Panner and chicken, both are high-quality sources of protein and are filled with nutrients like potassium, magnesium, and calcium and help in regulating and lowering high blood pressure. On the other hand, chicken has several health benefits. So what should you include in your diet: paneer or chicken? But before that, let’s find out what you should keep in mind while reducing weight!
Protein is the key player
While working on your goal to reduce weight, keep in mind that protein plays an important part. It helps in:
- Keeping you full: Protein rich foods help you in keeping you feeling satisfied and reduce the chances of feeling hungry. Protein helps in increasing satiety hormones, like glucagon-like peptide- 1 (GLP-1) and cholecystokinin (CCK), and leads to reduction in the hunger hormone ghrelin.
- Burning more calories: When you consume, your body burns calories while digesting and metabolising protein. As per studies, about 20-30% of protein calories are burned during protein digestion.
- Increase in metabolism: High-protein diet aids in increased metabolism as the proteins have higher thermic effect.
- Preventing weight regain: More than losing weight, it's difficult to maintain that weight. A study found that a rise in protein intake from 15% to 18% of daily calories reduced weight regain after
weight loss by 50%.
The real question: Paneer or chicken?
As both are high sources of protein, it's important to know how much protein is there in paneer and chicken. 100 grams of paneer will give you 18 grams of protein whereas 100 grams of chicken will give you 27 grams of protein.
Also, consuming 100 grams of paneer can give you 22 grams of fat while 70 grams of chicken contains 3 grams of fat. Another interesting thing to note down here is that 60% of fat in paneer is saturated, which can pave the way for heart ailments and stroke by increasing the levels of bad (LDL) cholesterol. Paneer and chicken, both have negligible carbohydrates. Coming to calories, 100 grams of paneer can have 265 to 320 calories, while 100 grams of chicken will have 165 calories.
So, what do we eat?
The debate on whether paneer is better or chicken is never ending! It more or less depends on your eating preferences. If you want to consume less calories, then go for chicken. You should also weigh in other things like the amount of saturated fat and protein that you will be consuming. Digestion also plays an important role! While it is easy to digest paneer, digesting chicken can take some time. Also, if you are a vegetarian, then paneer can be a good option if you are trying to reduce weight.
