Here is a study Maurito posted, showing that a low protein diet over 12 weeks did not impair muscle synthesis in humans. The low protein group ate 0.4g/kg of bodyweight, which translates to about 45 grams for a 250 pound man. This is in line with some of the studies Brad Marshall posted. I do think there could be issues with going this low in protein for periods longer than this (say, 6 months to years or more), but it does seem to suggest that using the Sugar Diet aggressively for 2-3 months would be okay. Also, the low protein group ate 60% of food as carbs, so this would apply to high carb diets-
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0137183
I might have mentioned this elsewhere, but it’s also worth nothing that we can’t directly measure bodyfat or muscle. These are always estimates. Someone like Mark Bell obviously has a high amount of muscle and lower amount of bodyfat, just from looking at him. I think this is the goal, we all want to look and feel better. Cari pointed out many times she is more compact and looks better at higher weights.
This is to say that no study is perfect. I like Cole’s idea of pushing the limits on some ideas, like sugar fasting, and also respect Mike Fave’s words of caution. I do think some of Fave’s diet setups are overly cautious during a “cutting” phase, but think they are better for the long term and maybe even a slower weight loss.
Still, there might be benefits to a more aggressive cutting phase, like Latchkey Genxer, who lost 30 pounds in a month. After that month, he deliberately added more protein and slowed weight loss, but he was still losing weight at a high rate. Maybe the “cutting” phase really helped improve his metabolism, so that even the diet he was eating previously would lead to better weight loss than it did before the aggressive month. TheBigPeatoski reported something similar after her two 6 week low fat diet stints on the old RPF.
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