Please Eat Less Protein

The ExFatloss Macro calculator now has a protein setting

Last week I released the ExFatloss TEE & Macros calculator.

Now it knows about protein. You can set your protein level from all the way down at 0.2g/lb of bw (dangerous!) through “protein restricted” (where ex150 and the Emergence Diet live) and “RDA” all the way up to “Insane gym-bro level” at 1g/lb bw.

It’ll then calculate & show you how much protein that is in total gram amounts, as well as percentage of your calculated TEE.

Per Optimal Bodyweight

Since fat mass doesn’t actually require almost any protein, there’s always a huge debate about “ok, but gram per WHAT body weight?” when it comes to protein. If we take somebody like me, formerly 300lbs with probably 50%+ body fat at the time, would I have needed double the protein that a lean me would? Of course not. It would just go off the lean body mass.

The problem is that almost none of the studies on protein requirements are done on lean body mass, because it’s so tricky to measure. In fact, I’d argue there is no useful, congruent, and precise way to measure it.

I’ve previously gained 4.4lbs of “lean mass” in 24h by DEXA. Of course it’s just water & muscle glycogen. But you can’t discern that. The DLW method would actually be interesting, because it can give you a ratio of metabolic throughput that can discern lean vs. fat mass. Interestingly, DLW gave me a lean body weight of 154lbs, whereas DEXA usually gives me 145-150lbs.

This could be because DLW is, in a sense, “immune” to water weight/glycogen swings, and I’m constantly water/glycogen deprived on such a high-fat (90% fat) diet. Were I to carb/protein/glycogen up for a week, I’d probably be running around at 154lbs lean body weight.

Long Story Long: lean body mass x 1.2

Long story short: I just used “lean body mass x 1.2” for the weight calculation. Most of the studies are done in fit, athletic, healthy, young people. A factor of 1.2 means we’re assuming around 17% body fat (1 - 1 / 1.2). That’s a decent and healthy amount for most people, and we can use it for both obese people as well as lean people, because it stays the same irrespective of fat mass.

Your body fat isn’t exactly 17%? Neither is mine. But it’s close enough to most people’s “optimum weight” as to rule out extreme errors, like being 300lbs and half fat like I used to be, or being 4% body fat like a bodybuilder in contest prep.

Numbers Don’t Lie, Protein Bros Do

My main goal with the protein calculation is actually to showcase how incongruent many of the pro-protein people are. People claim that everyone should eat a high-protein diet, and then they claim high-protein means 40% of total intake.

But even if you crank your metabolic adjustment all the way down, meaning your metabolism is one of the lowest ever recorded for your LBM, and you crank your protein to “insane bodybuilder-bro level, definitely more than has been shown to have any benefit in anyone” you only get to 32% protein of TEE:

People vastly overestimate their protein needs

If just use the standard configuration:

1. Let’s assume that your metabolic rate is about average for your lean mass.

2. Let’s use the RDA for protein requirements. This means you’re within a double 95% confidence interval of the average person’s protein needs.

You only need about 8% (!) kcals from protein. That’s a measly 67g/day for me, a 6’1 adult male with above-average lean mass.

Talking to any gym bro, they will scream SARCOPENIA! and demand you shovel down 200g to even get to “moderate protein.”

But that’s insane. Those people never ACTUALLY do the math, and if you do it for them, they just ignore you or get upset. Trust me, I’ve tried it.

Somehow, in their minds, anything <100g of protein is dangerous, <150g is low-protein, up to 250g is “moderate” and they want you to eat more than even that.

Yet as we can see with the calculator, even a super active man with enormous amounts of muscle (200lbs lean mass! that’s crazy even by bodybuilder standards!) doesn’t need 200g of protein per day, or 15%:

The response might be: Oh, but I like protein, and there’s no downside! Well maybe there’s no downside in you, but there clearly is one in many people.

And the science clearly shows that there is no objective UPSIDE to more than 0.82g/lb of bw protein. So please stop yelling at people that they need to EAT MOAR BROTEIN when it’s simply not supported by any science. Most people are absolutely fine at 10% protein, even if very active and exercising a lot.

Linkable

As always, you can just copy & paste the URL and it’ll give the recipient an exact graph of what you put in. That way, when somebody tells you that eating 15% protein is “scary low” and will “definitely cause sarcopenia” you can just drop a link to the calculator and hopefully fact-check them right then & there.

Try it out here:

https://macros.exfatloss.com/?unit=lbs&protein=0.82&met=1.35&ffm=200