I just completed a 3 month trial of eating high protein while maintaining a low level of ketosis. Prior to this trial I was eating about 60 g of protein daily with a lean body mass of 95 lbs. Lab tests indicated I had reversed all of my symptoms of metabolic syndrome/pre-diabetes and I wanted to see if I could leverage my now excellent insulin sensitivity to put on some muscle with lots of high quality proteins, BCAAs, etc.
I switched from eating one meal a day of 60 g protein to two meals daily with 60 g protein each though only boosting my daily calories to roughly 2000/day from 1500/day. After 6 weeks it appeared to be going excellent, I had gained 3 lbs and skin fold calipers showed no increase in subcutaneous fat. Tape measure showed increases in calves, thighs, biceps, etc. and I thought I was looking increasingly good in the mirror.
Getting excited I went to 3 meals daily of 60-70g protein per meal and roughly 2500 calories daily. All seemed great for another 3 weeks then I started noticing some of my pre-diabetic issues returning, insomnia, night sweats, frequent urination, increasingly erratic blood sugar though the average continued dropping to my lowest ever of 72 mg/dl. I cut my protein back by roughly 10 g per meal.
After the 3 months I had another dexa scan. I was up 7.5 lbs but only 3 was gained muscle. I also gained 0.1 lbs of bone, 0.5 lbs of visceral fat and it looks like much of the rest was intramuscular fat. My muscles are indeed bigger but much of it is fat.
I have a genetic muscle wasting disease, SBMA, so my results might be unusual. My thinking is we are all unique and we shouldn’t place too much stock in research or statistics. We each need to experiment and find out what works for us. I shared my story mainly to illustrate that we need to keep our eyes open for pitfalls as it is easy to ignore them and only see what we want to see.
