Protein & Weight Loss

Below is an excerpt from Part Two of

The 2004 Multi-Diet

by Anderson A. Anonymous, M.D., Ph.D.

Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Protein?

Is there such a thing as too much protein? The short answer is: “Only if you’re too fat!”  (But of course you’re reading this book because you are too fat. )

Under normal conditions your body is capable of handling very high intakes of protein without any detrimental effect on health.  In fact, the main limit on the safe intake of protein seems to be the body’s ability to excrete urea and the other end products of protein metabolism. This depends mainly on how well your kidneys function and how much water you drink.

But for Multi-Dieters, eating any more than the protein amounts you calculated for yourself in Table 14: Your Protein Requirement is probably pushing the limit—simply because when your body doesn’t need it, excess protein slows down your fat loss.

On the other hand, too much is better than too little  (as long as it’s only a little too much ).  For example, the difference between eating 80 grams of protein a day and eating 100 grams of protein a day (20 grams) is only 80 extra Calories. That’s not much—even if none of it is needed for tissue repair and all of it gets used as energy.

So a reasonable rule-of-thumb is: When in doubt, opt for slightly more. This is better than inadvertently going too low and finding you have to deal with a wide-awake Beast trying to make you eat a lot of fattening junk.  (But that phrase was “slightly more”—don’t put yourself on the Liar’s Diet. )

Other Protein Issues: Exercise

Many people believe that exercise or physical work increases the need for protein. This is probably not true. There is very little scientific evidence that muscular activity increases the need for protein, except by the amount required to initially build the muscle. Once you’ve got the muscle, simply using it does not increase its need for protein by much (if any) over the amount it would require in the resting state.

However, vigorous activity that causes profuse sweating, such as in heavy work and sports, does increase protein loss—but interestingly, this is from the skin,  (not the muscles). Calculations indicate that this skin loss can be quite substantial.  (This is not something that the average overweight couch potato (like me) needs to be concerned with. I mention it only for the tiny minority of overweight but very active people. )

Other Protein  Issues: Disease

Reviews of the scientific literature also fail to demonstrate any links between high intakes of protein and any chronic or degenerative disease. This includes a large number of scientific efforts to find a link between protein and coronary heart disease, cancer, or osteoporosis.

Other Protein Issues: Injury

Injury and trauma (e.g. fever, fracture, burns, and surgery) usually cause a serious loss of protein that definitely must be replaced. The amount needed is probably similar to the amount needed by a rapidly growing child. Parenteral nutrition specialists  (that’s par-en-ter-al nutrition—meaning intravenous)  have found that the protein needs of patients under “mild” or “moderate” stress are 1.2–1.5 grams per kilogram body weight per day and that “extreme” stress may increase this rate to as much as 2.5 grams per kilogram per day.  (Of course, when this kind of medical specialist says “extreme stress” they are talking about something a great deal more serious than “a bad-hair day”.