Over the years, I’ve found one of the quickest ways to drop fat is to do a few protein days to start the week. We started doing this with the Lean for Life diet, but have incorporated it into our regular routines.
Although I get pretty sluggish toward the end, I usually feel great from a mental perspective. A part of that is also because I keep active despite not consuming a lot of carbs for energy.
What Are Protein Days?
Protein days are what they sound like; days where you consume most of your calories through proteins. This includes beef, chicken, pork, fish, eggs, some cheeses, milk, etc.
The idea is to reduce carb intake to force your body to burn fat instead of glucose for energy. That’s because your body uses carbs to turn into glucose.
Now, you don’t want to cut carbs out of your diet completely for an extended period. Glucose is the brain’s primary fuel supply and will affect everything from cognitive abilities to brain damage. However, humans don’t need 300g of carbs per day to survive.
In other words, you don’t need to wolf down that box of cupcakes to keep your brain healthy.
How My Protein Days Work
When I do a stretch of three protein days, it centers around putting my body into ketosis while keeping myself as active as I can. Of course, after a few days of reduced carb intake, the movements get a bit sluggish.
As long as you’re reducing the carb intake healthily, the risks are quite nominal. Of course, that also depends on the individual. Some people who already have problems with hypoglycemia may want to consult a physician before attempting most diet plans out there.
Getting Into Ketosis
Ketosis is essentially when you’re body is using fat for energy. You can determine this a few different ways, but perhaps the best is to use ketone test strips. These use a color-coded system to determine if you’re in ketosis and are a great addition to the keto diet and similar plans.
To get into ketosis, you have to limit your carbs to 20 to 50 grams per day. It’s all about eating healthy fats, which include things like meats, nuts, and fish. This is the premise of protein days.
Physical Activity
To give myself the best experience through the three days, I often increase my physical activity. The more I burn through movement, the more I lose on the scale. However, transitioning from carbs to fats for energy can wipe you out if you’re not ready for it.
I often get quite a bit slower by the third day. But when I tried the keto diet for six weeks, I was gaining energy back shortly afterward. That’s because my body was transitioning to use fat instead of carbs.
Keep in mind that everyone is different and will have varying experiences. All I can do is share what has worked for me in the past. It’s up to you to set up a safe regimen for your specific needs that is realistic with your long-term goals.
Blood Sugar Levels
One thing we added recently was monitoring blood sugar levels during experiments such as this. I have a slight issue with hypoglycemia and need to keep myself balanced during any diet.
You want to keep yourself above 70mg/dl. And you can find some great blood sugar level testing kits on Amazon to keep an eye on your levels. But anything below 70 is considered hypoglycemia, and anything below 54 requires immediate attention as you’re on the verge of causing some severe damage to yourself.
It’s always a good idea to keep a close eye on blood sugar levels no matter what diet you’re trying.
Case Study: How Much Weight Can I Lose in Three Days?
Over the next few days, I’m going to record some data regarding protein days and how they affect me overall. In the past, I’ve been able to shed quite a bit of fat in a relatively short amount of time. But as I am pushing 50 years old soon, I am curious if it’s still something that is feasible.
So, here is the spreadsheet I’ll be using:
High Protein, Low Carb Diet
Essentially, I’ll be committing to almost a keto-type diet whereas I’m keeping the protein high and the carbs as low as possible. The idea is to put my body in ketosis by the end, which causes the body to burn fat for energy instead of glucose.
This is the driving premise behind the keto diet as well as several others. It takes a bit of getting used to as your body needs to retrain where it pulls energy from and can cause you to feel tired and lethargic for a few days. But once your body starts pulling fat, you lose weight quite quickly.
In this instance, I’m going to do my best to keep the carb intake to under 50g per day. To do this, it’ll be mostly meats, eggs, and other high-protein foods and fewer Halloween chocolates!
12,500 Steps Per Day
I don’t just want to lose weight. I also want to improve my physical fitness. So, I’ll commit to reaching 12,500 steps per day through various activities. This includes things like walking, playing the Oculus, playing the Kinect, and anything else that can drive up the heart rate.
Why 12,500 steps? Because I really don’t have much time in the day to rack up much more than that. I am an exceptionally busy person who spends a great deal of time working at his computer. I also found that hitting 12,500 steps is my sweet spot for burning fat even when I’m not doing protein days.
This is one of the biggest reasons why I enjoy doing case studies on myself. I know where my limits are and what I’m capable of doing because I am always testing and challenging my limits…safely.
End Results
As this is a work in progress, I don’t have much to share in terms of results. But as soon as this micro-challenge is complete, I’ll update this post with the findings.
My record for weight loss in a three-day period was 16 pounds. A lot of that had to do with digesting the food from before the three protein days. And I was also about 25 when I did it. So, it’ll be interesting to see what happens now that I am a quarter-century older with a much slower metabolism.
What I Ate
I often keep track of everything I eat in MyFitnessPal. Even though Under Armour has screwed up the app nicely after buying it, MyFitnessPal still (kinda) works for what I need.
However, I’m going to list all of the foods I ate for the three days in case someone wants to try having protein days for themselves.
| Date | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Snacks |
| Friday, 9/27/2024 | ||||
| Saturday, 9/28/2024 | ||||
| Sunday, 9/29/2024 |
The Best Diet is the One That Works for You
There is no such thing as the “perfect” diet. Regardless of what people try to sell you, the best diet for you is the one that works for your needs. Not everyone has the same goals when it comes to losing weight or gaining fitness.
This is why I am always open to trying new things. I’ll never know what will become my favorite method unless I give it a shot and keep track of data objectively.
I used to think planks were dumb until I tried them for a week. Now, they are one of my favorite go-to ab exercises. This goes to show that you should never discredit something until you actually try it for yourself.
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