Why Fitness Hopeful Is Eating a High-Protein, High-Fiber, Moderate-Carb, Moderate-Fat Eating Plan

While Simply Determined talked about why she chose Atkins, I want to make the distinction that I’m not doing Atkins but another type of eating plan: a high-protein, high-fiber, moderate-fat, moderate-carb diet. I want to stress that there is no one-style-fits-all eating plan. You need to find a healthy, satisfying, long-term eating plan that you can stick to and that fits your lifestyle.

Looking for a Life-Long, Logical Eating Plan
Unlike Simply Determined, I’ve not tried various diets to lose weight. First of all, I was homeschooling, so the focus was not on me, although I should have made myself more of a priority. Second, I don’t trust most diets. I’m a scientist, so I need research to show me that the diet is safe. However, it also has to be logical, which may sound strange, but some diets just aren’t logical for the long term, like the grapefruit diet. I was looking for a life-long eating plan.

If you are like me, I was overwhelmed and confused by all the myriad claims, so I didn’t pursue anything. Some of the information was coming from supposedly more reliable sources, like doctors. They normally say eat a diet with 60% carbs, 20% protein, and 20% fat. However, I instinctively knew those percentages were wrong for me. Just the thought of eating a breakfast of cereal, milk, and orange juice has been repulsive to me for a very long time. Again, I instinctively knew this wasn’t right for me.

First Step: A Balanced Diet with a Few Less Carbs and High Fiber
Because my blood pressure was up and I had read something at one point about the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet (but I knew none of the particulars), I did some research on it. The diet appealed to me, not only because DASH did lower subjects’ blood pressures in clinical trials, but also because the diet was very logical, and the percentage of carbs (54%) was lower than the usual 60%. (If the carbs had been the usual percentage, I would have looked elsewhere.) A logical eating plan to me means a whole-foods balanced diet, low in processed foods and high in nutrient-dense foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole-grain products, and lean meats.

The more I read about the DASH diet, the more I liked it, and I learned that potassium, magnesium, and calcium are needed to regulate blood pressure.  (I’m bound and determined to get off my blood pressure medication.  I don’t want to be on anything.)  I also realized that I had to be quite deficient in those micronutrients since I had been skipping meals and eating way too few calories. I started on the DASH diet in October 2009 and also started a food diary, which I have faithfully kept since then.

The basics of the DASH diet are to eat 54% carbs, 20% protein, and 26% fat. Additionally, saturated fat should be kept to 6% or less with monounsaturated fat no more than 12% and polyunsaturated fat no more than 7%. Also, sodium should be kept to 1500 milligrams or less, cholesterol less than 200 milligrams, fiber 25 to 40 grams, potassium 4700 milligrams, and calcium (for my age) 1200 milligrams. I was absolutely thrilled to know all these numbers because I had been confused about all of this for so long.

As a note, usually, I wasn’t hungry in between meals (I’ve never been big on snacking), and when I was hungry, I ate a red, sweet bell pepper.

The Next Step Toward a High-Protein, Moderate Carb, Moderate Fat Diet
Within a few of weeks, I started to eat more protein, believing I needed less carbs. This part of my journey began when my husband read an article in Runner’s World magazine that said runners should eat 47% carbs. Wow! I then realized that no one could really tell me what a balanced diet meant to me because everyone is different, and everyone has different needs. While I wasn’t running yet (I was power walking), I lowered my carbs to 47% and raised my protein to 27%.

Without changing my total calorie consumption for the day, the new dietary change actually kept me full all the time in between meals. I never felt hungry at all and could go five to seven hours without feeling hungry. I believe this means that 47% carbs are the maximum I should eat.

After a few more weeks, I wondered what would happen if I lowered the carbs percentage even more and raised the protein, all the while keeping the fat at 26%. Being the curious, scientific type, I obliged my curiosity and fluctuated the numbers between 45% and 43% carbs. There seemed to be no difference between 47% and 43% carbs, although it would be great to know what that means internally for me.

I was afraid to lower the carbs any more because I didn’t know what was safe. However, a few weeks later, I read Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones for a Hot and Healthy Body! by Jillian Michaels, trainer on The Biggest Loser. In the book, she talks about starting at 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. I wasn’t too far off these numbers, but I didn’t change my percentages again until I did some more research to find out what was safe. Unfortunately, Micheals gave those percentages without any explanation of why those values were good to start with. This is one of the very few criticisms I have with the book.

Hunter-Gatherer Diets
I’ve often wondered how people came up with the 60% carb, 20% protein, and 20% fat values. I know the food pyramid has been influenced by various parts of the food industry because certain businesses didn’t like the values. I don’t like the idea of businesses telling me what ratios of macronutrients I should eat just so they can sell me more food. Therefore, I turned to a more unadulterated source: hunter-gatherer societies.

I looked at a fascinating study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (“The paradoxical nature of hunter-gatherer diets: meat-based, yet non-atherogenic”) regarding these societies. Amazingly, 73% of 229 societies studied derived more than 50% of their energy from animals. In fact, protein intake overall is 19-35% of the energy while carbs are an astonishingly low range of 22-40%. Fat is 28-58% of the diet. In the analysis, “fruit represented 41% of the total number of food items, seeds and nuts represented 26%, and underground storage structures (tubers, roots, and bulbs) represented 24%. The remaining 9% of the food items were leaves, dried fruit, flowers, gums, and miscellaneous plant parts.” Please keep in mind that these animals aren’t fed corn to fatten them up. They are lean animals.  Also, many of our Western edible plant parts have been specially bred to be more enticing, such as having more sugar.

While I felt much more comfortable with a 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat eating plan, I knew it could be dangerous to take eating habits out of context from the culture. For example, the French eat high-fat foods, but they don’t have the obesity problems that Americans have, even though Americans tend to eat a lot of high-fat, too. The French tend to eat smaller portions and less processed foods, as well as get more exercise.

Other Research
I did find three research studies, albeit with very small sample sizes, so I caution everyone not to take them as gospel. However, they are interesting in that they are looking at diets that aren’t just high carb. One titled “High-Protein, Low-Fat Diets Are Effective for Weight Loss and Favorably Alter Biomarkers in Healthy Adults,” published in The Journal of Nutrition, actually suggests that high-protein diets result in greater satisfaction and do have positive biochemical results. The second study titled “Comparison of high-fat and high-protein diets with a high-carbohydrate diet in insulin-resistant obese women” compares the Atkins diet (high-fat) to The Zone diet (high-protein). The third is titled “Comparison of a high-carbohydrate diet with a high-monounsaturated-fat diet in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus,” published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which has positive results for a high-monounsaturated-fat diet over the high-carb diet.

The Bottom Line
I’ve combined the saturated fat percentage (with small adjusts to the mono- and polyunsaturated-fat numbers) and micronutrients from the DASH diet with the high protein diet (40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat). I just finished my first week on this high-protein diet, and I lost more weight this week than I had in any previous week. Does that mean that these percentages are the best for me? I’m not sure, but I’m going to stick with these percentages for a few weeks to see what happens. I’ve lost over 40 pounds in 5 months before this, so it will be interesting to compare what happens from here.

The one important thing to note about high-protein diets is that calcium is pulled from the bones, so a higher calcium intake is needed. I suggest taking a multi-vitamin, calcium with vitamin D, and fish oil.

Sample Day’s Meals: (Note: percentages don’t necessarily add up do to rounding.  Also, expand the window to see all the values.)