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

[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.