eating protein on an empty stomach while dieting, how bad is it?

[Lao Tzu]

I dont want my protein converted into glucose as i am trying to diet again (i think im about 1400/day below maintenance. i need about 4000 and am eating about 2600 or so).

What all can i do to keep my protein as protein? should i only eat it 15-30 minutes after i eat real foods, should i not eat it if i haven't eaten within 4 hours, or what. What all can/should i do (aside from post this on the diet board).

 

[ripper2]

at 1400 below maintenance you will lose a lot more muscle than you want

 

[Judo Tom]

at 1400 below maintenance you will need lots and lots of protein to keep as much muscle as possible.. why are you going so low on the cals? have you gone this low before?

when i cut fast for competitions i make sure to have a really really good steady supply of amino acids at all times using slow digesting long lasting proteins throughout the day and whey at times to spike the levels...

this really helps me out and a lot of my protein intake both from food and shakes are taken in on an empty stomach.

good luck

 

[mrflexdiesel]

Not bad at all. If I could recommend anything at all it would be to add either whipping cream (not whipped cream but the liquid whipping cream in the coffee cream section of the grocery) or some type of EFA like Flax Oil or MCT Oil's to your protein drink. This will help the absorption rate of the protein and also slow digestion.

 

[Lao Tzu]

at 1400 below maintenance you will need lots and lots of protein to keep as much muscle as possible.. why are you going so low on the cals? have you gone this low before?

when i cut fast for competitions i make sure to have a really really good steady supply of amino acids at all times using slow digesting long lasting proteins throughout the day and whey at times to spike the levels...

this really helps me out and a lot of my protein intake both from food and shakes are taken in on an empty stomach.

good luck

im going low because i hit a plateau. i was doing 1000 or so cals below and i lost a good deal of weight (41 lbs) over 4 months, most of it fat since my strength stayed the same and my waist decreased dramatically. After i hit the plateau i went to eating maintenance (maintenance is roughly 3800-4000/day) for 3 weeks now im back on dieting. I'd rather cut a little harder than before to overcome this plateau. i will lose some muscle but i can regain it later.

 

[collegiateLifter]

why dont you throw some heavy whipping cream or olive oil in your shake

 

[Lao Tzu]

what about 3 grams of fish oil?

 

[mrflexdiesel]

what about 3 grams of fish oil?

You could do that. I would personally recommend using Flax Oil instead though.

 

[rugbybear]

im going low because i hit a plateau. i was doing 1000 or so cals below and i lost a good deal of weight (41 lbs) over 4 months, most of it fat since my strength stayed the same and my waist decreased dramatically. After i hit the plateau i went to eating maintenance (maintenance is roughly 3800-4000/day) for 3 weeks now im back on dieting. I'd rather cut a little harder than before to overcome this plateau. i will lose some muscle but i can regain it later.

what makes you think that you will still be on the plateau when you start cutting again? shouldnt your body have re-set by now?

 

[Judo Tom]

im going low because i hit a plateau. i was doing 1000 or so cals below and i lost a good deal of weight (41 lbs) over 4 months, most of it fat since my strength stayed the same and my waist decreased dramatically. After i hit the plateau i went to eating maintenance (maintenance is roughly 3800-4000/day) for 3 weeks now im back on dieting. I'd rather cut a little harder than before to overcome this plateau. i will lose some muscle but i can regain it later.

Bro those are some awesome results Congrats.. most people will never lose that much fat in there whole life... that is truly great..

seems like you know what your doing and how your body reacts.. just watch out for the strength and muscle loss..

good luck

 

[sugarshane]

You deffinitly want to increase your protein intake. It will help in sparing some of the muscle .

 

[Lao Tzu]

Well i restarted dieting on the 1st. I was 261.2. Its night at the 5th and i am 258.0. So it looks like im past the plateau. I know im using muscle for energy but i can rebuild that. The first 2-3 days of the diet i was pretty lethargic. i dont know if that was the diet or the 4-5 hours of sleep. I've been getting normal sleep since thursday and the lethargy went away so i dont know what it was. i hope it wasn't a metabolic slowdown.

I've been taking 100mg EGCG 3x day, trying to keep protein and fiber intake up, taking 1600mg calcium a day and trying to keep calories around 2400. I also increased cardio from 45 minutes to 60-65 minutes.

i had alot of stress yesterday and couldn't eat so i only got 1400 calories down. So that could be a factor. I was 260.0 on wednesday.

 

[Dooley]

Don't you normally eat food when your stomach is empty? Isn't that the REASON you eat food? I don't really understand this question. Eat your protein. It doesn't matter if you're hungry, of if your stomach is empty. You MUST eat protein while dieting. Am I the only one confused?

 

[Lao Tzu]

Don't you normally eat food when your stomach is empty? Isn't that the REASON you eat food? I don't really understand this question. Eat your protein. It doesn't matter if you're hungry, of if your stomach is empty. You MUST eat protein while dieting. Am I the only one confused?

i didnt mean on an empty stomach per se i meant when my body didn't have any other source of energy.

like if i'd gone 8 hours w/o food due to scheduling problems i dont think eating protein would be a good idea as my body might convert it to glucose more rapidly than it would had i eaten it 20 minutes after i'd eaten 600 calories of something other than protein.

 

[junk]

bump

 

[mikebzt]

I always thought protein does not convert to glucose? Am I wrong

 

[dr0832]

you thought wrong.

 

[Dooley]

It doesn't primarily become glucose, it requires more energy for a protein molecule to become a glucose molecule (oxidation I believe is the word, but I'm not quite sure). So your body doesn't readily choose to convert protein unless there is a severe deficiency in total body glucose because it requires so much effort. Think about when people fast. They tend to waste away.. muscle and fat. This is because your body and brain need glucose to function. So muscle and fat and any glycogen left in storage are all used. The protein in your muscle is (again I think the word is oxidized) into glucose to feed your starving body and brain. Hope that cleared it up a little bit. My chemistry terminology is a little weak these days, but hopefully you get the idea.

 

[Deleted member 33117]

I agree on mixing it with flax seed oil. That should help.

 

[Lao Tzu]

hmmm. im thinking i may have cut my calories too deep. 2600 is making me lethargic. Its not the loss of muscle that bugs me (im probably not losing tons and if i do i can regain it) its the lethargy. I dont know if i calculated correctly. If my metabolic rate is back at 4000/day, the extra cardio adds about 200/day and the green tea may add 200/day, giving me a 4400/cal requirement and a 2500 cal intake. Not good as that will put me right where i dont want to be, at starvation and the inevitable attempts at homeostatis im sure my body will try to obtain due to the dramatic calorie restriction.

I may increase calories to 3000 or so. Since i lost about 3lbs the first 5 days at 2500 calories a day increasing to 3000 won't bring the weight loss to a screetching halt or anything. I hope i dont hit another plateau.

 

[liftsiron]

I dont want my protein converted into glucose as i am trying to diet again (i think im about 1400/day below maintenance. i need about 4000 and am eating about 2600 or so).

What all can i do to keep my protein as protein? should i only eat it 15-30 minutes after i eat real foods, should i not eat it if i haven't eaten within 4 hours, or what. What all can/should i do (aside from post this on the diet board).

Your protein on an empty stomach converting to glucose is a bunch of bullshit IMO. If your in a state of ketosis you will get some amino acid conversion to glucose. But the assumption that pure whey will all convert to glucose is nonsense. To slow absorbtion of whey adding some flax oil as bodybyfiniplex suggested is a good idea.