Your body and brain run on glucose, which is what most carbohydrates break down to. Most of us stress our metabolic systems out by building our meals around the easily accessible energy in carbohydrates. But that’s because we’ve been told to by governments and big food companies.

But when you switch to protein your body has to work harder to get energy from that food. This helps your body take in energy at a rate it can handle better and means you're less likely to store it as fat.

You can make glucose from protein

Your body uses glucose as a fuel, but it's easy to eat too much because the most convenient foods are full of it.

Carbohydrates - sugar and starch - start breaking down to glucose molecules in your mouth. The breakdown of protein happens much later in your gut.

Protein also fuels the fat burning process

Losing weight means burning fat stored on your body.

Your body uses protein to fuel the process of freeing up body fat and using it for energy.

Traditional advice about protein puts you on the blood glucose rollercoaster

Protein and fat provide energy and building blocks for your cells while carbohydrates just provide energy.

The traditional 'eat well' advice tells us to fill our plates with a third of each macronutrient - carbs, fat and protein.

But most people don't eat enough protein and far too much carbohydrate. This causes constant blood sugar spikes and high insulin levels. It also knocks all the hormones involved in metabolism out of whack.

The result - constant spikes and crashes in your energy levels that lead to cravings, false hunger and taking in too much energy.

Basing your meal around protein and replacing some of the carbohydrates on your plate with extra protein can start a rapid shift in your metabolism.