Research
Energy balance
During caloric overfeeding, dietary protein intake (5-25% of energy) does not significantly affect the amount of body fat gained; fat gain is determined by caloric surplus alone.
If you are eating in a caloric surplus, your body will store the excess energy as fat regardless of how much protein you eat. High protein diets do not prevent fat gain during overfeeding; they only change how much of the total weight gain is fat versus muscle and how much energy is burned.
StrongRefutesVERY_HIGH confidence
Body fat increased similarly in all 3 protein diet groups and represented 50% to more than 90% of the excess stored calories... calories alone account for the increase in fat
Why this rating
RCT with DEXA scans and doubly labeled water.
Source
Effect of Dietary Protein Content on Weight Gain, Energy Expenditure, and Body Composition During Overeating
George A. Bray et al. · JAMA · 2012
DOI 10.1001/jama.2011.1918
rct · n=25Cited 280×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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