It was just a smartass comment because I have noticed a distinct correlation between people who like eating protein and telling everyone around them to do the same, and people who heap mockery upon ketone measurements.
The TLDR version is; I’m still eating between 1g and 1.5g / kg LBM.
But since I’m going down this rabbit hole
There is no real evidence that more than 1.5g/kg LBM has any benefit. And there is adequate evidence that less than 1g could be inadequate - hence the range that I personally try to stay within is 1-1.5g/kg LBM, and it’s what I suggest at the top of each of our podcasts.
But there are plenty of opinions on the internet that more protein is better, and even some that there is no effective limit for protein, and you will generally find among people who hold that view also believe that measuring ketones is somehow ridiculous.
Why would the 2 things be linked? Well many people who measure ketones find their ketones go down when they eat a lot of protein, and there is a biochemical reason why that happens (amino acids replete oxaloacetate).but the net effect of fewer ketones is that we have to make more glucose to fuel our brains - and that means we need to use more protein to make glucose … and that means we need to eat more protein.
For the record I don’t track my ketosis. I don’t eat carbs so I’m in ketosis. But protein requirements can be a slippery slope once you stop burning fat, so I like to stay below that point as much as I can and get my energy from fat (either on my body or on my plate).
As I mentioned there are opinions that there is no effective limit to protein, on the internet from physicians with inadequate body fat to hide their abdominal muscles … by way of their bone fides of course.
The truth is that too much protein killed a 25 year old student paramedic in Perth, Australia a few weeks ago. She was on a protein sparing modified fast cutting for a body building competition and although she didn’t know it she had a semi-rare (1:8000) genetic mutation that meant she couldn’t make enough of an important enzyme that helps our livers convert the waste product from protein (AMMONIA) into something we can filter into urine and get rid of (UREA). Most people with her condition are identified as children, so she must have had a very mild form to have remained undiagnosed until it killed her.
Not everyone has this woman’s genetic deficiency. People who want to eat more protein are welcome to experiment, and I would suggest doing so under the guidance of a doctor who is willing to schedule you for regular circulating ammonia tests to make sure that that is not building up in your body.
For reference the amount of Nitrogen taken in as protein that saturates most peoples ability to synthesize urea is roughly 0.53 g/kg LBM - which works out to be roughly 3.3g of Protein/kg LBM.
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC333026/
Any experts on the internet telling you that 3.5g to 4.4g seems to be optimum are giving out dangerous advice unless they are telling you to track circulating ammonia with a regular blood test. You might be a mutant who can handle those kinds of loads of ammonia.