I have to take back what I originally said after rereading the original post that started this whole thing. The TA approach probably
did set you back. For some reason, I didn't realize that you were dieting down, not adding mass. If you were trying to add mass without gear, I don't think protein intake above 100g or so would make a difference. But if you are trying to reduce fat and maintain lean mass, then an increased protien-to-other-macros ratio does make a difference. The research does back this up and this effect is pretty robust (meaning it has been replicated often).
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/135/8/1903 (free full text article)
"This study demonstrated that a diet with higher protein and reduced carbohydrates combined with exercise additively improved body composition during weight loss, whereas the effects on blood lipids differed between diet treatments." The effect of the increased protein was not significantly (p<0.05)different from the other diet, but the p-value was 0.10, meaning that the odds of finding at least that reduction in body fat with the maintenance of lean muscle due to chance only would be 10%. The confidence interval shows that the increase in protein most likely decreases fat moreso than the more carb diet.
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/135/5/1196 (free full text article)
In a nutshell, higher protein diets were correlated with decreased fat on abs.
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/3/1/9 (free full text article)
You may notice that this last article does support the idea that "a calorie is not a calorie." IMO, a calorie is a calorie might be an ok idea for when you are not trying to decrease overall mass, but I wouldn't reccomend it wen dieting down.