Necessary Protein Intake
So you want to lose weight or add muscle. Doesn't everyone. One crucial aspect in determining whether you'll have success in this venture is your protein intake. A high protein diet leads to a positive nitrogen state, which potentiates muscle growth. For your average lifter, in between 1 to 1.2 times your bodyweight in protein should be adequate for growth. Advanced lifters may require more but at least 1 times your bodyweight is necessary.
All food requires metabolic processing. When consuming protein, however, metabolic increases have been shown to double when compared to the other to the other two macro-nutrients, carbohydrates and fats. Thus, a high protein diet is shown to be thermogenic, which leads to increased calorie burning and subsequently, fat loss.
A high protein diet has also been shown to increase the release of the hormone glucagon, a hormone which helps prevent fat storage.
It's a good idea to mix your protein sources, obviously some coming from beef, fish, chicken and protein powder. This may require a big change in one's diet, however a high quality protein powder can make hitting your daily protein requirement substantially easier.