This post contains affiliate links, and we may receive a small commission if you purchase through our site.
To start your day with the energy you need to eat high-quality protein for breakfast. Protein helps the body control the insulin variations and reduces the unwanted cravings and excessive hunger until the next meal.
That’s why we have to dig deeper and figure out what really is protein how to manage to eat enough to avoid further imbalances in our organism.
One of the greatest myths about low-carbohydrate diets is that you should eat an enormous amount of protein, but in fact, it should be a high-fat diet.
What is protein and why it’s important in our diet?
Proteins are body’s building “bricks.” Most our body organs are built of protein such as muscle, skin, bones, and others. The digestive process, immune system, blood are all based on protein to work properly. Even hormones, antibodies, enzymes are proteins. Your body uses protein to build or repair body tissues
Imagine that your body is a car that needs fuel to work. So, for your body, that fuel is protein. Protein is a macronutrient along with carbohydrates and fat.
Protein consists of long chains made of 20 different amino acids. Eight of them are essential for the human and are called “indispensable amino acids ”: phenyl-alanine, tryptophan, methionine, lysine, leucine, isoleucine, valine, and threonine. Another important amino acid is histidine which is required for growth (in children) and tissue repair.
Why is protein really important in your weight loss process?
One gram of protein has four calories. Even that the most people think about protein as fattening and high in calories, it’s not true.
Foods that are higher in protein take a longer time to digest and metabolise. That means that your body is using more calories to process them. Also, it takes more time until your body eliminates protein, so they keep you full for longer. That is why you are going to eat less and save 441 calories per day (study here).
Eating protein also reduces excessive thinking about food with 60%. Thisstudy shows that people that were eating more protein experienced lower late-night desire to eat
How much protein do you need in a keto diet?
Every person has different requirements on a daily amount of protein intake. For example, a person that is highly active all day needs more protein than one that is sedentary and his lifestyle doesn’t include any physical activity.
Eating enough protein is vital to keep your body healthy. But also, according to Dr. Stephen D. Phinney, eating too much protein can get you out of ketosis.The excessive protein is transformed into glucose and may keep you from entering into ketosis( the state where your body uses fat as fuel), blocking the easy access to the body fat storage.
Find out your body weight and multiply that with:
1.5- 2g per kilogram of body weight
0.6-0.8 per pound of your body weight
You can also use an online keto calculator like this. It ’s an easy method to find out how many macronutrients you are allowed to eat based on many aspects like body fat, age, sex, height.
For example, I am 150 lbs, 5 feet 11 tall, lightly active and I’m allowed to eat a minimum of 70 grams of protein or 103 grams if I’m really active. Remember that if you are using a tool like MFP, change your macros according to the percentage goals that you have to achieve by the end of the day.
What happens if don’t get enough protein?
The RDA (recommended dietary allowance) for protein is 0.8g per kilogram (2.2 pounds)of body weight. But what happens to your body when you don’t get to the minimum amount of protein? You might experience one of the next ten signs that can show you aren’t getting enough protein.
Constant cravings for carbs and sweets
Fatigue, lack of energy
Muscle loss, pain
Inability to sleep well
You get sick often
Hair loss
Breaking nails
Anxiety/Depression
Digestive issues
Inability to focu
Would excess protein be a problem?
As you may know the key point to a healthy low carb or keto diet is moderate protein, high-fat, really low carbohydrate intake.
The primary concern is that eating a high-protein diet is that it may decrease bone health and damage kidneys. There is no clear linking between higher protein intake and renal diseases in healthy people. Some researchers show that there is a link between the individuals with the pre-existent renal disease.
Also linking high-protein to osteoporosis is a misconception, and recent studies demonstrate that dietary protein is actually good for healthy bones. Relatively high protein intake, including animal sources, increase mineral mass and reduce the osteoporotic fractures. Studies show that dietary protein works with calcium to improve calcium retention and bone metabolism.
How to get enough protein in your diet-eating real foods?
The best protein sources are grass-fed meats, animal organs, eggs, fish, dairy products (full fat, of course, say no to milk). If you are eating those, you might get all the necessary amino acids that your body needs to work properly.
Top 10 foods that are high in protein and great in a ketogenic diet
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to be the first who gets the latest recipes, updates and special offers.
Thank you!
You have successfully joined our subscriber list.
READER FAVORITES
The full recipe is in the recipe card below. Readers that love this aslo made these recipes:
Ioana
Ioana is a food and travel lover. Her greatest passion is developing mouthwatering recipes that are comforting, easy to make, and budget friendly! She firmly believes that cooking should be fun! About me...
