Low-protein diets! Are you crazy!? If I eat under 150 grams of protein a day, I’m going to lose all my muscle! I’m going to starve. I need to be eating protein every 30 minutes to take advantage of my anabolic window! You’re a heretic! Get him! … Well that escalated quickly.
You might as well be committing heresy in the temple of nutrition if you dare question the high-protein gods. As I have mentioned in my post, Healthy Weight Loss Strategies That You Can Do Daily, I have tried almost every diet in the book and none have come close to level of effortless leanness I’ve achieved from a low-protein diet.
Whether you’re a guy or a girl, a low-protein diet is the secret to getting leaner. Coupled with some basic resistance training for emphasizing proportions, you’ll look great!
But first, let’s take a look at how protein became one of the most overblown macronutrients and how limiting it actually results in dramatic weight loss.
The Myth of Body Building
I remember when I first got into fitness. I was in high school and played football. We lifted weights Monday through Friday. I was constantly hungry and ate everything in sight.
After high school, I continued with bodybuilding for purely aesthetic reasons. I wanted to build great proportions and get that V shape that every male weightlifter desired. I trained like all the OG bodybuilders, doing tons of volume and lifting the heaviest weights I could manage.
As I got older, I started dialing back my weightlifting due to a couple injuries that made me really concerned about the long-term impact on my body. I also was getting tired of the 2 hour time commitment of going to the gym as my other life responsibilities started to increase.
I began focusing on more life-enhancing practices, which helped correct bad posture, relieve stress, and prevent injuries. In the process, my body naturally became more aesthetic than it had ever been. Looking good was the byproduct, not the goal.
After seeing how peaceful my life could be without bodybuilding, I realized it wasn’t a natural phenomenon. It’s an entire community dedicated to growing larger muscles for superficial reasons, at the cost of breaking down the body over time.
How many older adults do you still see with bulging muscles? Out of the ones that you see, how many seem stressed, aged, and unhappy? I have only seen a handful in my life, but they did not look very happy to me. The happiest older adults I’ve seen typically are very lean, do basic things like walking, yoga, and light resistance training.
For all the people who get into bodybuilding at a young age, there aren’t many who continue into older age. Bodybuilding is a myth. I’m not saying it isn’t a fulfilling hobby for some, or denying that it’s grown into a large community. I’m simply making the point that it is not something that can be sustained long term.
Too Much Muscle can be a Bad thing
I put on 30 pounds of muscle. Actually, it was maybe 5 pounds of muscle, 10 pounds of fat, and a bunch of extra water. What happens when you lift heavy weights (as a natural), is that your body compensates by adding mass any way it knows how.
It starts by revving up your appetite and you begin eating. You can try to manipulate your macros by eating low fat, high carb, high protein, and blah blah blah. But, your body is going to want to eat in a caloric surplus.
As you train harder and lift heavier, yes, you will gain muscle, but also a sizable amount of fat with it. Then you have to cut some fat to reveal the muscle. Then during the fat-cutting process, you will lose muscle. It’s a big yo-yo effect.
Trying to gain mass and lose fat at the same time is like an oxymoron; they contradict each other. Any muscle mass gain will result in an increase in body fat and the more muscle mass you have, the more difficult it becomes to sustain lower levels of body fat.
After all this yo-yoing, you have to ask, “Could it be that the body is not meant to sustain large amounts of mass long term?” Look at many professional bodybuilders; even they can’t sustain their size and definition year-round. They bulk up during the off-season and cut leading up to their shows, trying to maintain both size and definition.
You can only be big and lean for a short period of time before your body starts to eat away at its muscle mass. Then you’re back to square one.
From my own experience, here’s a list of negative side effects I encountered when I put on excessive muscle mass:
- Joint pain
- Inflexibility
- Muscle imbalances
- Chronic fatigue and inflammation
- Higher blood pressure and heart strain
- Psychological disorders (body dysmorphia, depression, OCD)
It doesn’t take much to build muscle
We have to change the way we look at muscle. Muscle is not some scarce resource that you have to constantly feed like a fire that will burn out the moment you skip a meal or miss a workout. Muscle is an adaptation.
If you lift a heavy object, what does it do to your muscle? It hardens it by driving blood through it. The more you do that, the more the body sees that these muscles will be used and so an adaptation needs to happen, ie. muscle size and density.
If you want to gain muscle size, it solely depends on the incremental increase in weight you are lifting. However, what I found to be true, is that you look more aesthetic the leaner you get, as opposed to how much muscle you build.
Instead of going through a rigorous training routine to gain 10 pounds of muscle, just lose 10 pounds of fat and maintain a baseline of muscle by doing some light resistance training. The muscle is there, it’s just covered by a layer of fat that needs to be lost.
You kill two birds with one stone. You cut out the stress of bodybuilding by switching to a lighter routine, while also losing weight and revealing even more muscular definition.
Not to mention, this is the sustainable approach that you can maintain well into your old age and look good doing it. If you’ve done it right, you should be able to maintain a lean, fit, athletic physique year-round.
You may have to go down a size in T-shirts and maybe your bros will say how small you are now. But I can assure you they wouldn’t be laughing if you all went to a pool party and they saw how much muscle definition you have.
This is the equilibrium point: the point where you have the most muscle coupled with the lowest body fat percentage possible, which can be maintained long-term, effortlessly.
But JT, how do you lose weight effortlessly? I’m so glad you asked. Lower your protein intake.
The evolutionary case for eating less protein
My wife and I love watching survival shows. One of our favorite shows in particular, Alone, challenges contestants to see how long they can survive on their own in the wilderness.
*Spoilers Ahead for “Alone”
What’s interesting about this show is those who begin the season with the most fat on them either win or become a close runner-up. Why is that? Well fat is a scarce resource in the wild. Know what else is? Protein!
The contestants struggle to eat because hunting wild game is extremely difficult. They’ll munch around on some berries or bark, but the one thing they crave every season is meat.
While the vegetation provided some energy to go farther and farther into the competition, it was those who had access to meat that bought the most time.
Then it all clicked for me. The humans on the show were made of meat; therefore, they need to eat meat. Are humans made out of berries or rubbery animal fat? No. They need protein to retain physical mass. (Fats and Carbohydrates are sources of energy).
The less protein one gets, the more the body will shrink, and vice versa. If I want to lose weight, I simply reduce my protein intake.
Why you never hear of a low-protein diet
Because of all the high-protein propaganda out there, eating a low-protein diet never even crossed my mind. The media demonized fats for years, then it later attacked carbohydrates! Sweet sweet carbohydrates. Anyone who hates bread or pizza can’t be trusted.
The one thing the media never attacked was protein. In fact, it overhyped protein to the point where we now sell it in giant buckets in its purest form. People are willing to shell out hundreds of dollars a year for protein supplements on top of their high-protein diet.
My goal isn’t to dismantle the protein industry. In fact, I do think that protein supplements may serve a purpose for medical reasons. But for the average American, protein is not in short supply.
I do think, as a collective whole, we’ve been misled by marketing to think we need large amounts of protein. In reality, what’s labeled a “low-protein” diet is often a normal, sufficient amount. Especially in our modern society where protein is abundant, with restaurants and food options on every corner.
Protein is an important macronutrient, about as important as the other two macros: fats and carbohydrates. In other words, it’s about as important as food is for human survival. Do we need to be eating 200 grams of protein per day? No. Eat it in moderation, like everything else.
Low-Protein Diets are easy to do
I actually don’t believe in “diets.” Any way of eating where you have to do something radical like cut out a large food group or take it on as a belief system (I’m a carnivore/vegetarian, therefore, I must only eat meat/vegetables), is not sustainable.
The only diet is a sustainable one, and if it’s sustainable, it’s not a diet, it’s just eating. The only metric to determine if the way you’re eating is sustainable is this: Can you eat like this day after day, effortlessly, for the rest of your life? If it takes effort and drains your willpower, it won’t work.
Eating low protein is easy to do because I’m not saying to eat less protein; I’m saying to eat a normal amount and stop eating it in a surplus.
To control your weight, the only thing you have to do is control your protein intake. Here’s how I control my weight:
To gain weight, eat more protein. To lose weight, eat less protein.
That’s it!
If the body is meat, it grows by eating meat. If the body wants to shrink, you reduce your meat intake. It’s really that simple.
Carbohydrates and fats, I don’t worry about. I eat those intuitively based on how I feel and I don’t go overboard with either. I eat all three macros in moderation. If I feel I need more carbs, fat, or protein I add them. Practice being mindful every time you make yourself food and gauge how you feel after.
Sometimes after a long day of working out or strenuous physical work, you might find you crave more carbohydrates to fuel your muscles and you need more protein to repair them. In that case, give your body what it needs.
When I worked remote for years, I hardly craved carbs. Instead, I craved fats because they are slow-burning fuel, perfect for just sitting and using your brain all day. I kept my protein intake at moderate level to maintain my weight.
It’s not hard to eat lower protein when trying to lose weight because it’s typically the fats and carbs which will make you feel good in the process. If you try cutting out fats or carbs instead of protein, you will find you get irritable after a couple days, and it can even lead to hormonal imbalances.
When my wife was slimming down one year after the birth of our son, she lost weight fast by eating 1 egg a day and keeping her carbs and fats higher to satisfy any hunger cravings. That made it effortless.
Examples of eating a Low-Protein Diet
I want to give you more examples of how I currently eat a low-protein diet so that you can get a better understanding of what it looks like in practice and see how it’s still sustainable and satisfying.
I include intermittent fasting (aka not eating) or just 2 meals a day, as this ensures I can eat big satisfying meals and still stay lean. It’s really just my preference to eat this way. You could, however, eat 3 meals as long as you are eating lower protein than you normally would and you will still lose weight.
Example #1: What a Typical Day Looks Like for me
- Intermittent fast with black coffee till 12pm
- First meal:
- 2 eggs
- Half a bagel with cream cheese
- Snack:
- 1 banana with tablespoon of peanut butter
- Dinner:
- Bowl of rice with a palm size amount of ground beef
- Steamed broccoli
- Some bites of greek yogurt
- Dessert:
- 1 cookie and splash of milk
Example #2: What I ate Today
- Breakfast:
- Bagel sandwich with bacon, egg, and cheese
- Skipped Lunch
- Dinner:
- Two enchiladas: 1 beef, 1 chicken
- Rice and beans
- Broccoli
- Couple bites of greek yogurt
- Dessert:
- Half a bagel with hazelnut spread and butter
Example #3: How my wife eats on a typical day
- Intermittent fast with black coffee till 12pm
- First meal:
- 1 egg
- Full bagel with butter
- Celery with tablespoon of peanut butter
- Snack:
- Piece of fruit
- Small serving of greek yogurt
- Dinner:
- Bowl of rice with a palm size (smaller female hand) amount of ground beef
- 2 fistfuls of vegetables
- Dessert:
- 1 Peanut butter cup (2 if she’s feeling naughty)
A good rule of thumb is:
Take the amount of protein you’d usually eat for each meal and decrease it slightly.
You would then follow this until you start seeing weight loss.
Once your goal weight is achieved, it is merely about eating that same amount and maintaining your weight. It then becomes a simple balancing act of increasing or decreasing protein to maintain your goal weight.
Won’t I lose Muscle if I eat lower protein?
Let me just squash the fears of muscle loss when eating a low-protein diet. You will lose muscle mass and weight, but as you go down in weight you will notice your muscles actually look bigger due to body fat decreasing. (Hence, why I mentioned it’s easier to lose 10 pounds of fat to look good than to gain and sustain 10 pounds of muscle).
Your muscles shrink as weight comes down, but they don’t lose shape or hardness. Even if they began to lose shape, a couple of reps with a resistance band would harden them back up in no time.
My friend and I have both experienced this. He hasn’t lifted weights in over 5 months, yet, his appearance still looks ripped as if he has not lost any muscle. He attributes that to staying lean from intermittent fasting. He mentioned to me, “I don’t think we lose muscle as fast as people think.”
From my experience, I have gone a couple weeks without touching a weight or resistance band and I only got leaner which made me look more defined.
So yes, for both my friend and I, you could say we did lose weight, muscle mass, and fat. However, the muscle only shrank, it didn’t lose density or hardness in its appearance. My guess is that you’d have to not do a single workout for maybe a year to have the muscle completely atrophy and look like a bunch of goo.
Don’t fear losing muscle; it takes a long time for it to completely turn to mush.
Above all else, listen to your body
The way I discovered all these things came from listening to my intuition and applying what I believed on myself. If I injured myself multiple times from weight lifting, that was enough for me to take the hint that something was wrong and I need to start listening to my body.
Also, after trying multiple fad diets that resulted in temporary weight loss, I was determined to find a sustainable approach to weight loss. When I started listening to my body, I realized it wasn’t a matter of finding a new diet that was sustainable, rather it was uncovering the truth about what was moderation and what was excess.
As I began to put all these things into practice, it became effortless and automatic to follow. I didn’t have to think about diet anymore. I could eat whatever I want and I can intuitively tell when I have eaten enough or if I need more.
3 meals a day, 2 meals a day, 1 meal a day, carnivore diet, vegetarianism, keto, vegan, etc. They all miss the essential point. The point is to learn to tune in to what your body is telling you rather than following rigid rules or trends, and that will lead to a lifetime of good health.