What if I decrease protein levels? What happens to excess protein?

viren19890

Hello,

Just wanted to learn. I'm at 40% protein 35% carbs and 25% fats. I'm a vegetarian no meat/seafood/eggs. So protein sources are not much and the easily available are Whey protein.

So far I've been eating 220g of protein a day. I just learned I'm suppose to eat 1g/per lean body muscle and not (1g per lb of body weight)

So I just punched my info into online calculator and it says my LBM is 163.5 - so what will happen now if I reduce it down to 170g or so ?

Am I to expect muscle loss or something? I am indeed in a deficit. I weigh 208lb now.

Since I'll be increasing carbs - am I to expect little gain in water weight?

What happens to excess protein if body doesn't use it?

Most of my crabs will be from lentils, brown rice, whole grain bread, milk, lots of vegetables.

Will my workouts suffer further? I've already starting seeing the effects of deficit in my training.

P.S- lol crazy thing when I was 230lbs and 28% BF my LBM was 165 and now I'm at 208 at 21.9% BF my LBM is 163.5 lol
so I basically lost very little muscle over the period of 3 months. How inaccurate is that? lol

OyGeeBiv

I'm not at all sure what you're asking, or why you think it's inaccurate that you lost so little muscle. I'm guessing most of your weight loss was fat, which was your goal, right?

viren19890

64crayons wrote: »

I'm not at all sure what you're asking, or why you think it's inaccurate that you lost so little muscle. I'm guessing most of your weight loss was fat, which was your goal, right?

Yes, that was my goal but the scare that I was put into that I could lose muscle if I started losing more than 2 lbs a week and so forth and if I don't lift heavy weights.

I had reduced my lifting down to 2 days a week and 3 days was boxing/HIIT training. So losing just 2 lbs of muscle over such a long time isn't big deal unless it's inaccurate-that was what one of the question was- does that seem accurate?

Other questions are about protein because that's also hammered into my brain that in a deficit protein levels need to be high other wise muscle loss?

cwolfman13

viren19890 wrote: »

64crayons wrote: »

I'm not at all sure what you're asking, or why you think it's inaccurate that you lost so little muscle. I'm guessing most of your weight loss was fat, which was your goal, right?

Yes, that was my goal but the scare that I was put into that I could lose muscle if I started losing more than 2 lbs a week and so forth and if I don't lift heavy weights.

I had reduced my lifting down to 2 days a week and 3 days was boxing/HIIT training. So losing just 2 lbs of muscle over such a long time isn't big deal unless it's inaccurate-that was what one of the question was- does that seem accurate?

Other questions are about protein because that's also hammered into my brain that in a deficit protein levels need to be high other wise muscle loss?

Dude...1 gram per Lb of LBM is still a high protein diet. Doing more than that is pretty much a waste. You do need more protein I a deficit...as in more than the RDA which a lot of people don't understand is a minimum nutritional requirement to avoid becoming ill and it's a fairly paltry number.

BelleCakes2018

Hi - There is an opinion out there that excess protein gets converted to glucose and therefore is stored as fat. Not everyone agrees but it's well worth researching and as such many keto dieters don't have too much protein.. preferring fat as the main nutrient intake.
I would imagine extra carbs would give you some water weight as you lose that quickest when you go low carb.. But it is only water, not fat so I wouldn't worry about it if you enjoy your carbs and feel that's what you need.

rileysowner

Mirabelle1983 wrote: »

Hi - There is an opinion out there that excess protein gets converted to glucose and therefore is stored as fat. Not everyone agrees but it's well worth researching and as such many keto dieters don't have too much protein.. preferring fat as the main nutrient intake.
I would imagine extra carbs would give you some water weight as you lose that quickest when you go low carb.. But it is only water, not fat so I wouldn't worry about it if you enjoy your carbs and feel that's what you need.

Not in an overall calorie deficit. OP, you are getting far to focused on the minutia. People maintain muscle with a whole host of different macro break downs. Lifting heavy helps a lot. Not having a huge deficit unless you are quite obese also helps. Protein levels that are higher also help. You are doing fine. Take a deep breath, keep lifting and don't try to lose more than a pound a week unless you only have 20 pounds or less to lose, then switch to 3/4 of a pound or 1/2 a pound a week and focus on lifting heavy.

cwolfman13

Mirabelle1983 wrote: »

Hi - There is an opinion out there that excess protein gets converted to glucose and therefore is stored as fat. Not everyone agrees but it's well worth researching and as such many keto dieters don't have too much protein.. preferring fat as the main nutrient intake.
I would imagine extra carbs would give you some water weight as you lose that quickest when you go low carb.. But it is only water, not fat so I wouldn't worry about it if you enjoy your carbs and feel that's what you need.

If you're in an energy deficit, you're not storing fat....jebus keto cult.

Wetcoaster

Excess Protein and Fat Storage – Q&A

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/excess-protein-and-fat-storage-qa.html/

So, as noted above, while the pathway exists for protein to be stored as fat, and folks will continue to claim that ‘excess protein just turns to fat’, it’s really just not going to happen under any sort of real-world situation. Certainly we can dream up odd theoretical situations where it might but those won’t apply to 99.9% of real-world situations.




http://www.simplyshredded.com/does-excess-protein-get-stored-as-fat.html

Conclusions

So, while we do biochemically possess the pathways needed to convert amino acids to fatty acids, the chances of that ever happening to a significant degree during slightly higher protein intakes, even in the face of adequate energy and carbohydrates, are irrelevant given what we know about the extreme measures that need to be surpassed in order for any appreciable fat gain from protein to take place. Indeed, overeating by ~1,000kcals/day for 8 weeks in combination with higher protein intakes did not amount to any additional gains in body fat compared to a lower protein, hypercaloric diet. Rather, excess protein in the face of overfeeding actually contributed to gains in lean body mass (be that what it may); quite the contrary to what textbooks and classrooms teach. In reality, the chances that excess protein contributes to body fat stores are insignificant, and arguably physically impossible under normal and/or even slightly hypercaloric conditions that most people/athletes face on a daily basis.

Only until theoretical extremes are achieved, either for protein intake or calories or both, will there be any significant contributions to body fat from excess protein intake.

BelleCakes2018

Like I said - there is an opinion out there.
The information is free to read, so you can make up your own mind about it

viren19890

I have changed my Macros to 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fats. I changed it because I was spending obscene amount on protein powder since protein from food sources came with lots of Carbs and fats which used to throw off my Macros and I thought how will I compensate if I went on a vacation lol? I'd have to take a 5lb Bag of protein with me lol

I just wanted to experiment if the whole bioscience is true or false regarding being able to maintain muscle on less protein.

I'm at 165g protein a day now, down from 199g, 220g is Carbs and rest is fat. Both fat and Carbs went up and protein came down.

I hope all stays well and my weight loss stays consistent.

Wetcoaster

L

Mirabelle1983 wrote: »

Like I said - there is an opinion out there.
The information is free to read, so you can make up your own mind about it

Exactly....which is why I posted some science. Lyle McDonald in particular really knows his stuff. His body recomposition site full of great information.

dopeysmelly

I would just give it a go for a month, and see (a) what happens and (b) how you feel.

This is a marathon, not a sprint, and one month doesn't make much difference either way, although getting such an enormous amount of protein from a supplement rather than from real food might indicate that you have some room to give a bit.

BelleCakes2018

Wetcoaster wrote: »

L

Mirabelle1983 wrote: »

Like I said - there is an opinion out there.
The information is free to read, so you can make up your own mind about it

Exactly....which is why I posted some science. Lyle McDonald in particular really knows his stuff. His body recomposition site full of great information.

That earlier reply wasn't for you, lol. I agree with you - i'm all for researching and learning as much as possible and then making up your own mind about it. I may look at the links you've posted too.. I find it all very interesting if not confusing!!