Help Me Help A Friend: Protein

I have a friend who I’m in a bet with. The bet is to see who can lose the most bf% quatified as percent difference. It’s not accurate but we are using a Tanita scale and since we started with that we have to finish with that as it is the baseline.

He’s taken the running 5 days a week and lifting approach. he’s lost weight. He’s happy.

I myself have taken to more of the no nosense nutrtion, carb cycling, lifting 3 days a week as close to full body I can each day with 30 minutes of incline walking on the off days and a complex on Sunday.

Suffice it to say…I’m winning. And handily.

Now i don’t care about winning (even though a steak anywhere in chicago is on the line) as my own personal goal (and resolution) is to get down to 10% and stay there. I’m making progress and doing well. I just got back to running today even though it was short I was able to run at a pretty good clip for 60 seconds after full recovery…but I digress.

His problem is his genetics. He has a history of high cholestorol and heart disease on both sides of the family. His grandfather died of heart disease and his mom had it as well. So I commend him for making this change. Though the premise of the best was so the guys in it besides me could look good for their weddings this year.

The help I need is hear: he feels too much protein is bad for you. That is a quote by the way “too much protein is bad for you”. Now he didn’t say red meat. he didn’t say chicken. He didn’t say fish.

He just said protein. He even went so far as to say too much chicken is bad for you. Oh and too many eggs are bad too because of hte cholestorol.

Now may be because I don’t have a history of high cholestorol (wait…my mom…maybe) but I do know dietary cholestorol does not effect your bodies levels of cholestorol unless you are genetically predisposed to not be able to regulate the cholestorol your body already makes.

So in short I was wondering what articles T-Nation had to convince him, at least of a dissenting opinion, that it’s okay to eat protein. Because while I want to win…he looked pretty sad when he said he “can’t lose anymore weight”.

Sure I know his diet could be tightened up but I’ve been down this road before with him and had this conversation. I just want dissenting articles about protein ingestion, cholestorol, and heart disease.

Check out the Protein Roundtable and articles by Lonnie Lowery im sure he’;s hit on this and man there are tons of thread etc on it. Heck maybe even read the Anabolic Diet book. Atkins etc

Phill

The premise behind the “too much protein is bad for you (or your kidneys and/or liver, etc)” is all based on how protein is metabolised.

Some moron concluded that because high protein diets mean more urea in the kidneys (which is hard on the kidneys) this simply mean that high protein = kidney distruction.

Wrong. Urea is a byproduct that is EASILY flushed out with water. High protein diet + zero water intake over the long term, sure, you’re bound to have kidney damage.

But come the fuck on…drink your 1 gallon of water a day, eat protein until you feel you’re gaining (or losing) the way you want, and stop worrying.

www.ast-ss.com/research/cribb/research_reviews/
rr_full_text.asp?rrID=491

www.ast-ss.com/dev/qa_search/full_text.asp?ID=1590

www.ast-ss.com/dev/qa_search/full_text.asp?ID=1331

As is well stated in these articles - ask the doctor or anyone else making sure false statements to back it up with a scientific study showing high protein diets (1-2g per pound of bodyweight) produces damage in any way. I’m talking humans + high protein diet over 3 months or more in a peer reviewed study.

Good luck. You won’t find it.

Good job on motivating your friend!
Cheers,
AT