Low Protein Day Help

coach, or anyone for that matter…

i am not having trouble understanding the concept of why we should have a low protein day, but i did have some other questions.

what type of carbs should we be eating on this day? fruits? vegetables? complex carbs?

and if we do eat veggies, should we count the carbs in them towards the daily total?

is there a specific ratio of macronutrients that you follow on this day?
i.e 10% protein 75% carbs and 15% fat? or something similar?

i was also wondering that, although you recommend this day to be an off day, could we still do some low intensity cardio on this day? or would that be detrimental?

thanks and any feedback is much appreciated

The theory behind a low protein day is that it puts your body into a protein sparing/storing mode vs a protein metabolizing mode. My understanding is that it is mostly recommended for people with a very high daily protein intake. The day following your low protein day would then be very anabolic. I recommend you use the search function or do some more digging around. CT has touched on the details moreso in the past somewhere. I believe he also suggests not exceeding something like 80g of protein, having all 80g’s split into two meals consumed at night time.

The other option he mentioned was pulsing with casein hydrolysate. My only question with respect to this day is whether or not total calories remain the same and if then carbs and fats should then be increased in order to meet your caloric needs. Clearly carbs are protein sparing themselves, but then is someone using this protocol to only eat things like rice, pasta, veggies etc the rest of the day?

A post from Thibs from an earlier discussion on a low protein day:
“For the first half of the day go mostly with veggies, oils, small portions of nuts here and there, but go easy on the nuts to avoid ingesting too much slowly absorbed protein. And 1g of protein per pound might be a bit high for the low day. 0.5g per pound would be more effective. Also, during the whole day, except for the last two meals of the day, protein is to be kept as low as possible.”

If you are on a low-carbs diet go with veggies, a small amount of nuts, oil, small amount of beans.

If you are NOT on a low-carbs diet, fruit, veggies, oil, small amount of nuts or beans.

Hi guys, so what do you all consider High Protein and thus the need for a low-day??? I’m currently taking in 230-250 grams per day at a ratio of 1.5g per body weight.

[quote]brandon76 wrote:
Hi guys, so what do you all consider High Protein and thus the need for a low-day??? I’m currently taking in 230-250 grams per day at a ratio of 1.5g per body weight. [/quote]

Low protein is the bare minimum you need to properly function… around 0.3g per pound of body weight

Hey guys, On a low-protein day once a week, its to be done on an off day. Can this be done on a HIT Cardio day, but non lifting day? Or straight “no training of any type period.”

[quote]brandon76 wrote:
Hey guys, On a low-protein day once a week, its to be done on an off day. Can this be done on a HIT Cardio day, but non lifting day? Or straight “no training of any type period.” [/quote]

I would make it a non-training day, preferably. But cardio probably would not hurt much. Not much damage you can do in one day.

Would a Low-Protein day be beneficial on a low-carb diet? I imagine one would eat at the same caloric level, just increase the fats to make up the low protein aspect???

[quote]brandon76 wrote:
Would a Low-Protein day be beneficial on a low-carb diet? I imagine one would eat at the same caloric level, just increase the fats to make up the low protein aspect???[/quote]

Well. . . if you were doing a low protein day on a low carb diet, then you might as well just do the Anabolic Diet or some other form of carb cycling. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, just do a search for Anabolic Diet on this site.

Much has been written on it by those who know far more than me.

But I mean, if you are low carbing it, and want to tinker with a low protein day, it would seem to me that you are really entering into the realm of carb cycling, which history has proven to be a very effective way to lose fat while maintaining muscle mass (and some claim to gain muscle while losing fat, although I’m often told this is impossible).

Snew,

Thanks for that. I understand carb-cycling really well. But in this case with 10-15lbs of fat to lose…a low carb diet will be beneficial. Thus I think (not totally sure) that one low protein day out of seven would help maximize protein metabolism/storage and promote even better fat loss…

hhhhmmmmm.

Would using MAG-10 pulses as your protein source be optimal, or would a slower digesting protein be better, saving the MAG-10 for the next day to pulse to induce anabolism?