Hypocaloric Ketogenic Diet and Protein Sparing

For the purpose of this post I am going to take it that you have already read the previous posts about Ketosis as I cannot describe ketosis every post or you and I would go a bit crazy.

Starting out a hypo caloric diet is a diet that is low in calories and typically used in the fitness community as a diet that will induce weightloss. Ketogenic diet is a diet that induces ketosis, and carbs must be limited to less than 100g in order for this metabolic change to occur. This approximate number comes from how many carbs the brain needs in order to function in a day. So in this hypo caloric ketogenic diet we will take it to an extreme and say we will be consuming zero dietary carbs, just know that you can consume carbs but try to keep it low and from mainly fibrous vegetables. Before we are able to set a caloric number for our diet we should go a bit off track and delve into what we will need to spare protein.

In the first 3 weeks of ketosis, before the protein sparing adaptations occur the brain will need ~100g of carbs roughly. So with a diet completely void of carbs the body needs to create the carbs. The body does this several ways. The first way is going to be from glycerol in the blood will be converted to glucose ~18g throughout the day. The second way is through the conversion of protein into glucose ~82g. So this is important to know so that we are able to understand what must be accomplished by our protein intake so that we can spare muscle protein. In an absence of dietary protein, the body will take protein from muscle and break it down into glucose. Something a performance minded or even vain individual might want to avoid. So protein is said to have a 58% anti-ketogenic factor meaning that 58% of protein consumed will be converted into glucose in the blood. So in order to cover the 82g of glucose we need for the brain we will need an intake of ~150g protein, in order to spare body proteins from being broken down into glucose. This number will change by week three as the body will have adapted and the brain will only need 40g while 18 still come from glycerol you will only need 25g glucose from protein, so you will need about 50g protein to spare muscle.

So thats it right? Not quite. Protein requirements are modified by two factors. The two factors are CHO(carb, glucose) intake and activity level. We roughly covered CHO intake, but now we must cover activity level. Activity level is very important as it increases our need for protein. If you are a sedentary person than the minimal protein you need is 0.8g protein per lb of LBM or your fat free mass. However if you are a strength or endurance athlete you will need a bit more, roughly 0.9g per lb of LBM or fat free mass. PROTEIN IS VERY IMPORTANT IN SPARING MUSCLE MASS. "Of all of the aspects of the PSMF or ketogenic diet, adequate dietary protein is absolutely critical to the success of the diet in maximizing fat loss and sparing body protein" (The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald).

Here is a chart to help (it is important to note that too much protein is just as bad as too little as it will take you out of ketosis so try to stick the this guideline somewhere around this number will be ideal)

Now that we know how much protein we need we can add in fats to whatever amount that will fill up to the desired hypo caloric level. you should have at least 150g Protein so 600cals from protein and the rest from fat ;)