The importance of eating enough protein for weight loss is what I will discuss in this post.

This was the missing piece of the puzzle to finally break through my weight stall. At least that is my current hypothesis. What you see in this chart is the orange bars representing my protein intake during 2021 and the blue line representing my weight. Ever since I increased my protein, I have gotten more energy and my weight has dropped. From my perspective this is a sign that I have a lifestyle that requires more protein. Protein also requires more energy for the body to metabolize compared to fats and carbs. This means that you spend more calories when eating a moderate intake of protein. Now that I am giving my body what it needs it also feels comfortable to drop the fat weight. Also it gets the building blocks needed to build more muscle mass. Muscles also increases the resting metabolic rate. This means that I am also burning more calories even when I am resting. To read more about the benefits of muscles you can go hit..

So what is enough protein?

Well for me things started to go the right way when I increased my protein to 30% of my total calories. I aim to eat somewhere between 1500 – 1800 calories per day on my eating days. This for me means that I eat somewhere between 110 – 130 grams of protein roughly per day. During my fasting days my total calories is somewhere between 700 – 1000 calories and I still aim to get 30% of protein during these days. in grams this will be roughly 50 – 70 grams of protein per day.

The importance of n=1

What is important to mention I feel is that this is what currently seems to work for me to lose fat mass and gain muscle mass. And as long as this seems to work in favor, I will continue this lifestyle. But I am always humble to what life can throw at me. If this suddenly is not working for me anymore then I will make changes.

Balancing methionine and glycine

I also want to quickly bring up the importance of balancing methionine and glycine. Methionine is what you find in muscle meat and studies have found that too much of this amino acid will reduce longevity. Glycine is located in tendons and such, most of do not eat nose to tail hence you get too much methionine. But making sure you also get glycine in your diet, it will counteract the negative effects of too much methionine. Glycine you find in collagen for example or you can buy glycine as a supplement.

So, by having a fasting lifestyle and paying attention to the methionine and glycine ratio I believe that eating a moderate intake of protein is highly beneficial!

AMPK vs MTOR

Another factor to consider when it comes to protein is that spiking insulin and MTOR too often is also not good for longevity. You can counteract this by also having a fasting lifestyle. When you fast the antagonist to MTOR called AMPK is allowed to raise. When AMPK raises it gives a signal to the body to induce autophagy. So, by implementing a fasting lifestyle you activate AMPK and autophagy which is great for longevity. This counteracts eating sufficient protein to build muscles as your eating window is short hence insulin and MTOR is not spiked many times during the day.

Do not be discouraged if you fail

I also want to say that you should not be discouraged if you attempt something and then fail. Just look at it as you have found a way that does not seem to work for you at this time in your life. You probably learned something in the process and that means a lot as well.

Let me share my story

I will share a story from my life with you. Back in 2019 I tried the keto diet and also added fasting. And for four months it worked like a charm. I lost fat mass and gained muscle mass. Then suddenly I lost my period. I did not know what had happened. I even took a pregnancy test but that was negative. For nine months I did not have a cycle.

Female hormones vs keto

I finally got knowledge around our female hormones and that the keto diet, fasting and training put too much stress on me. The effect from this is that I lost my progesterone hence also my cycle. What you need to remember is that restricting carbs to a great extent as keto states, is in a sense starvation. We can survive on a super low carb diet. But as women our bodies will find this way of eating too stressful in the long run, especially if you also fast and train hard. The adrenal glands will produce more and more cortisol and reduce progesterone. Our bodies are complex but also highly intelligent. If we are subjected to high stress, then reproduction is logically not prioritized. I also think that men will experience negative symptoms as we as humans are not built to constantly be in ketosis. We are meant to be metabolically flexible and being able to switch between burning fat and burning sugar as an energy source.

Increased my carbs

Once I started to add a higher amount of carbs back in my life again, my period came back, and I became balanced in my hormones again. I am truly thankful for this and have now learned to adapt my lifestyle (adjusting my training and macros) according to my cycle.