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How to Calculate How Much Protein You Need for Optimum Weight Loss on a Low Carb Diet
This information is provided for people who have attempted to lose weight on a low carb diet only to stall out after the first couple weeks and find themselves unable to lose further weight.
If this is your situation, you may find success by cutting down your protein. This was first suggested in the book Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution. The method for calculating your protein needs was suggested by Lyle McDonald's wonderfully researched book, The Ketogenic Diet.
Here's what you do:
Determine Calorie Level
First determine the calorie level that would sustain your current weight without gaining. You can use various web calculators to do this. A good one that takes into account age, gender, and height can be found at ExRx.Net
Example: for a 150 lb. sedentary middle aged lady 1850 calories is maintenance.
Because you want to keep from going into metabolic slowdown you need to aim for a calorie level that is close to 500 calories less than maintenance but not less than 80% of maintenance. If you are very heavy you can go to 1000 calories a day less than maintenance as long as this gives you a calorie level that is not less than 80% of maintenance.
Example: 1850 calories times .80 gives us a calorie level of 1480 for our middle aged lady.
Determine Carb Level
You'll have to find your level by trial and error but it should be under 50 gms a day to stay in ketosis.
Example: 30 gms a day is a typical level for the lady in our example.
Determine Protein Level
Protein to Repair your Muscles
Your basic daily requirement for protein can be calculated as .36 times your bodyweight in pounds.
If you are an athlete or vigorously active, you'll need more. Lyle suggests .54/lb - .63 for people in training for endurance sports.
Example: .36 * 150 lbs. gives a daily requirement of 54 gms for muscle repair for the lady in our example.
Protein to Supply the Brain with Carbs
At the start of a low carb diet your brain needs 100 gms of carbs a day to function. It will use protein to make up any carbs not supplied by stored glycogen or diet. After 3 weeks, however, the brain switches over to using ketones and its requirement for carbs drops to somewhere near 40.
Your dietary protein should supply whatever carbs don't come in through diet or else your body will happily cannibalize your own muscles for the extra protein it needs.
This protein is above and beyond the daily requirement used to repair the body.
To calculate how many gms of protein you need to supply your brain you take the amount of carbs your brain needs, which is 100 gm for the first three weeks of the diet and approximately 45 gms thereafter.
From this you subtract your dietary carbs. This leaves the number of grams of carbs that must be supplied by conversion from dietary protein.
Example: The lady in the example needs 45 gms. She's eating 30 gms of dietary carbs. Hence she needs an additional 15 gms of carb to be synthesized by the liver from dietary protein.
Since only 58% of protein converts to carbohydrate you can now calculate the protein needed to supply brain carbs by dividing these additional needed carbs by .58.
Example: 15 grams of carb needed /.58 = 25.9 gms of protein.
Add the repair protein to the carb-source protein to get your minimum protein needed.
Example: The lady in the example needs 54 gms plus 25.9 gms for a total of 79.9 gms.
Add in another ten to twenty grams for a margin of error.
Calculate how many calories come from protein and carb
Multiply the number of grams of protein by 4 to get calorie intake from protein.
Multiply the number of grams of carb by 4 to get calorie intake from carbs.
Add them together.
Example: 90 * 4 = 360 calories from protein. 30 * 4 = 120 calories from carbs. 480 calories total.
Add fat to get to your optimum calorie level
Subtract your carb and protein calories which you calculated above from your total calorie allowance. This gives you how many calories you need to get from fat.
Example: 1480 calories - 480 calories from carbs and protein = 1000 calories needed
Divide these calories by 9 to get how many grams of fat you need to eat.
Example: 1000 calories /9 calories per gram of fat = 111 gms of fat needed
Any protein beyond this amount will turn into one of two things: carbs or, if you are training very hard, muscle. Depending on how sensitive to carbs this additional carb may stall you.
Any fat beyond this amount will be burned for energy instead of dietary fat.
If you are physically active you can raise your level of all nutrients but be honest with yourself about your real activity level. Walking to the fridge does not count as physical activity!
Men and younger women can often raise their nutrients levels and still lose weight too.
Betty
This information is provided for people who have attempted to lose weight on a low carb diet only to stall out after the first couple weeks and find themselves unable to lose further weight.
If this is your situation, you may find success by cutting down your protein. This was first suggested in the book Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution. The method for calculating your protein needs was suggested by Lyle McDonald's wonderfully researched book, The Ketogenic Diet.
Here's what you do:
Determine Calorie Level
First determine the calorie level that would sustain your current weight without gaining. You can use various web calculators to do this. A good one that takes into account age, gender, and height can be found at ExRx.Net
Example: for a 150 lb. sedentary middle aged lady 1850 calories is maintenance.
Because you want to keep from going into metabolic slowdown you need to aim for a calorie level that is close to 500 calories less than maintenance but not less than 80% of maintenance. If you are very heavy you can go to 1000 calories a day less than maintenance as long as this gives you a calorie level that is not less than 80% of maintenance.
Example: 1850 calories times .80 gives us a calorie level of 1480 for our middle aged lady.
Determine Carb Level
You'll have to find your level by trial and error but it should be under 50 gms a day to stay in ketosis.
Example: 30 gms a day is a typical level for the lady in our example.
Determine Protein Level
Protein to Repair your Muscles
Your basic daily requirement for protein can be calculated as .36 times your bodyweight in pounds.
If you are an athlete or vigorously active, you'll need more. Lyle suggests .54/lb - .63 for people in training for endurance sports.
Example: .36 * 150 lbs. gives a daily requirement of 54 gms for muscle repair for the lady in our example.
Protein to Supply the Brain with Carbs
At the start of a low carb diet your brain needs 100 gms of carbs a day to function. It will use protein to make up any carbs not supplied by stored glycogen or diet. After 3 weeks, however, the brain switches over to using ketones and its requirement for carbs drops to somewhere near 40.
Your dietary protein should supply whatever carbs don't come in through diet or else your body will happily cannibalize your own muscles for the extra protein it needs.
This protein is above and beyond the daily requirement used to repair the body.
To calculate how many gms of protein you need to supply your brain you take the amount of carbs your brain needs, which is 100 gm for the first three weeks of the diet and approximately 45 gms thereafter.
From this you subtract your dietary carbs. This leaves the number of grams of carbs that must be supplied by conversion from dietary protein.
Example: The lady in the example needs 45 gms. She's eating 30 gms of dietary carbs. Hence she needs an additional 15 gms of carb to be synthesized by the liver from dietary protein.
Since only 58% of protein converts to carbohydrate you can now calculate the protein needed to supply brain carbs by dividing these additional needed carbs by .58.
Example: 15 grams of carb needed /.58 = 25.9 gms of protein.
Add the repair protein to the carb-source protein to get your minimum protein needed.
Example: The lady in the example needs 54 gms plus 25.9 gms for a total of 79.9 gms.
Add in another ten to twenty grams for a margin of error.
Calculate how many calories come from protein and carb
Multiply the number of grams of protein by 4 to get calorie intake from protein.
Multiply the number of grams of carb by 4 to get calorie intake from carbs.
Add them together.
Example: 90 * 4 = 360 calories from protein. 30 * 4 = 120 calories from carbs. 480 calories total.
Add fat to get to your optimum calorie level
Subtract your carb and protein calories which you calculated above from your total calorie allowance. This gives you how many calories you need to get from fat.
Example: 1480 calories - 480 calories from carbs and protein = 1000 calories needed
Divide these calories by 9 to get how many grams of fat you need to eat.
Example: 1000 calories /9 calories per gram of fat = 111 gms of fat needed
Any protein beyond this amount will turn into one of two things: carbs or, if you are training very hard, muscle. Depending on how sensitive to carbs this additional carb may stall you.
Any fat beyond this amount will be burned for energy instead of dietary fat.
If you are physically active you can raise your level of all nutrients but be honest with yourself about your real activity level. Walking to the fridge does not count as physical activity!
Men and younger women can often raise their nutrients levels and still lose weight too.
Betty
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