How I became a virtual vegetarian by accident (a draft):
I started training in Muay Tha at 77 and had a good run until my 83rd birthday when I had a video made of my pad work after training for 2 hours. I felt great and performed far beyond what's expected of a man in his 80s. When I finished I looked into the camera, laughing, and said, "I beat aging." This really pissed off the god of aging, but he waited 3 months until the morning I showed up for training pumped up with pride and the promise of growing ever stronger. The moment he whispered in my ear, "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" I was struck with chronic fatigue so bad I had to quit training until I figured out what happened.
The path to what happened began when I was 81 and purposely lost 32 pounds and then tried to regain it as muscle. I had no idea of how to manage my meals to accomplish this so I messed up badly. Within 6 months I showed up for training unable to think straight, unable to follow directions, and incapable of lifting my legs for round kicks. And I had terrible insomnia as well. I suffered a case of sarcopenia from malnutrition. After researching how to recover research I started eating more fats to get more protein. I was still 81 at the time. By my 82nd birthday 2 months later my energy was restored, and my insomnia disappeared.
My goal was 120+ grams of protein based on the latest information from PubMed, which was 1.5 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of weight, which 6.0 even after I had lost 32 pounds. I gained back 6-8 pound but I had no problems because of the strenuous exercise of Muay Thai. Protein wasn't what brought me down, it was the fat intake to get the protein.