I'm worried I'm eating too much protein. I should be having about 75g a day and I eat about twice that! This is NOT hard to do...

I mean if I kept protein to the necessary (for my weight) 75 grams, that would only be 300 calories daily! 75x4cals per gm

Then keep my carbs to about 40g, my CCL, that would only be 160 more calories = only 460 calories for the whole day! 40x4cals per gm

Am I supposed to eat over 1000 calories 100g of fat every day to get my calories up? I want to eat more FOOD, not more fat!
My body can't handle all that fat believe me/no gallbladder - so I keep my fat reasonable and barely crack 1000cals daily -

I know atkins is not a calorie counting diet - but I have to limit fat - so I seem to overdose on protein because I am trying to limit my carbs. Is anyone understanding this - or in the same position?

Do people really just eat hundreds of protein gms a day with no ill effect because they want to keep both their fat reasonable and normal and their carbs LOW? Am I alone?

Ivillage suggests I have this in my diet (no way all those carbs!)
Daily Caloric Requirement 2018.65 cals/day Optimize calories
Daily Calcium Requirement 1000 mg Calcium sources
Daily Carbohydrate Requirement 302.80 g/day Healthy carbs
Daily Protein Requirement 40.50 g/day
Daily Iron Requirement 15.00 mgs/day

I'm not eating enough calories (because I'm cutting carbs and watching fat)...I'm NOT going to eat 300 gms of carbs a day no way! I'm exceeding my protein by 3x required here...I'm sure I get enough iron and I take a calcium supplement -


Suggestions?

How do you determine you only need 75 grams of protein?

I can usally tell by weight and body fat, but you haven't listed either, it says "I am"

Make sure the formula you use and you calculation are not for minimal protein requirement, but for optimal protein requirement.

Wa'il

http://www.multi-diet.com/tmd/12/12protein03.htm
and
http://www.calculator.com/

I am now using these to calculate how much protein I need a day. One moment please.

ideal body weight 130 pounds divided by 2.2 = 59 x 1.5 = 88.6 grams of protein. It says this is my DAILY requirement. I assume anything over this is too much.

I've read conflicting things about too much protein...hard on liver and kidneys and many other (even atkins) research that says the opposite. All I know is that at the end of the day I do feel very dehydrated despite all the water I am drinking...and (excuse me) my urine is very bubbly and I hear this is due to excess protein being excreted...but is that good and not bad?

I mean maybe I am excreting protein instead of "storing" excess as I also read excess protein can up your insulin levels and create fat in your body.

What should I eat late at night for a snack when all my protein and carb and gosh, even fat requirements have been already met for the day? More fat? That doesn't seem right. Not carbs...

I'm confused and I'm not a newbie!

Are you following the Multi-Diet plan? I don't know much about that plan, but I can imagibe their protein calculator is using their own formula.

Their plan sound a bit misguided, simply because protein requirements should relate to current Lean Body Mass (LBM), not adeal weight.

Low protein requirements are a corner stone of the old food pyramid, and the low-fat diets plans, as they consider it none-essential, and they focus on more carbs.

It all depends on the plan you follow. I can go easily over 400 grams of protein, and my kidneys are fine.

Wa'il

No, I'm on Aktins, it's just a good site with plenty of information.

Yippie! I hope other people read this! Eat UP!

http://www.multi-diet.com/tmd/12/12protein08.htm

http://www.multi-diet.com/articles/aaa003protein.htm

When your in a high protein/low carb diet it's safe to take
from .8 grams - 1.0 grams of protein per pound of body
weight. If you weight train it is better to go with 1 gram,
so that you don't use your muscles as fuel. You have
to try and drink about a gallon of water to stay hydrated,
and it helps in depositing the fat from your system.
I hope I helped a little, Good luck.

We've read lots of similar low-calories diets before...

In case you misunderstood it, they're talking in Kgs, not lbs, so they barely touch the minimum protein requirements. About half of what ELP suggested, which is in line with Protein Power's minimum protein requirements. So the minimum, in low-carb, is about twice what they suggest!

Wa'il

From the site you posted.

I agree with Wa'il. I take in a minimum of 120 gms of protein every day, and never worry about how much I've eaten. I do not add extra fat often, and I rarely fry things, so I have to get my calories somewhere! I wasn't brought up on fried foods and don't tolerate fats when my stomach acts up...and poor quality fats, like those at fast food joints can actually make me sick.

According to Protein Power, you cannot take in too much protein. I've read artices on the web about research being done to check the effects of extremely high protein intake, and so far they havent' found anything bad! The way I understand it is your body uses what it needs and discards the rest. It isn't converted to fat, isn't stored, and doesn't cause kidney disease (although when found in urine can mean kidney disease). Because protein is not stored, you should split up your protein as evenly as possible over the day...eating smaller means every 2-3 hours makes this easier.

If you're satisfied, you'll stick with this way of eating. If you are hungry and craving things you won't....not in the long term! Protein fills me up faster and seems to last longer. Way back in nursing school we learned that protein was important (actually the most important part of your diet), and unless you had a medical condition that made protein dangerous, you were fine.

I agree with ELP...try to get up to around 1gm of ideal body weight if you are doing cardio and weights! Don't forget, you're going to need more protein to develop and tone those muscles you're working on!

Tamarian -

No, I did the calculation correctly.

"write in your Ideal Body Weight (IBW) in pounds (col. 1)

divide to get kilograms (col 2&3)

multiply again to get the grams of protein you need daily (col 4&5)


55 (my ideal body weight in kg) x 1.5 = 82.5 grams like the formula says it is. That is not alot of calories or protein.

I understand eating extra protein can convert in your body to glucose/raise insulin! This is my question...if I eat more than this do I risk this - but if I just this and can't tolerate lots of fat I can't get my calories up enough (and I'm hungry!) ....

There are conflicting studies out there.

"Correctly", only according with low-calorie guidlines. You are correctly following a wrong formula, designed for people who want to eat low-calorie.



Exactly, it's way below minumum requirements.



If you eat a lot of carbs, that is true. But "extra" here, using that formula, is way below minimum requirements.



Of course there is. Whay do you think there are low-fat diets, and low-carb diets? You have to choose which plan to follow, and then follow it correctly according to its own rules.

You cannot follow Atkins, but use a low-calorie formula to design your meals and nutritional intake.

If you want low-protein, and low-fat, the only thing left is carbs.

You might want to read "Protein Power", it's very good in explaining this issue.

Wa'il

I have been following protein power and have not had any problems with increased levels of protein nor do I have any problems with increased fat intake.

I also have had laparoscopic cholecystectomy and the absence of gall bladder is not a problem.

However, it is not uncommon to have temporary digestive difficulties after gallbladder removal . The main reason is usually a difficulty in handling fats in the diet. Fat and certain fat-soluble vitamins require bile in order to be absorbed. When the gallbladder is present, it stores bile that the liver makes. During a meal, the gallbladder contracts, releasing a pool of bile into the intestine that is used for fat absorption. After cholecystectomy, bile is still produced by the liver, but is released in a continuous, slow trickle into the intestine. Thus, when eating a meal that is high in fat content, there may not be an adequate amount of bile in the intestine to properly handle the normal absorption process.

The change in intestinal bile concentration during high-fat intake may cause diarrhea or bloating, because excess fat in the intestine will draw more water into the intestine, and because bacteria digest the fat and produce gas. But I stress for others who may have a concern that this soon dissapears and is not normally an ongoing problem

In fact, some studies suggest that diarrhea after cholecystectomy may also be caused by excess bile in the intestine between meals, because bile is released into the intestine continuously.

A few points should be emphasized:
1. Most persons do not have digestive difficulty after cholecystectomy.
2. When it does occur, post-cholecystectomy diarrhea is temporary in most persons.
3. There is usually no "malabsorption," in the sense that the amount of intestinal bile is sufficient to absorb the fat and vitamins necessary to remain healthy.
4. There may be other reasons for bloating and abdominal discomfort after cholecystectomy.

I am not a Dr. but my own doctor advised me after my operation that the most common reason after any abdominal surgery-is post surgical adhesions or motility problems of the bowel.

If you are still having problems It would be advisable to see your own doctor because adhesions, or intra-abdominal scars, are a later complication of abdominal surgery, and can cause recurrent difficulties.

I have seen many specialist, proctologist, gastroenterologists and had flexsigs and colonoscopies...all show normal conditions. I have symptoms of having excess bile throughout my system though and take questran to eleviate stinging (externally) and burning (internally). I find that even with the questran the condition worsens when I eat a higher fat diet - so I do a lowerfat version of atkins and do just fine as long as I take my questran.

I also was diagnosed with levator ani syndrome (a spasming of the levator ani muscle in the colon).

Levator ani syndrome A functional disorder in the anorectal region typically causing a dull vague pain coming more often and with a longer duration than in Proctalgia fugax. The pain is caused by a spasm i/n the striated muscles of the pelvic floor. This syndrome is more common in women than in men, and more than a half of the patients are between 30 and 60 years. There are several ways of treating this disorder, but the pain can be quite resistant to treatment. This syndrome is also called Puborectalis syndrome, Chronic proctalgia, Pyriformis syndrome and Pelvic tension myalgia.

I take xanax for that which seems to help a great deal. I do no know and the speicalists do not know if low carbing / gallbladder removal / levator ani syndromes are connected in anyway and for the life fo me, neither do I. First came the gallbladder out, then the D, then the stinging and spasms - then the questran and xanax. It is now known that up to 40% of postcholestecomy patients have troubles with digestion (temporary) and 15% must take questran (bile binding sequestrant). I have found my symptoms to worsen with high fat diets - but I refuse to give up low carbing. It's not easy. I appreciate all your help. Mostly I eat lean proteins, lc veggies and minimal fats. I eat alot of food and seem to do best on this plan. My calories stay very low however and I admit hunger much of the time. But if I increase fat - I have pain and spasms. I have been told "they just don't have all the answers" for people like me. But I have excellent doctors who are willing to do whatever they can to help. I have excess bile - and questran binds it up - I'm finally taking enough to stop the pain - but the colon spasm continue...it's very hard at times...I appreciate your listening...but naturally you can see how I tend to consume an enourmous amount of protein in the process of limiting fat and carbs.

Sorry I had to get so detailed. Maybe someone else with my problem or similar (not someone who had their gallbladder out and is fine) will chime in. Maybe even someone who takes questran.

I am considering adding very small amounts of fruit to my diet while counting my carbs still. I should not be fearful of eating 1/2 and apple or some cantaloupe/strawberries. I need to move into Way of life eating/been Atkinsing for 5 years about - at goal weight -

thanks again and sorry to bother anyone with all my lurid details. I know most will not be able to relate.

I am so glad you asked this question because i have always pondered over it myself. i have read both atkins and pp and i know they both say this is the MINIMUM amount required but i still feel that those numbers are still too low. i think we all feel like pigs because we eat so much more over the minimum amount.

i think my minimum amount is 60 grams. that would mean only 3 oz. of protein at each meal. yeah, right?? that would mean nothing left over for snacks and that would mean that an omelette with protein in it would put me way over.

I KNOW, I KNOW it is only the minium and you can eat over the minimum but i still think they need to rephrase it because it really makes us feel the need to get closer to the minium number so we don't go too much over.

I know for me that when it gets close to 100, i panic. so i always try to keep it under 100 and that still seems way too much - if 60 is my big number!!

thanks again for asking and debating the whole protein question.

Yes, yes, my thoughts exactly. I mean even some of the lowcarb advocates say it is an adequate protein low carb diet, not a high protein diet...

and I wonder, If I don't do high fat (I can't handle all that fat) and I keep to the amount of protein my body NEEDS, and I keep my carbs to my CCL (pretty low)...where is the rest of the food supposed to be coming from?

I think I'm FED UP though (no pun intended). I have to EAT something, so protein it is...and I can eat alot of lc veggies with that. Add fat for flavor and this must be my way of eating. Hey it could be worse. Right?

I used to do Atkins - for years.

Then medical reasons forced me to go to

LowER "healthy" fat/lowcarb Mediterranean Diet

20-30 carbs daily
A non-processed lowerfat lowcarb diet with nonstarch vegetables and lean proteins
plus small amounts of healthy fats (Omega 3’s) (good for immune systems and inhibit inflammation/good for my condition)

http://health.iafrica.com/dietonlin...ypes/omega3.htm
---------------------------------------------
Avoid saturated/hydrog/trans fats (fatty animal proteins/eggyolks/dairy/processed foods)
No caffeine, alcohol, cocoa products, coffee or tea or carbonated beverages
No spicy foods (peppers-chili/black, garlic, curry), tomato-wheat products,
refined sugars or grains, artificial sweeteners.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Saturated fats convert into prostaglandins (PG2), which has an inflammatory effect on the body. Omega-6 and Omega-3 fats convert into PG1 and PG3 respectfully and produce an anti-inflammatory effect on the body.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT I DO ALL I CAN TO AVOID/LESSEN INFLAMMATION.

So my diet IS LOWcarb - but I don't eat ALL fats and I eat leanER versions of proteins when I can.

Do I still belong? Where do I belong?
My typical day is 150 gms protein, about 30-50gms of fat and 20-30 carbs.

Thoughts?