Gelatine and milk protein for keeping weight off long term
What it found
Adding gelatine to a high-protein milk diet did not help people keep weight off any better than milk protein alone over four months.
All three diets worked about the same in people who had just lost weight.
What they found
Studies in people
Weight stayed off
All three groups kept their weight down over the four months. Adding gelatine did not lead to more weight loss or better weight control than using only milk protein.
Body fat and muscle
Fat mass dropped and muscle mass stayed steady in all groups during the first two months. These body changes held up through the rest of the study, with no extra benefit from gelatine.
Hunger and appetite
Feelings of fullness, hunger, and desire to eat stayed about the same across all groups. The short-term hunger-reducing effect seen with gelatine before did not show up here once it was paired with complete milk protein.
Blood fats and sugar
Fasting blood sugar dropped slightly in the gelatine group but not in the others. Good cholesterol rose a little in the gelatine group, while bad cholesterol rose in all three groups. Overall, the changes between groups were similar.
What the authors conclude
- They conclude that adding gelatine to a high-protein milk diet did not improve weight maintenance over four months compared with milk protein alone.
- They note that the short-term hunger benefits of gelatine disappeared when it was combined with a complete protein source for long-term use.
- The authors say a standard milk protein diet is enough to maintain weight after weight loss.
How it was done
Earlier short tests showed gelatine reduced hunger more than other proteins. The authors wanted to see if that benefit lasted over several months after weight loss, when gelatine was mixed with milk protein to make up for missing nutrients.
Sixty-five healthy adults first followed an eight-week weight loss plan. They were then randomly split into three groups for a four-month weight maintenance period. One group ate a normal amount of milk protein, one ate double milk protein, and one ate double protein made of half gelatine and half milk protein.
What it can’t tell you
- This trial lasted four months, so it cannot show what happens over years of eating gelatine.
- Because gelatine had to be mixed with milk protein to provide all essential nutrients, we cannot tell if gelatine eaten entirely on its own would have different long-term effects.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Maastricht University Medical Centre+, The Netherlands
The paper
- Title
- No long-term weight maintenance effects of gelatin in a supra-sustained protein diet
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Hochstenbach-Waelen A, Westerterp KR, Soenen S, Westerterp-Plantenga MS (2010). No long-term weight maintenance effects of gelatin in a supra-sustained protein diet. Physiology & behavior. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2010.05.005Free full textPubMed 20457173DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error