Macros for Low Carb: Less Protein, More Fat?

Nutrition
1

My current macros at low carb are:

protein: 2,2 g/kgLBM
fats: 1,0 g/kgLBM
carbs: 100 g

I felt lack of energy when working at 10 reps @ 55%. Yes, 55. I completed the set but, I needed to pause, down on the safe bars, betwen the 7th to the 8th rep. I already felt in the (far) past this lack of energy and, at that time, it was due to a very large caloric deficit.
Obviously I felt other ‘signals’ of fatigue, such as feeling tired to finish 50%-60 sets of snatch complexes, tired to change plates on deadlift, etc. All these signals I didn´t feel when I was at a low fat-high carb diet.

But I need to change and stay at low carb for other reasons, including medical issues.

So, my question is if I change my macros previously presented to this one below, will I feel more energy?

protein: 1,6 g/kgLBM
fats: free up to reach my estimated 0,8 x TDEE
carbs: 100 g

Basically, the difference is that this proposed one decreased the protein intake for its minimum and used the remaining calories all dedicated to total fats. Carbs still at 100 g.

Please, disregard other variables such as sleep time/cortisol, training frequency, intensity, etc, because they are all pretty adjusted.

*EDIT: I changed the GCD (it was in other language…) to the right one: TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure)

2

What medical condition “requires” you to eat only 100 grams of carbs? There’s nothing necessarily wrong with being around 100 grams of carbs to avoid blood sugar swings but insulin sensitivity will improve on diets with more than 100 grams a day as long as calories are below maintenance, and blood sugar spikes can easily be managed on more than 100 grams of carbs a day.

If I ate the macros you recommend per bodyweight, I’d be eating over 1000 calories sub-maintenance per day, and that’t with just a maintenance level of resistance training and no physical activity in my job. With that amount of a deficit, you will radically improve insulin sensitivity no matter how you break down your macros, at least until you start to lose muscle.

Weight, age and activity level would help, but its not going to work long term to eat a 1000+ calorie sub maintenance diet. There is going to be a reduction in energy levels, and they should improve over a couple of weeks as your body taps into body fat more easily.

3

sorry, I made a typo mistake. I put GCD instead of TDEE, ok?

So, my daily intake is 80% of my TDEE, i.e., a 20% caloric deficit.

The 100 g/carbs is low carb. This is why I am interested to follow. My question and the reason of the post is about low carb macros, specifically if increasing the fat macro I would be capable of have more energy not being in ketosis.

Age, activity levels and other variables, as I previously mentioned are ok (as I wrote previously, I had enough energy to my training sessions). But, if you or any other collegue do consider important, here they are:

age/height/weight/BF: 50yo / 1.83m / 135 kg / ~35%
work activity: academic (professor)
sports activity: weighlifting 3x/week; light cardio 3x/week
issues: type 2 diabetic, high blood pressure

Thank you for your feedback

4

100 grams of carbs will keep blood sugar levels stable. Are you on Lantus? Meal time insulin? Or just oninsulin sensitizers like metformin or able to manage with diet? If you are able to get you blood sugar coming in around 100 at breakfast then 100 grams of carbs will produce good control and also tend to lower blood pressure but if you want to increase long term insulin sensitivity, weight loss is most important regardless of breakdown of carbs and fat in the diet. So the second plan sounds like a better start because you can always lower the fat a little more if your energy level is OK. Some people though improve insulin sensitivity better on more carbs and less fat as long as sugar and alcohol are kept down. Carbs tend to result in desensitized insulinnreceptors while fat can fill up muscle cells and make them resistant. Liver insulin resistance is mostly due to sugar and alcohol. I’ll give you more details tomorrow. Did you eat a lot more carbs growing up or fats? Did you take in sugar and or alcohol? Are you of southern Indian descent? Who has diabetes in your family line?

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5

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes on 2011. From that time to present days, it happened three stages.

First I followed a doctor prescription: high insuline doses combined with vidalgliptine. At this time I began a caloric deficit diet and returned to the gym (weights + cardio).
During this time, when I did blood sugar daily measurements, I noticed the numbers began to return to normal condition.

Second, 2013-2016, I began to decrease the doses of both meds, until I discard all meds, only with diet+exercises. Glicemic curve and HbA1c tested normal during this time.
Macros were: ~1,6 g/kgLBM; 0,66 g/kgLBM; ~175 to 200 g of carbs. Emma Leigh prescribed this fat ratio and, at some point, she passed to 1 g/kgLBM, I don´t know why.
I droped from 142 kg to 118 kg.

Third, 2017-2018, I faced problems at work, togheter with familiar problems. The food was taken as a ‘drug’. It was not a time such as a vaction period. At the second phase I allways had period cheat days, chet meals, 7 days cheating meals, etc. I am still facing problems. Now, on July, it completed a year in such condition. I lost every pound and returned to 140 kg.
But the main problem was not the weight that could be previously beaten by diet+exercises. My blood sugar levels did not drop anymore and things began to be very dificult.

Before returning to meds, I tested a 5-day-low-carb droped considerably my blood sugar levels. The only problem was related to energy during the exercises. But, from yesterday from today, I noticed that 1g/kgLBM of fats combined with 100 g of carbs left me without any source of energy!
So, I am very interested to proceed to a 30-day-100g-carb trial.

Thank you again for the advice

6

Since you were able to normalize blood sugar with exercise, diet and weight loss before, and since your blood sugar still responds well to a low carb diet, you still have significant production of your own insulin. (When your pancreas fails completely, your blood sugar will actually rise even when you don’t eat, such as overnight because your pancreas can not even produce enough basal insulin to manage your natural liver release of glucose into the bloodstream.) So if you don’t have large blood sugar rises overnight, then you are still making enough basal insulin which is usually about 30% of your total daily needs if you are eating a maintenance level diet.

Blood sugar can be in good range though, but you can still be releasing a lot of insulin to keep it managed meaning that your pancreas still can be over-stressed. The first goal is to reduce stress on the pancreas to extend its lifespan. People who have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes have been able to maintain pancreatic function indefinitely with weight loss and exercise.

Since your insulin resistance and pancreatic stress are both due to being overweight and you get a good response from weight loss, you probably don’t have a) genetic insulin receptor insulin resistance or b) an immune system problem that attacks the pancreas or insulin receptors. (It is believed now that forms of more aggressive type 2 diabetes, especially in leaner people are due partially to an autoimmune disease like in type 1 diabetes). So in other words, your insulin resistance is almost certainly due only to being overweight, having excess fat in the liver and around body tissues (visceral fat) and from having high exposure to insulin. The good news is that that is the most reversible.

Even though lower carbs will keep blood sugar levels in good range, which will protect your kidneys and eyes and heart for now, too much fat will still make it harder to improve insulin sensitivity. Anyway, as I said, I like the second approach, though at your weight, 100 grams of carbs is very low. At your weight actually even around 180 grams of carbs, such as 60 grams 3x a day would probably give good blood sugar control, but I would keep carbs at or under 180 grams a day, and total calories at a deficit, however, at your weight, deciding what your maintenance calorie levels are can be tricky because it depends a lot on what your real lean bodyweight is.

Lastly for now, if your pancreas is giving out, it can reduce energy because low insulin levels mean that your cells are not making enzymes to burn glucose for fuel. When your energy is low, it is important to check blood sugar and determine whether it is high or in good range. If it is high and you have low energy then you are not making enough insulin. If it is is a good range say under 125 when you feel low energy then you still have plenty of insulin.

Are you on a statin at this time?

1 Like
7

Thank you for this description!

Right now I am only on some meds for high blood pressure. But I would bet that tomorrow morning, fasted, the measurement will be bellow 140 mg/dl (today I closed my meals at 143/prot; 120g/fats; and 97g/carbs). And the day after tomorrow… something below 130…

Thanks mertdawg