why moderate protein? page

[oopie]

What's the reasoning behind aiming for moderate protein as opposed to high protein? When I try to eat like Grok, my protein in grams is often higher than my body weight. I can tweak it, add fats to everything and eat less meat and seafood, but I'd like to know why I should go through the trouble. Thanks.

[eKatherine]

You must be choosing lean meats. Grok ate fat.

[Allenete]

There's only so much protein your body can process ... you'd have to have a very large amount of protein for it to be excessive though. Something like over 250g. Which I can't do even if I tried.

[magicmerl]

You know that meat contains protein AND fat, right?

[oopie]

There are tons of post filled with advice on how to get your protein up or down. With lots of people stating that they eat high protein with no problems.
But PB specifically suggests moderate protein. And I have not been able to see any reference as to why. Does Mark ever give his reasoning?

[Paleobird]

What's the reasoning behind aiming for moderate protein as opposed to high protein? When I try to eat like Grok, my protein in grams is often higher than my body weight. I can tweak it, add fats to everything and eat less meat and seafood, but I'd like to know why I should go through the trouble. Thanks.

If you are trying for ketosis, you do need to moderate your protein intake. I'm not saying that you should or shouldn't be doing ketosis. That is your call.

[KimchiNinja]

If you eat lean animals you end up with higher protein.

For example:
* Eat 65/35 animal/plant diet, and the animals have 3% body fat, your macros can end up: 56% protein, 23% fat, 22% carb.
* Eat 65/35 animal/plant diet, and the animals have 20% body fat, your macros can end up: 21% protein, 58% fat, 22% carb.

Source: http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/71/3/682.full.pdf

[Drumroll]

If you are trying for ketosis, you do need to moderate your protein intake. I'm not saying that you should or shouldn't be doing ketosis. That is your call.

Pretty much this. Because gluconeogenesis can produce enough glucose in the body that it can knock you out of ketosis if protein quantities are sufficient. However, lots of people do just fine eating a higher protein diet so unless ketosis is a goal of yours it's not too big of a deal.

[magicmerl]

But PB specifically suggests moderate protein. And I have not been able to see any reference as to why.

Forget ketosis. That's not why excess protein is bad.

Both fats and carbs are composed of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon. So your body can convert excess of these into each other as needed. But protein also includes nitrogen, so when you have excess protein in your body, it converts the excess to carbs / fats as needed, but the nitrogen thus liberated then turns into ammonia, which isn't great for you.

Ammonia toxicity is a problem when protein intake exceeds ~200g / day. Which most people don't even come close to hitting, particularly if you are eating to satiety.

[peril]

Also, high protein means lower fat which means less fat soluble vitamins. Your fat sources need to be very good in terms of vitamins in that case. Eg grass-fed dairy and animal fat rather than coconut oil. Much easier to eat fatty meat, which moderates your protein intake