Keto: how much protein is too much?

haileighdevries1
haileighdevries1 Posts: 8 Member
in Food and Nutrition
How much protein is too much protein? It can be converted into glycogen, I believe, which affects keto sis. I usually eat one like meat side a day excluding eggs. So if I have chicken in my lunch there won't be tuna for dinner, yanno? But if I'm staying below 30 net carbs a day--- how much protein is too much?

Replies

  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    edited November 2015
    As far as I know, and I could be wrong, too much protein would be a LOT of protein; probably 50% macro or higher. There aren't any benefits that I know of for eating excess protein. It will get turned into glucose or fat where as eating a large macro of fat will just result in fat oxidation; that seems like the better option to me.

    Generally speaking, most people in ketosis eat very low carb 50-10%, moderate protein of 15-30%, and lots of fat 50+%.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    haileighdevries1 wrote: »
    How much protein is too much protein? It can be converted into glycogen, I believe, which affects keto sis. I usually eat one like meat side a day excluding eggs. So if I have chicken in my lunch there won't be tuna for dinner, yanno? But if I'm staying below 30 net carbs a day--- how much protein is too much?

    I think it depends on you as an individual, your carb intake and the energy deficit.

    Neither chicken nor tuna are great ketogenic foods - more like low fat staples.

    http://www.ketotic.org/2014/01/how-much-protein-is-enough.html presents various evidence. Or see Phinney's graph for the WFKD triangle etc in https://optimisingnutrition.wordpress.com/2015/06/26/what-is-a-well-formulated-ketogenic-diet/
  • sincityjuice
    sincityjuice Posts: 2 Member
    I have found that the only way to tell how it's affects you would be to get a glucose meter test for a couple days to see a patterning fasted glucose and after meals then after just experiment your levels if you find it higher on more protein then you lower it until you get glucose at a lower number. I had to do this and brought down my protein from 80 to60 g
  • Pollywog_la
    Pollywog_la Posts: 103 Member
    sincityjuice wrote: »
    I have found that the only way to tell how it's affects you would be to get a glucose meter test for a couple days to see a patterning fasted glucose and after meals then after just experiment your levels if you find it higher on more protein then you lower it until you get glucose at a lower number. I had to do this and brought down my protein from 80 to60 g

    This.
    I didn't think I was having too much protein with 70% calories from fat, under 25g carbs and the rest protein.
    But when I upped the fat to 80%, and reduced protein, my fasting BG went from upper 80s-upper 90s to 70s and mid 80s after maybe 2 weeks.
    Again, I may be more carb sensitive than you or more insulin resistant (my numbers are great, but from eating a low carb diet...otherwise they would go up again), but I saw benefit from lowering protein which might be converted to glycogen. My morning BG numbers also went from mid 90s, to 70s and low 80s.
    You won't know how it affects you without a BG meter (which can be cheap-free...it is the test strips that are pricey) but you can see if it makes a difference for you.

    I am not a fan of walmart, but they sell their own meter and cheap test strips.
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
    More than 1 gram per pound of LEAN body mass.

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