34: Understanding Macronutrients - Protein, Fat, And Carbohydrates In Human Nutrition

Michael Kummer: If you're not competing at the CrossFit Games or the Olympics, forget about counting calories, focus on protein intake. There is a great misconception that losing weight is just a matter of properly managing your calories in versus calories out. Carbs have really only one function. and that is energy.

Fat is incredibly important or fatty acids for cell membrane structure, for obviously insulation and protection. The question what are essential and non essential macronutrients? Well, essential basically means that the body cannot make them, so you need to get them from food. Animal based foods, which is why I prefer our animal based protein, which is why, you know, that's my preference over plant based alternatives, contain all the essential amino acids.

Whereas Plants generally do not contain all the essential amino acids. You're listening to the Primal Shift podcast. I'm your host Michael Kummer and my goal is to help you achieve optimal health by bridging the gap between ancestral living and the demands of modern society. Get ready to unlock the transformative power of nature as the ultimate biohack, revolutionizing your health and reconnecting you with your primal self.

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As a listener, you'll get 15 percent off your first OneSkin purchase with code mkummer. at oneskin. co. That's O N E S K I N. co. And now let's get back to the episode. I overeat every day, but maintain 8 percent body fat. In other words, I consume significantly more calories every day than I burn without getting fat.

How is that possible? Well, we're gonna talk about that in this episode of the Primer Shift podcast. Specifically, we'll discuss the crucial differences between protein, fat, and carbohydrates, or said differently, why not all calories are created equal. So just to give you an idea of how we're gonna structure that episode, I want to first talk about the role of protein, fat, and carbs in human metabolism, so you better understand what those macronutrients do and what the body can use them for.

We're gonna talk about the differences on how the body digests and absorbs those macronutrients, because that's crucial for understanding why not all calories are created equal. We're going to talk about the difference between essential and non essential macronutrients and their implications, the consequences of either over consuming or under consuming any of those macros, and some associated myths and misconceptions.

And then at the end I'm going to give you my recommendations and key takeaways that you can implement in your daily nutritional routine as well. But let's start with Number one, the role of protein, fat, and carbs in human metabolism. And specifically, let's talk about protein first, because arguably, or for me at least, protein is the most important micronutrient that I focus on with every single meal.

And that's because protein is super important for building and repairing tissue. And that doesn't only apply to muscle tissue, but tissue in general. You know, skin, it's the building blocks of skin cells, of enzymes and hormones. It does a lot of things. Specifically, it's also involved in enzyme production.

So many of the enzymes are proteins that speed up biochemical reactions in the body. And if you're low on that, if you have enzyme issues, then stuff is not gonna go right. So they are essential for, for example, digestion, energy production, blood clotting, and muscle contraction. All of that, thanks to proteins.

Protein is also involved in hormone regulations. There are certain hormones like insulin and growth hormone that are proteins and that play a significant role in the metabolism. You know, insulin is the fat storing hormone that takes glucose out of your bloodstream. Growth hormones, obviously, as the name already implies, involved in, you know, growth, muscle growth, tissue growth, etc.

Immune function. Also super important. Many of the antibodies are proteins that help the immune system fight off infections. So if you're low on protein, your immune system might be negatively impaired. We're going to talk about some of those consequences, um, here in a little bit. And then last but not least, proteins transport substances in the blood and thus, and store certain nutrients.

For example, hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells, transports oxygen. So as you can see, protein has a lot of functions beyond, you know, building muscle tissue. and beyond being a potential source of energy in the absence of dietary carbohydrates. We're going to talk about that as well. Maybe one thing that's worth explaining is that it's really the amino acids, the building blocks of protein, that are either essential or non essential.

In other words, there are essential amino acids and there are non essential amino acids and Animal based foods, which is why I prefer, or animal based protein, which is why, you know, that's my preference over plant based alternatives, contain all the essential amino acids, whereas plants generally do not contain all the essential amino acids.

A nuance to that, or another nuance to that is, generally speaking, animal based protein is significantly more bioavailable and easier to absorb for the body, which is another reason why I prefer sticking to animal based protein over plant based alternatives. But let's talk about fat real quick, how fat functions in the body.

Well, fat is incredibly important, or fatty acids, for cell membrane structure. for obviously insulation and protection. You know, if you would have no body fat, you would feel terribly cold, you know, if it's not warm outside. So it's an important factor in keeping you insulated as well as protecting the vital organs in your body.

It's also important for hormone production and regulating hormones. It's important for absorbing certain, well, fat soluble vitamins like vitamin A, D, E, and K, you know, you can only absorb them. in the presence of fat, which is why, you know, if you consume foods that contain those vitamins, it's also important to consume a source of fat.

So you enable your body to absorb those vitamins, otherwise they would not be usable for the body. Fat is also important for brain functions, specifically, you know, omega 3 fatty acids. And last but not least, fat is a source of energy, or can be a source of energy, specifically fatty acids. and some of the downstream products like ketones.

If you're on a ketogenic diet, you know, your body can burn predominantly fat, being fatty acids or ketones, for energy. So that's the function of fat in the human body. Now what about carbohydrates? Carbs have really only one function. And that is energy. That is it. You know, there is nothing else carbohydrates really do other than providing, turning into glucose as a form of fuel for certain cells that can use glucose as a form of energy.

Now that leads us to the question, what are essential and non essential macronutrients? Well, essential basically means that the body cannot make them, so you need to get them from food. And protein and fat are essential macronutrients, meaning that you need to get them from food because the body cannot make them.

Carbs, on the other hand, or glucose more specifically, you know, the byproduct of, of carb metabolism, is not essential, meaning that the body can make glucose in the absence of dietary carbohydrates. And that's through a process called gluconeogenesis. So theoretically, or practically also, the body can convert amino acids from protein or fats into glucose if you don't consume any carbohydrates.

So that's why it's carbs are non essential. You don't need to consume them. That doesn't mean you don't have, you should not consume them, but you don't have to for the body. to function. In many cases, I would argue function optimally. I mean, that's really the principle of a low carb diet, like a ketogenic diet, that, you know, your body just makes the glucose it needs from non carbohydrate sources.

Now, that process, I think, is a fail safe, is a backup process, so I don't necessarily think that we should rely on gluconeogenesis all the time. but it's certainly possible and you can live very well by not consuming carbs. Now, one thing that's worth mentioning in the context of carbohydrates is that there are different types of carbs, not only, you know, from the foods they come from, but there are sugars, there are starches, and there are fiber, you know, where there's fiber.

And sugars and starches convert to glucose in the body. So, they are sources of energy. Fiber is not usable by the body. You know, humans are not meant to consume fiber. I know there is this misconception that fiber is important for gut health because it feeds the bacteria in our gut. And while there is some truth to that, The fact is that humans do not need fiber for optimal gut health.

But, you know, just from a energy perspective, if you consume carbohydrates that are predominantly fiber, then very little of that, if any, is consumed as, or is used as fuel, the rest just goes through you into the toilet, you know? So that's also important and important consideration when we talk about the different ways of how the body uses and digests carbohydrates.

And from an energy perspective again, I was mostly talking about starches and sugars. So, let's talk about digestion. Because that's where a lot of confusion comes into the whole picture as far as counting calories is concerned. You know, There is a, the great misconception that losing weight is just a matter of properly managing your calories in versus calories out.

Meaning, you know, if you burn more calories than what you consume, you're losing weight. Or, looked at it from a different perspective, If you just consume a little fewer calories than what you need, then you'll be losing weight. And, you know, energy balance is certainly an important factor, you know, but here is the problem.

Not all calories from those three different types of macronutrients are the same thing in terms of how the body uses them. how the body digests them and absorbs them. So let's take a very simple example. Let's look at 100 calories worth of steak, right? If you consume 100 calories worth of steak, your body takes approximately 20 to 30 percent of those 100 calories to digest the meat.

It's called the thermic effect of food, right? So you need calories for digestion. So from those 100 calories that are in steak, you know, as part of the protein and fat, only 70 remain after digestion, right? So that's already a good chunk removed. And of the remaining 70 to 80 calories that, you know, after digestion, 70 percent of the protein calories and 50 percent of the fat calories are used for all the things I outlined before, meaning maintaining muscle tissue, making and regulating hormones, you know, etc, etc.

So what that means is that from the 100 calories you consume from that steak, only a fraction of those calories remain as a source of energy. So how does that compare to carbohydrates? Let's look at, you know, a slice of bread worth 100 calories or two slices of bread. I don't know how many calories is a slice of bread, but 100 calories worth of bread.

Well, 5 to 10 percent are used for digestion and the rest are used for energy. That means the net calories available from 100 calories worth of bread are significantly more than the same amount of calories from steak. Plus bread doesn't really have any nutritional value. So it's purely energy, a lot of energy.

relatively speaking, compared to the steak that you're getting from specifically processed carbohydrates. So that's why counting calories for if you want to lose weight is completely misguided. It doesn't work because you cannot really compare apples to oranges. You would have to look at what type of calories you eat and calculate the net calories you get that you the body can use for energy and then compare it.

The easier way is just to stick to eating a lot of protein and you know fat and don't worry about the caloric intake. You know, I don't count my calories and we're going to talk about here that a little bit how many calories I consume on a daily basis versus what I earn and it'll shock you specifically considering that, you know, the only weight I gain, if any, is muscle, you know, tissue, that's it, no fat, but let's talk about the consequences of overconsumption and potential deficiencies in some of those, you know, macronutrients.

Let's talk about protein deficiency first. Well, if you chronically under consume protein, you're going to get sick, you know, generally speaking. That might mean you're going to end up with reduced muscle mass, or your inability to gain muscle tissue, reduced bone density, poor immune function, again, you're going to be sick a lot, hormonal issues, and a lot of other things, basically the flip side of all of these processes that I mentioned before that protein is involved in.

And so, definitely not a good idea to under consume protein, but I would argue that most people under consume protein. What happens if you overconsume protein? You know, because there is a lot of misconception in specifically around, you know, consuming meat. Well, you know, we talked already about that before and I have a, you know, various blog posts that go into the science behind or busting the myth that overconsuming meat, specifically red meat, is not detrimental to your health.

It doesn't, you know, cause cancer, it doesn't cause, you know, clogged arteries or any of that. It's bs, you know. But more specifically, what happens if you overconsume protein, regardless of what type it is? But, you know, obviously animal based protein is my recommendation, but for the sake of argument, what happens if you overconsume protein in general?

Well, what happens is that you feel really satiated, because protein is very satiating, and so you're less likely to be hungry a couple of hours later. There has actually been a study specifically in the realm of the anabolic response to protein ingestion during recovery from exercise. So if you work out and then after, you know, working out, let's say you consume a boatload of protein and the study, and it was an in vivo study in humans, and I'm going to link it in the show notes, and that study clearly showed that there is no true upper limit to protein ingestion.

intake. I mean, obviously there are digestive limits, you know, there's only so much protein you can fit into your stomach. But that aside, you know, if you fill up your body physically as much as you can, there is no upper limit, meaning that the more protein you eat, the more gets absorbed and used. And that's interesting.

I didn't think that was the case. So, you know, if you really want to improve muscle mass or grow muscle tissue and improve recovery, eat as much protein as you possibly can. And, you know, a lot of people think, well, you know, there might be an issue then with, you know, oxidizing amino acids, meaning that whatever the body doesn't use, you know, those amino acids would oxidize, the body would remove them, you know, might then, you know, be an issue with your kidneys or what have you.

That's not the case either. There is no meaningful increase in amino acid oxidation, meaning removal, based on what the scientists in that study have found. And then the second argument that a lot of people make, and Rob Wolf has done a good analysis of that, mTOR, the mammalian target of rapamycin, gets activated, or overly activated maybe, if you consume a lot of protein and that can potentially, or so the thought is, can potentially disable or inhibit autophagy, the body cell recycle program, which then, you know, in the long run can have negative consequences of your lifespan, meaning that you age quicker if mTOR is activated a lot.

But that's not the case either. You know, autophagy does not appear to be affected by high protein intake, also something that the study found. And so the bottom line really is, You cannot possibly, with the digestive issue, you know, out of the way or ignored, overconsume protein. You can stuff your face full of protein every single day and it's not gonna have any negative or downstream effect in terms of longevity, in terms of, you know, amino acid oxidation, or anything else really.

Whatever you eat, especially in the context of physical activity, your body uses that protein. So, protein, you know, eat as much as you want to. And that's one of the reasons why I've. center every single one of my meals, or not every single one, most of them, I would say 99 percent of my meals around protein and I consume as much protein as I possibly can and then leave some room for potential sources of energy like fat and carbs.

So let's talk about fat next. What's happened, what is happening when you, are fat deficient when you don't consume enough fat as part of your diet? Well, it has a negative impact on your cell membrane health because fat is used to build cell membranes. You might have hormonal issues because, again, fat is used for attaining proper hormone levels.

You might have micronutrient deficiencies, especially as far as fat soluble vitamins are concerned, like ADEK that we talked about before, or impaired brain function, or any of those. So, under consuming fat or having no fat in your diet, being on a Very strict low fat diet is not a good idea. It'll make you sick in the long run.

Very much like a low protein diet will. And that's because fat and protein are essential and macronutrients. You need to get them from food in sufficient amounts. Now, what about the flip side? What about over consuming fat? Well, So, there is certainly, you know, if you overconsume fat, if you've done it before, you might, you know, feel nauseous.

I've had that in the past as well, especially in an empty stomach. If you load up on fat, you might have digestive issues, you know, because you feel your body is likely, doesn't have enough, maybe digestive enzymes, or stomach chooses to digest the fat, and if that happens, you get nauseous. So, there is certainly, something like overconsuming fat.

You know, any excess fat, you know, that you don't need for any other metabolic process and that you don't need for energy is then stored as fat, similar to carbohydrates. So, you know, overconsuming fat, significantly overconsuming fat can make you fat, but it's nowhere near as prevalent, I would argue, than overconsuming carbohydrates.

So let's talk about those next. Starting with what happens if you're deficient in carbohydrates, or if your diet is deficient in carbohydrates. Well, you probably notice improved metabolic flexibility because your body is then forced to use fat as a source of energy rather than carbohydrates. You might experience fat loss, you might experience improved mental clarity, you might experience more stable energy levels.

So those are all benefits, really, of removing carbs or being carb deficient. And that's really the idea of a ketogenic diet or low carb diet, by removing carbs, by under eating carbs, to get some of those benefits. But there are also potential downsides that I've experienced. And one of the reasons why I don't, I'm not on a strict keto diet anymore, you might run into electrolyte issues, you know, in extreme cases of carbohydrate restriction, meaning if you're on a very low carb or zero carb diet, you might also have impaired sleep, you know, a poor sleep performance.

Also again, in extreme cases, if you don't eat any carbs or just very, very few, let's say, I don't know, five or 10 grams a day. And I've experienced some of that on, you know, during times when I ate no carbs whatsoever. Now, there might be ways to mitigate this. There is obviously adjustment periods and other factors involved, but those are the things that I have seen, you know, from based on my own experience and based on the experience of others.

On the flip side, what happens if you over consume carbohydrates? In particular, you know, processed carbohydrates, you know, weight gain, fluctuating energy levels, impaired cognitive performance, reduced insulin sensitivity. and increased risk of developing a metabolic disease. So over consuming carbs, over consuming a macronutrient that's not essential, is generally not a good thing.

Now, there are obviously not all carbs are created equal, I would argue. You know, eating fresh seasonal fruits versus processed carbs like, you know, donuts and bread. There are two different types of carbohydrates, of course, and one can argue that if you're very physically active, let's say, you know, you, you consume, you know, a bowl of seasonal organic fruits, and then you go, you know, surfing for three hours, there is no issue with that.

You got to burn off those carbs that, you know. you make available to your body, but if you, whatever you don't consume or whatever the body does not need, as far as energy is concerned from the carbs you consume is converted and stored as fat, you know, and that's one of the reasons, one of the factors why people, you know, gain weight or have issues losing weight.

So now that we know more about those different, you know, macronutrients, how they work in the body, the differences on, you know, what type of calories they provide and why not all calories are created equal. Here are my recommendations and takeaways. One is don't waste time counting calories. It's, it's not sustainable.

It's not useful unless you really calculate the net calories of each of the foods you're eating based on the information I've given you before. Like, you know, how much does the body need to digest the type of calorie you're consuming? How much is then used for metabolic processes? and what's left for energy.

Doing that, calculating that for all of the foods, is just a pain in the butt, and at the end of the day, I don't think it's necessary. You know, I consume, on most days, somewhere around 4, 000 calories. That's nowhere near the amount of calories I burn. I mean, just based on, you know, my various trackers that I use, and assuming they are somewhat in the ballpark.

I might burn three and a half thousand calories on days where I work out and walk the dog a lot. You know, but I only work out, like go to the gym, work out two to three times a week. On most other days, I might burn maybe tops three thousand calories, okay? And I eat four, you know, sometimes I might even eat more.

And yet, I'm not gaining any weight, at least not any body fat. I'm gaining muscle tissue by eating a lot of protein. But that's it. And the bottom line is I eat significantly more. I consume more calories than I burn. I don't gain. You know, I might lose body fat depending on, you know, if I reduce my carbohydrate intake.

And that's it. And if I can do that, if I can get away with it by just focusing every single meal on protein, And then using fat and carbs strategically as sources of energy, you don't have to count anything, you know? And, again, focus every single meal, as much as possible, on your protein intake first.

Have a big portion of protein, make most of your meal protein, and then whatever you have on the side, you know, can be fat or, you know, maybe sometimes the fat is even part of the protein portion, like in the case of steak or fatty meat, or the oils you fry that stuff in, or the eggs, you know? But then use fat and carbohydrates strategically as sources of energy, depending on what you need, you know, play with those if you want to.

And if you feel like you must be counting something, count your protein intake to make sure you're getting enough, you know, and there are various recommendations and formulas out there on how much protein per pound of body weight you should be consuming, et cetera. I don't care for that either. I just, if I eat as much protein as I can get into my body without feeling, you know, sick after eating.

then I'm getting as much protein as I possibly can. I might be getting more on some days, I might be getting less. It doesn't really matter. Counting that, keeping track of that, I think is a colossal waste of time unless you're a professional athlete and you really want to fine tune your macronutrient intake for optimal performance.

But if that's not you, if you're not competing at the CrossFit Games or the Olympics, forget about counting calories. Focus on protein intake. and, you know, use your carbs and your fat depending on how your exercise regimen looks like, how much, you know, how you feel, do you need more energy, short, quick energy from carbs, or are you fine using energy from fat, like being in ketosis, you know, and I cycle in and out of that based on my workout routine.

On days that I don't work out, I might consume very few carbs, and if I do, then I only consume them late in the afternoon with my dinner then usually. In the morning it's protein and fat. And even on days where I work out, the post workout meal, protein and fat. That's been shown to be optimal for muscle protein synthesis.

And then if I feel like, okay, you know, I'm, I need some energy in the afternoon because I'm solely relying on gluconeogenesis to make glucose for the cells that require glucose that cannot use fat, you know, I might have an apple or, you know, a banana or what have you in the afternoon and then maybe have more carbs than later.

in the evening. And with that, we'll wrap it up. I hope you learned something about macronutrients and not to treat them the same way because they are absolutely not the same. They are very different and specifically between protein, fat, and carbohydrates, a huge difference in terms of how the body utilizes them for anything from energy to metabolic processes and anything in between.

So if you liked this episode, I hope you did. Leave me a comment if you watch it on YouTube or shoot me an email if you have any questions and I hope I'll see you and hear you next time.