The Claim

In overweight postmenopausal women following weight loss, resting energy expenditure remains suppressed regardless of protein intake, and partial recovery of resting energy expenditure occurs only during a 6-month ad libitum follow-up phase in the normal-protein group.

Source: Impact of Protein Intake during Weight Loss on Preservation of Fat-Free Mass, Resting Energy Expenditure, and Physical Function in Overweight Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

What the research says

Supports is higher

Support is ahead, but a single strong opposing study can change this.

Supports
70score
Challenges
0score

These are independent scores, not a percentage. Higher-grade studies count more, so a single strong opposing study can outweigh several weaker ones.

Description
1 study reviewed
In plain English

After losing weight, overweight postmenopausal women continue to burn fewer calories at rest, no matter how much protein they eat. Only those who consumed a normal amount of protein showed a partial increase in resting calorie burn during a six-month follow-up period.

See the scientific wording

After weight loss, resting energy expenditure remains suppressed in overweight postmenopausal women regardless of protein intake, and only the normal-protein group shows partial recovery during a 6-month ad libitum follow-up phase.

Why this might work

After weight loss, the body has less muscle and tissue to maintain, so it burns fewer calories at rest. When calories are tightly controlled, the body stays in a low-energy state and does not increase calorie burning. Only when calories are freely available again does the body slowly start burning more calories at rest, but only if protein intake was not unusually high during weight loss.

Supported mechanismbased on 1 study

What the research says

1 study

  1. Study: Impact of Protein Intake during Weight Loss on Preservation of Fat-Free Mass, Resting Energy Expenditure, and Physical Function in Overweight Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

    After losing weight, both groups burned fewer calories at rest, as expected. But only the group that ate the usual amount of protein started burning a bit more again after going back to normal eating — the high-protein group didn’t. So the study supports the idea that protein amount doesn’t prevent this slowdown, and only normal protein intake helped a little bit.

Score breakdown, mechanism chain, raw evidence, ideal studies needed & 1 supporting studies

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