How much Protien?

[LadyT]

Hi Guys,

After learning the other week about the 65, 30, 5 ratio of fat to protein and carbs I have done some tweaking to my diet to get my fat levels up and carbs down. Now I've read that excess protien will be converted in the body into glucose Is this correct? How can protien such as beef be converted into glucose if it has zero carbs to begin with? I'm diabetic and therefore don't want any excess glucose circulating in my blood stream and messing with my BGL's. I love eating meat and I would usually eat 250-300gms of meat plus 2 eggs a day. Is this too much? How much protien is too much?

[SunnySmile501]

Your body has to have glucose to operate, especially the brain, so if we don't give it sugar and starch it has to make it from protein. We cannot store excess protein, so when we are all finished building muscle and the other things protein does all day, the rest is turned into glucose and stored as fat. It's a process called gluconeogenesis, a metabolic process whereby sugar is created from non-carbohydrate sources. We can also make glucose from fat, but usually only in the case of starvation.

This is why Atkins is high fat and not high protein. Ketosis is brought on by the ratio of fat to carbohydrates. You can go out of ketosis by eating too much protein.

That said, if you are active, you will still need a lot of protein to keep from losing muscle. Dr. Atkins said to have six ounces of meat at a meal (300 grams is a little over 10 ounces). That's a pretty big serving. Eggs are the most perfect food as to balance between protein and fat. They are one of nature's most perfect foods altogether.

The answer to how much protein is too much is hard to answer. It depends on how much lean body mass you have, how old you are, gender, how much you weigh and how active you are. Since fat has almost twice the calories, it is easy to keep the fat more than the protein. Fat fills you up faster and keeps you full longer, so high fat intake will make eating protein self-limiting.

Incidentally, every night after you stop eating until you eat breakfast in the morning, your body is busy making glucose out of whatever it can find. You have to have some glucose, so it just takes care of business while you sleep. That's why a blood sugar reading is usually high first thing in the morning. That's why you have to have "fasting" glucose readings. It's also why diabetics need to eat often and maybe have a snack before bed.

After you get into the swing of things, your blood sugar will settle down and you will be fine.

[LadyT]

Thanks for that SunnySmile501. The 300gms of meat was over lunch and dinner, ie. 10.5oz a day plus whatever 2 eggs adds up to. So it would lie within the 12oz allowed for the 2 meals wouldn't it?

My BGL's are really good now and I'm due to get my Hb1AC in a few weeks time and am expecting a big difference. It was 12 before starting Atkins. I'm only on Metformin at the moment but was on the verge of insulin so I have to really closely monitor my carb intake. Thus I can say that I have not cheated even one tiny little bit since the 9 weeks of my induction. Which I am fairly impressed with. I have 3 children and a husband who are not following this WOE and I have to fix tempting foods every day for them. But I can honestly say that I've rarely been seriouly tempted. Although the homemade sausage rolls in puff pastry I made the other day did smell soooo good.

I have noticed a very small change in my blood sugar levels over the past 2 weeks but it's still within the target range. It seemed to change when I increased my fat intake to 65%. But as I said they are within normal ranges and I have lost 23lbs so far so I'm happy

[SunnySmile501]

Originally Posted by LadyT

Thanks for that SunnySmile501. The 300gms of meat was over lunch and dinner, ie. 10.5oz a day plus whatever 2 eggs adds up to. So it would lie within the 12oz allowed for the 2 meals wouldn't it?

Yes--I think 300 grams plus eggs and some cheese is still well below the range of too much protein. It is actually 6 ounces minimum recommended, not allowed.

It sounds like you are doing great. Hope you can soon get off all your diabetes medications.