with respect to the reduction in metabolic risk factors.
In a randomized, controlled clinical trial in overweight and obese subjects, participants received either a low-fat diet for all meals or a high-protein Almased for two out of their three daily meals for six weeks (König, 2008).
The participants in the Almased group lost significantly more weight than did those in the low-fat diet—14 versus 6.8 pounds. The Almased group also lost significantly more fat mass than did the low-fat group, 11.2 versus 6.1 pounds.
In addition, those on the Almased diet experienced a very significant reduction in waist circumference than did those on the low-fat diet (6.1 versus 0.7 inches) and a larger decrease in triglycerides (-19.6 mg/dL versus a 12.5 mg/dL increase in those on the low-fat diet).
Sources:
Deibert P, König D, Vitolins MZ, Landmann U, Frey I, Zahradnik HP, Berg A. Effect of a weight loss intervention on anthropometric measures and metabolic risk factors in pre- versus postmenopausal women. Nutrition Journal. 2007; 6(1):31. https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-6-31
König D, Deibert P, Frey I, Landmann U, Berg A. Effect of meal replacement on metabolic risk factors in overweight and obese subjects. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism. 2008, March 4; 52:74–78. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18319587/
Improves Energy Metabolism
A 2012 study looked at the effects of a single serving of Almased compared to a standard breakfast in overweight and obese men with metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance (König, 2012).
in obese insulin-resistant subjects, fat oxidation was significantly higher after the intake of an Almased meal-replacement for breakfast compared with a standard high-GI breakfast with low protein content.
Almased was associated with lower glycemia and insulinemia and relatively higher fat oxidation in the postprandial period.
In addition, the authors found that ghrelin concentrations were significantly lower 2 hours after the Almased breakfast compared with a standard breakfast.
The significantly greater decrease in ghrelin levels, and a trend toward higher concentrations of protein YY, in the postprandial period likely contributed to the greater and longer-lasting satiety found after the intake of Almased.
The authors noted that this could further explain the success of Almased for weight reduction and improvement of metabolic risk factors.
A study by Berg (2012) in healthy students found that supplementation with Almased promotes aerobic energy supply during moderate endurance training. The authors wrote: “It can be assumed that the supplement significantly influences the supply of fat as a source of energy during exercise.”
The authors found enhanced mitochondrial metabolism of muscle cells and improved use of fatty acids for energy metabolism following supplementation with Almased.
Sources:
König D, Muser K, Berg A, Deibert P. Fuel selection and appetite-regulating hormones after intake of a soy protein-based meal replacement. Nutrition. 2012, January; 28(1):35–39. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21778035/
Berg A, Schaffner D, Pohlmann Y, Baumstark MW, Deibert P, König D, Gollhofer A. A soy-based supplement alters energy metabolism but not the exercise-induced stress response. Exercise Immunology Review. 2012; 18:128–141. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22876725/