Can a High Protein Diet Hurt Your Kidney?

Weight Loss 101: The Essentials Part 1 - Protein

In my previous post, I had established that for you to lose weight, you must create a negative energy balance.

Energy (calories) can come from various forms (food groups). To know which ones or how much of them to eliminate on a diet depends on various factors such as gender, activity level, current body composition, genetics, preferences, digestability, and goal/deadlines.

Since everything is contextual, I will only touch on the most basic essential nutrients we all need to sustain life. Basically, everything else that is not essential can be reduced in your diet to create the caloric deficit you need to lose weight.

Keep in mind that what are 'non-essential' do not mean they are unhealthy or completely restricted on a diet (esp. dietary fat). They are simply non-essential because your body can produce them in sufficient amounts that you don't have to obtain them from food sources. Obviously, if you are an endurance runner, a pregnant woman, or a growing child, your requirements can differ greatly compared to someone who is overweight or/and sedentary.

If you would like to learn more about the set up of this diet that bulids around the concept of obtaining only the essentials for fat loss , pick up this book "The Rapid Fat Loss Diet" by Lyle McDonald.

The Essentials:

A) Protein (Amino Acids) - 4kcal/gram - Building blocks of muscle tissues.

22 of them and roughly half are essential. Essential Amino Acids (EAA) are found mainly in animal products (ruminants, pultries, dairy). Nuts and seeds have some, too, but not a lot.

EAAs are not only essential but will help you retain lean mass on a caloric-restrictive diet. 1.

Combining incomplete/non-essential AAs found in fruits and vegetables can get you some EAA, too but don't count on building big muscles or lean out quickly from them alone. You will have to eat a lot of them (which comes with carbs/fat) to meet the requirement and can easily offset the caloric deficit you need to lose fat efficiently. A fat loss overview can help you establish a clear describe of what you require to focus on to accomplish your fat burning target if you're a beginner; or serve as a reminder for the ones who are at an intermediate or more improve step of their weight loss program. Following are seven steps that can serve as instructions for your own weight loss plan. The first thing that one must understand is that losing weight and losing fat is not exactly the same thing. Many weight loss plans have fooled people into considering that it is the same, but most diets and weight loss applications only work by producing a person's body to lose more muscle tissue and water than actual body fat, more help please visit The Fat Loss Factor.

I generally recommend "just eat more meat". The more protein you eat, the less calories you will take in spontaneously. You will also learn in my future articles that dietary carbohydrates may not even be needed for a caloric-restrictive diet (esp. for the sedentary, diabetics, and the obese population).

"So how much protein do we need?"

If you're overweight and sedentary, 0.6-0.8g/1lb of body's lean body mass (LBM) is generous enough.

If you're reactionally active or athletic (training with weights), 1-1.2g/lb LMB is plenty.

If you workout more than 10 hrs a week (bodybuilding, endurance training, mix sports) or simply looking to lean out fast or already am but needs to get photoshoot-ready lean, 1.2-1.8g/lb LMM will get you there. 1.

At anytime you have hunger issues, protein should be the first source to play with. They are the most satieting food source compared to carbs and fat and takes the longest to digest and burn slightly more calories.

Kidney Concerns?

In human nutritional research thus far, we have not been able to produce a study that shows healthy kidneys not being able to process high protein intake up to 6g/lb for six months straight 1, 2, (and trust me, there's been a lot of studies done on this).

Only in 'renal diseased' 'rats' have we seen a high protein diet having the potential to further degrade renal functions. 1. This is where the myth about high protein intake hurts the kidney came from. Cereal companies wants you to be scare of meat and eat more sugary junk foods.

In human, even patients with renal failures doesn't do any better on a low protein diet (0.6g/kg) for 90days.

So for example, if you are 150lbs trying to diet down or bulk up and you're trying to figure out what's the maximum protein you can eat. 150 (lbs) x 6 = 900 g/d. That's almost 3,600 kcal!

Basically, you can eat up to 3,600 kcal on 'protein alone' (for a 150 lbs person, more if you're heavier) and not have to worry about kidney problems.

Obviously 3,600kcal is a lot of calories for anyone dieting (unless you're an elite endurance athlete and training a ton), it's safe to say that your priority should be meeting the minimum protein requirement rather than worrying about the high protein/kidney myth.

keep in mind that fats and carbs can never be converted into protein but dietary protein can be broken down into glucose which can be used as energy (what carbs are known for) or stored as fat. This is what makes protein so essential.

for my next article, we will explore our needs for essential fatty acids (dietary fat) during weight loss.

Stay tuned and eat your meat to your heart's content!

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