Experiment explores effect of dietary protein on weight gain, energy expenditure, and body composition

Source: The Journal of the American Medical Association, January 2012

Researchers at the Pennington Medical Center recently conducted an experiment to explore the effects of overeating on people consuming low protein diets, normal protein diets and high protein diets. They were interested in determining the effects of overeating on weight gain, energy expenditure, and body composition among the three groups.
 
They found that overeating produced significantly less weight gain in the low protein diet group compared with the normal and high protein diet groups. Body fat increased similarly among all three groups. Resting energy expenditure, total energy expenditure, and body protein did not increase during overeating for those eating a low protein diet, but increased significantly for those consuming the normal and high protein diets.