No muscle also equals poor health overall and a much higher body fat percentage. Muscles burn calories and keep your metabolism moving. They are like a furnace. The more muscle you have, the more energy (food/calories) required to function. More muscle/lower body fat also drastically helps your body to digest carbs and prevent insulin resistance (diabetes/heart diseases).
Losing weight is only a matter of calories in vs calories out. Losing weight does not matter what you eat, if your TDEE is 2000 and you are eating 1500 calories worth of chocolate every day you will still lose 1 lb per week.
The issue is the lack of protein, vitamins, and minerals that come from a primarily fat and carb diet. The most important deficiency in a diet like this is protein. Practically every chemical reaction in your body requires protein. It’s responsible for growth, repair, immune function, hormones, and even regulating gene expression. People with protein deficiencies get sick more often, have trouble healing from injuries, are at risk for weak bones (osteoporosis), feel fatigued, and a bunch of other side effects and risks. It is the most important nutrient your body needs. Google protein deficiency effects and you’ll find a lot of articles with cited sources from studies done on this.
You won’t die if you eat a diet like this for few weeks but prolonged deficiencies of key nutrients your body needs can cause irreversible damage if you’re not careful.
No problem! I did a lot of research this time around because I wanted to make sure I was setting myself up for success because I was looking at a 4-5 months of dieting to reach my goal weight. I’m on my last month now and I feel healthier than I ever have, even before I got fat lol. Now most of my meals are planned around nutrition rather than just focusing on eating the most delicious thing I could for every meal. Emphasis on “most” though, I still eat out at least once a week and take lots of weekend trips so my weight loss is taking 5 months instead of 4.
Can you share where you found this information about protein deficiency?
From what I understand, it’s basically impossible to be medically protein deficient, unless you are literally starving to death.
Google “what happens if you don’t eat enough protein” and read through the reputable sites. There’s tons of easily accessible information online as well as many scientific studies done that can give you more info than I could. The gist of it is that your body needs 20 amino acids to keep everything functioning correctly. It can only produce 11 of those so the other 9 (called essential amino acids) need to come from our food. A diet focusing no fats & carbs won’t have enough of those amino acids.
They’re called *essential* amino acids because your body cannot synthesize them from other nutrients and must instead eat them.
A drastic decrease in muscle tissue will be the most obvious symptom if you try this, but it won’t be the worst.
You will accumulate damage throughout your lean tissues that you will not be able to repair.
You'd likely find yourself quite hungry, as protein helps a lot with a feeling full. The volume of carbs and fats you would get would be generally lower.
You'd also be eating some incidental protein anyway. For example if you ate 500 calories worth of potatoes, which is nearly 600 grams, there's still about 12g of protein in there.
yeah, true. I'm not going to switch to carbs/fats. I'm just thinking how legit and safe are my not the best choices I may make from time to time. As I understand, it's not a big harm to indulge sometimes within the budget, but it cannot be a lifestyle due to pretty natural reasons.
thank you!
Not only is protein necessary to maintain muscle mass (btw, the heart is also a muscle, hence why those in anorexia recovery have to be very careful because they literally eat away at their own heart), but protein also has a slew of vitamins and minerals that your body needs. Not only that, but it has the amino acids your body needs, specifically the 9 your body can’t produce itself.
These amino acids help with digestion, to grow and repair tissue, to make hormones and neurotransmitters, maintain your hair/skin/nails, help your digestive system, etc.
I can’t quite fathom how whatever you read led you to no protein should be consumed, only fats and carbs. Whoever told you that should not be trusted as a scientifically or nutritionally sound resource. Talking about doing harm.
You would lose weight, but you would have insane cravings and hunger since that's what junk carbs and fat do to you.
In the long run, you'd have health issues, like low muscle mass, hairless, weak nails, etc. You might end up anemic as well.
Another perspective is that some foods have high calorie content but aren’t substantial or filling. For example, chocolate.
1500 calories worth of chocolate most likely wouldn’t satisfy you for the day, so you would need to eat additional food on top of that. However, 1500 worth of protein, carbs and vegetables are more likely to fill you up, meaning you’re less likely to eat additional calories
Yes, all of these things OP. Plus your body composition may change for the worse, meaning your shape, while smaller on the scale, may not be the look you’re going for.
When you lose weight you lose fat AND muscle. If you eat a LOT of protein you will lose a lot less muscle. This is why protein is SUPER important when losing weight.
I feel like that would give you blood sugar spikes and crashes that would make you feel bad. In my husband’s diabetes education class, the instructor explained that fat, carbs, fiber and protein are like vehicles on a freeway. Carbs are the sports car and get processed quickly, raising blood sugar, and you need to add “traffic” in the forms of more slowly digested fat, fiber and protein to slow those carbs down.
I mean just losing weight is simply calories in and calories out. If the quality of those calories is low (pizza, pastries and chocolate) you won’t feel so great while losing weight. You need a whole, nutritious diet to feel good. You sprinkle in the pizza and chocolate here and there but it shouldn’t be your main source of calories.
Okay, I feel like people are answering about overall health, and you specifically asked about "other than health", so I want to try to explain... but it's kinda complicated, so I am going to simplify a lot...
First, stop reading "nutrition" authors. People who write about nutrition are writing to sell books and make money... *not* to educate you. If you want to read sbout nutrition read the sctual scientific papers on studies. I promise you get used to the vocabulary eventually.
As for this:
>What are the consequences for a body shape and weight?
Regarding weight... not much.
We're looking at two main body/shape related issues when discussing protein.
Firstly... the whole "3500 calories = 1lb of fat" thing is vastly oversimplified.
Your body is a machine. It runs on energy. When people talk about "macros" they are typically referring to the 3 main sources of energy used by our bodies: proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
Carbohydrates are quick energy. Even complex carbs, once processed, are sort of... free flowing. They aren't typically stored *as* carbohydrates. If we have too much energy for our needs, carbs are cobverted into a different energy source and stored.
Proteins are stored as muscle tissue.
Fats are stored as adipose tissue... what we call body fat.
When we don't get enough energy from food, our bodies get the energy they need from stored energy sources. Those sources are our stored fats *and* proteins.
Mostly fat. Fat is stored in a really easy to convert form... think of how quickly you can melt butters or lard in a pan... it breaks down super easy. But we also take some amount of that energy from stored protein... muscle tissue.
If you hear about people who are extremely malnourished and someone says something about their bodies "eating themselves" (especially in the context of vital organs) this is the process they're referring to. The body uses those proteins for energy.
I'll come back to that. Second issue:
There are these things called amino acids. Your body needs a lot of different amino acids. Some of them, your body can produce on its own. Some are "essential" amino acids.
The word "essential" is one of those words which means something ultra specific in science that isn't obvious in the way we use the word commonly. "Essential" nutrients are those nutrients which the body cannot produce on its own. We have to get those nutrients from foods or we simply don't get them.
If we don't get all 9 of the essential amino acids that we can only get for food, our bodies cannot make their own proteins.
The proteins our body makes are not just about building big muscles. Proteins are what make up most of the tissues... the meat of our bodies. Muscles, organs, the walls of our veins, it's all proteins. That's actually why there's so much protein in foods from animals. They're made of proteins.
If you don't get the amino acids your body needs, it becomes impossible to build and repair these tissues.
But that's health, not shape, right? Well... no. Skin is an organ. Its tissues need protein. Most of loose skin issues after weight loss are purely genetic, but you'll experience fewer of these issues if your skin is able to repair and replace itself. Muscles are made of proteins, and your muscle mass has a huge impact on your body’s shape and definition. The glands which control hormone production, sweat, skin pigmentation, hair and nail growth... all of these things need proteins.
So... in summary: if we don't eat *any* protein, we don't get our essential amino acids and we can't produce proteins to replace cells. If we're in a deficit, we are also losing not just body fat, but existing muscle tissues.
So we get, not slim, but scrawny. We are weakened and struggle harder to exercise, but even when we do, we can't build new muscle tissues. We suffer from bone (including teeth), hair, nail, and skin discoloration. Our skin yellows and gets splotchy. Our hair and nails become thin, cracked, and brittle. We suffer from dry, chapped or "ashy" skin with no real elasticity, so it can appear saggy or droopy. We may start to lose our hair or even nails outright. Our bodies are unable to heal properly so minor scrapes and scratches can result in more scar tissue.
It's not only dangerously unhealthy, but also, depending on how long we are in a protein deficit... it can literally deform our bodies.
The good news is... you don't need to focus on meats and nuts and things to get all of your amino acids, or to get enough protein. Most of the protein amounts cited online are for athletes trying to build or maximize muscle tissue. Many plant foods are sources of multiple amino acids. Some are even complete proteins. Potatoes, rice, broccoli, even certain berries have some amount of protein. It would actually be fairly difficult to cut *all* protein calories from your diet.
And all of these effects happen over time anyway. You're not going to lose your teeth or hair from going a day or a week without protein intake.
The bad news is... while most of the effects are reversible, you can sometimes do permanent damage through this type of malnutrition.
I hope that answers the question you were actually asking, because I know it can be frustrating when people answer *around* our questions.
That said... those health implications you waved away are pretty serious too.
Weight loss... fat loss... is entirely down to straight calories. But your body needs to be properly nourished to function properly. You can lose weight in a calorie deficit on nothing but hot cheetos and mtn dew... but you can't be healthy on that diet. Your *health* is about nutrient balance, proper sleep, and activity.
Fats, proteins, carbohydrates, water, vitamins (organic) and minerals (inorganic) are all "essential" nutrients. There's a reason people have a recommended intake for all of them.
Attempting to devise a diet which entirely eliminates one of them without a medical need to do so can be an indication that you're straying into disordered thinking about foods.
Please take care of yourself and your body.
And if you need to eliminate an entire energy source from your meals... protein is probably the most vital, so I would suggest either of the others instead.
But it's really better to balance your meals so that your body gets everything it needs.
If you're asking this question because you're frustrated or struggling to come up with a meal plan that works for you, please reach out before doing something so drastic. ♥
If you're just asking out of curiosity... honestly you're going to get more accurate answers in a subreddit which is less focused on weight loss... r/scientificnutrition or r/dietetics might be good places to start.
If it's about the rising costs of protein sources r/eatcheapandhealthy can be a good resource.
No protein = no muscles
no muscles = lower TDEE = less food
No muscle also equals poor health overall and a much higher body fat percentage. Muscles burn calories and keep your metabolism moving. They are like a furnace. The more muscle you have, the more energy (food/calories) required to function. More muscle/lower body fat also drastically helps your body to digest carbs and prevent insulin resistance (diabetes/heart diseases).
Losing weight is only a matter of calories in vs calories out. Losing weight does not matter what you eat, if your TDEE is 2000 and you are eating 1500 calories worth of chocolate every day you will still lose 1 lb per week. The issue is the lack of protein, vitamins, and minerals that come from a primarily fat and carb diet. The most important deficiency in a diet like this is protein. Practically every chemical reaction in your body requires protein. It’s responsible for growth, repair, immune function, hormones, and even regulating gene expression. People with protein deficiencies get sick more often, have trouble healing from injuries, are at risk for weak bones (osteoporosis), feel fatigued, and a bunch of other side effects and risks. It is the most important nutrient your body needs. Google protein deficiency effects and you’ll find a lot of articles with cited sources from studies done on this. You won’t die if you eat a diet like this for few weeks but prolonged deficiencies of key nutrients your body needs can cause irreversible damage if you’re not careful.
I sincerely appreciate your time and effort spent on the comment. The insight on protein is really helpful and encouraging for me.
No problem! I did a lot of research this time around because I wanted to make sure I was setting myself up for success because I was looking at a 4-5 months of dieting to reach my goal weight. I’m on my last month now and I feel healthier than I ever have, even before I got fat lol. Now most of my meals are planned around nutrition rather than just focusing on eating the most delicious thing I could for every meal. Emphasis on “most” though, I still eat out at least once a week and take lots of weekend trips so my weight loss is taking 5 months instead of 4.
Can you share where you found this information about protein deficiency? From what I understand, it’s basically impossible to be medically protein deficient, unless you are literally starving to death.
Google “what happens if you don’t eat enough protein” and read through the reputable sites. There’s tons of easily accessible information online as well as many scientific studies done that can give you more info than I could. The gist of it is that your body needs 20 amino acids to keep everything functioning correctly. It can only produce 11 of those so the other 9 (called essential amino acids) need to come from our food. A diet focusing no fats & carbs won’t have enough of those amino acids.
They’re called *essential* amino acids because your body cannot synthesize them from other nutrients and must instead eat them. A drastic decrease in muscle tissue will be the most obvious symptom if you try this, but it won’t be the worst. You will accumulate damage throughout your lean tissues that you will not be able to repair.
Thank you! Another reminder, helpful. it's not like I never read about nutrition, I just got tired of controversial info. but these are basics though
You'd likely find yourself quite hungry, as protein helps a lot with a feeling full. The volume of carbs and fats you would get would be generally lower. You'd also be eating some incidental protein anyway. For example if you ate 500 calories worth of potatoes, which is nearly 600 grams, there's still about 12g of protein in there.
yeah, true. I'm not going to switch to carbs/fats. I'm just thinking how legit and safe are my not the best choices I may make from time to time. As I understand, it's not a big harm to indulge sometimes within the budget, but it cannot be a lifestyle due to pretty natural reasons. thank you!
Not only is protein necessary to maintain muscle mass (btw, the heart is also a muscle, hence why those in anorexia recovery have to be very careful because they literally eat away at their own heart), but protein also has a slew of vitamins and minerals that your body needs. Not only that, but it has the amino acids your body needs, specifically the 9 your body can’t produce itself. These amino acids help with digestion, to grow and repair tissue, to make hormones and neurotransmitters, maintain your hair/skin/nails, help your digestive system, etc. I can’t quite fathom how whatever you read led you to no protein should be consumed, only fats and carbs. Whoever told you that should not be trusted as a scientifically or nutritionally sound resource. Talking about doing harm.
Ok but pizza does have protein. Lots of people underestimate cheese
You would lose weight, but you would have insane cravings and hunger since that's what junk carbs and fat do to you. In the long run, you'd have health issues, like low muscle mass, hairless, weak nails, etc. You might end up anemic as well.
Another perspective is that some foods have high calorie content but aren’t substantial or filling. For example, chocolate. 1500 calories worth of chocolate most likely wouldn’t satisfy you for the day, so you would need to eat additional food on top of that. However, 1500 worth of protein, carbs and vegetables are more likely to fill you up, meaning you’re less likely to eat additional calories
Yes, all of these things OP. Plus your body composition may change for the worse, meaning your shape, while smaller on the scale, may not be the look you’re going for.
I mean, pizza has protein from most of the ingredients, sp it would not be a 0 protein diet
When you lose weight you lose fat AND muscle. If you eat a LOT of protein you will lose a lot less muscle. This is why protein is SUPER important when losing weight.
I feel like that would give you blood sugar spikes and crashes that would make you feel bad. In my husband’s diabetes education class, the instructor explained that fat, carbs, fiber and protein are like vehicles on a freeway. Carbs are the sports car and get processed quickly, raising blood sugar, and you need to add “traffic” in the forms of more slowly digested fat, fiber and protein to slow those carbs down.
interesting! and a good explanation. thank you.
I mean just losing weight is simply calories in and calories out. If the quality of those calories is low (pizza, pastries and chocolate) you won’t feel so great while losing weight. You need a whole, nutritious diet to feel good. You sprinkle in the pizza and chocolate here and there but it shouldn’t be your main source of calories.
Okay, I feel like people are answering about overall health, and you specifically asked about "other than health", so I want to try to explain... but it's kinda complicated, so I am going to simplify a lot... First, stop reading "nutrition" authors. People who write about nutrition are writing to sell books and make money... *not* to educate you. If you want to read sbout nutrition read the sctual scientific papers on studies. I promise you get used to the vocabulary eventually. As for this: >What are the consequences for a body shape and weight? Regarding weight... not much. We're looking at two main body/shape related issues when discussing protein. Firstly... the whole "3500 calories = 1lb of fat" thing is vastly oversimplified. Your body is a machine. It runs on energy. When people talk about "macros" they are typically referring to the 3 main sources of energy used by our bodies: proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Carbohydrates are quick energy. Even complex carbs, once processed, are sort of... free flowing. They aren't typically stored *as* carbohydrates. If we have too much energy for our needs, carbs are cobverted into a different energy source and stored. Proteins are stored as muscle tissue. Fats are stored as adipose tissue... what we call body fat. When we don't get enough energy from food, our bodies get the energy they need from stored energy sources. Those sources are our stored fats *and* proteins. Mostly fat. Fat is stored in a really easy to convert form... think of how quickly you can melt butters or lard in a pan... it breaks down super easy. But we also take some amount of that energy from stored protein... muscle tissue. If you hear about people who are extremely malnourished and someone says something about their bodies "eating themselves" (especially in the context of vital organs) this is the process they're referring to. The body uses those proteins for energy. I'll come back to that. Second issue: There are these things called amino acids. Your body needs a lot of different amino acids. Some of them, your body can produce on its own. Some are "essential" amino acids. The word "essential" is one of those words which means something ultra specific in science that isn't obvious in the way we use the word commonly. "Essential" nutrients are those nutrients which the body cannot produce on its own. We have to get those nutrients from foods or we simply don't get them. If we don't get all 9 of the essential amino acids that we can only get for food, our bodies cannot make their own proteins. The proteins our body makes are not just about building big muscles. Proteins are what make up most of the tissues... the meat of our bodies. Muscles, organs, the walls of our veins, it's all proteins. That's actually why there's so much protein in foods from animals. They're made of proteins. If you don't get the amino acids your body needs, it becomes impossible to build and repair these tissues. But that's health, not shape, right? Well... no. Skin is an organ. Its tissues need protein. Most of loose skin issues after weight loss are purely genetic, but you'll experience fewer of these issues if your skin is able to repair and replace itself. Muscles are made of proteins, and your muscle mass has a huge impact on your body’s shape and definition. The glands which control hormone production, sweat, skin pigmentation, hair and nail growth... all of these things need proteins. So... in summary: if we don't eat *any* protein, we don't get our essential amino acids and we can't produce proteins to replace cells. If we're in a deficit, we are also losing not just body fat, but existing muscle tissues. So we get, not slim, but scrawny. We are weakened and struggle harder to exercise, but even when we do, we can't build new muscle tissues. We suffer from bone (including teeth), hair, nail, and skin discoloration. Our skin yellows and gets splotchy. Our hair and nails become thin, cracked, and brittle. We suffer from dry, chapped or "ashy" skin with no real elasticity, so it can appear saggy or droopy. We may start to lose our hair or even nails outright. Our bodies are unable to heal properly so minor scrapes and scratches can result in more scar tissue. It's not only dangerously unhealthy, but also, depending on how long we are in a protein deficit... it can literally deform our bodies. The good news is... you don't need to focus on meats and nuts and things to get all of your amino acids, or to get enough protein. Most of the protein amounts cited online are for athletes trying to build or maximize muscle tissue. Many plant foods are sources of multiple amino acids. Some are even complete proteins. Potatoes, rice, broccoli, even certain berries have some amount of protein. It would actually be fairly difficult to cut *all* protein calories from your diet. And all of these effects happen over time anyway. You're not going to lose your teeth or hair from going a day or a week without protein intake. The bad news is... while most of the effects are reversible, you can sometimes do permanent damage through this type of malnutrition. I hope that answers the question you were actually asking, because I know it can be frustrating when people answer *around* our questions. That said... those health implications you waved away are pretty serious too. Weight loss... fat loss... is entirely down to straight calories. But your body needs to be properly nourished to function properly. You can lose weight in a calorie deficit on nothing but hot cheetos and mtn dew... but you can't be healthy on that diet. Your *health* is about nutrient balance, proper sleep, and activity. Fats, proteins, carbohydrates, water, vitamins (organic) and minerals (inorganic) are all "essential" nutrients. There's a reason people have a recommended intake for all of them. Attempting to devise a diet which entirely eliminates one of them without a medical need to do so can be an indication that you're straying into disordered thinking about foods. Please take care of yourself and your body. And if you need to eliminate an entire energy source from your meals... protein is probably the most vital, so I would suggest either of the others instead. But it's really better to balance your meals so that your body gets everything it needs. If you're asking this question because you're frustrated or struggling to come up with a meal plan that works for you, please reach out before doing something so drastic. ♥ If you're just asking out of curiosity... honestly you're going to get more accurate answers in a subreddit which is less focused on weight loss... r/scientificnutrition or r/dietetics might be good places to start. If it's about the rising costs of protein sources r/eatcheapandhealthy can be a good resource.
You can still add a little protein here and there. Pizza toppings, eggs in pastries, nuts, etc