Protein leverage hypothesis

#1

Anyone here intrigued about the protein leverage hypothesis?
It is the explanation I was looking for as to whatever happened to me, as I ate healthy all my life, but always falling short with proteins.
I think the theory can well complement a keto diet and the traditional explanations of hyperinsulinemia deranging metabolism etc.

You can find better descriptions by googling, but basically the finding of these two researchers from Sydney, SJ Simpson SJ and D Raubenheimer, is that throughout the animal kingdom, from crickets to lions, including humans, it can be observed that while consumption of carbohydrates and fats varies wildly, the consumption of proteins is usually constant. For humans it stays around a value of 15% of dietary energy. When less proteins are available all animals, and humans alike, will naturally increase dietary consumption so as to offset the lesser %. Animals would eventually migrate to more favorable areas if the lack of proteins persists, or otherwise their body would become sterile for ex., that is shut down anything not vital.

In 2012 a randomized controlled experimental study was done to test the PLH on humans: 22 lean humans were divided in 3 groups that were given for 4 days a similar diet, in the first group proteins were 10% of the total, in the second group 15% and in the third 25%. They could all eat ad libitum.

The result is that the first group ate averagely 12% more calories than the other two groups, confirming the theory that when “dietary protein is diluted with carbohydrate and fat, overconsumption is promoted, enhancing the risk for potential weight gain”.

Also, typically an inadequate intake of proteins reflects immediately in the health of the liver. I don’t have at the moment a link about that, but fatty liver is a typical occurrence because of the glucogenesis needing enough aminoacids or something, but I’d have to look it up.

The research around this PLH is at its infancy, especially under a strictly nutritional angle, as the initial hypothesis had been elaborated with a wider angle, I think one of the two researchers is a zoologist or something like that.

#2

The two researchers have published a book in 2012:

https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Nutrition-Unifying-Framework-Adaptation/dp/0691145652/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1534256607&sr=8-2&keywords=the+nature+of+nutrition

btw they’re both zoologists
Raubenheimer is a leading expert of nutritional ecology, Simpson is more of an entomologist.

It’s a book of nutritional biology, so not a diet book! I would probably get lost at page 2…

(German Ketonian) #3

I think much of this is subjective just as is protein intake in general. For me protein does nothing for satiety. I need to be disgusted with my fat intake in order to stop eating…

#4

Maybe your body naturally aims at no more than 15% proteins, which is the ideal rate for humans, according to PLH, and that’s why you’re drawn to fats, so the % of proteins on dietary energy doesn’t get uncomfortably high.

I don’t know, keto has its own particularities.

Also, it all comes to whether you exercise. In such case I think you need to subtract the calories expenditure from the dietary energy. So if you eat the same diet, if you exercise the protein% is higher than if you don’t. Which is kind of thinking upside down what everyone thinks, that if you exercise you better eat more proteins. According to PHL, if I am not mistaken, logic would say that you should eat more fats and carbs (if you eat carbs) if you exercise.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #5

Given what Dr. Bikman’s lab has demonstrated about protein with carbs, I don’t think one should take extra protein as a license to eat more carbs.

That said, I generally keep my protein pretty high, macrowise, for a keto dieter, and I generally down regulate total calories. But it’s the carbs. And the linoleic acid. reducing both of those produces the result for me.

#6

Well I agree with that. I think the main idea is to go in the opposite direction, that is, you wanna see what happens when you give your body less diluted proteins.
My personal experience, still brief mind you, is that after I gave myself consistently 16-18% protein/tot Cal, the appetite dropped (on the 3° day). That would reasonably lead me to expect weight loss, as a consequence of adopting just this dietary rule. And not just a small weight loss. That’s why the theory is called Protein Leverage, because a very tiny variation in protein % has great leverage and can lead to massive changes in time (just after 4 days, the 10% group was already eating 12-20% more calories than the 15% group, which is A LOT).
(It also depends on how bad is my insulin situation, and whether such bad insulin situation is organically addressed by the body once the 15% benchmark of proteins is insured, without additional measures on my part)
Under 15 >> body wants more
Above 15>> body has enough with less

Now, in the study with the groups at 10%, 15%, and 25% there wasn’t actually any difference between the behavior of 15% and 25%. But I think this may have been because these men were lean. If instead you take an overweight body and give it consistently less diluted protein, it’s not unreasonable to expect that the body will take this as an opportunity to drop appetite and take care of the excess of body fat. That’s the drift. Thinking that bodies are intelligent, and the only reason why they seem to have acted absurdly is that it was more crucial for them in terms of survival to offset the excessive protein dilution than to stay lean.

Btw also within keto it could be useful to check that %, as it’s amazing how fats can dilute it, obviously because fats have a lot of energy. I am tracking the % very closely and I am constantly surprised at how easy it is to inadvertently dilute the protein.

#7

Good explanatory article, don’t get irked up by some dubious statements that are only the personal opinion of the writer, they have nothing to do with PLH.

#8

Exceprt from the book, it’s the chapter about PHL and human nutrition

Lecture of prof. Simpson at the Australian Academy of Science