How much protein IS "too much"

BarackMeLikeAHurricane

Also found this which lists WEIGHT GAIN, Reduced Liver and Brain Function, and High cholesterol:

"Your body can only use a certain amount of protein each day. If you take in too much protein, you may gain weight. Each gram of protein has 4 calories. If you take in 100 grams of protein, but your body can only use 50 grams of it, your body will store the extra 200 calories' worth of protein as fat. Doing this daily can cause you to take in 1,400 extra calories per week, resulting in a weight gain of almost 2 pounds per month." (http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/three-problems-associated-much-protein-intake-6546.html)

Only if that protein puts you above maintenance. Protein is actually the hardest macro for your body to store as fat. With fats, they can be stored as adipose tissue pretty easily, carbs are converted vis lipogenesis, protein is first broken into glucose via de novo gluconeogenesis and then converted via lipogenesis.

Sarauk2sf

Also found this which lists WEIGHT GAIN, Reduced Liver and Brain Function, and High cholesterol:

"Your body can only use a certain amount of protein each day. If you take in too much protein, you may gain weight. Each gram of protein has 4 calories. If you take in 100 grams of protein, but your body can only use 50 grams of it, your body will store the extra 200 calories' worth of protein as fat. Doing this daily can cause you to take in 1,400 extra calories per week, resulting in a weight gain of almost 2 pounds per month." (http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/three-problems-associated-much-protein-intake-6546.html)

All this is saying is that if you are in a caloric surplus, you will put on weight. It is a very badly written article (SFGate is not known for their nutrition expertise). It should say "If you take in too much food, you will gain weight"

The article does mentions a correlation that high protein = high dietary cholesterol due to meat. Unless someone has a pre-existing medical condition, dietary cholesterol =/= blood cholesterol in any event.

corgicake

I wonder what our ancestors did with all that extra meat after hunting a mammoth when they realised that your body cant eat that much protein?

After passing it around to all the folks who directly helped with the hunt, their families, and everyone else in the band... what extra meat are we talking about again? Not to mention, this was ice age megafauna which implies fat galore.

Sarauk2sf

Alan Aragon FTW:


http://www.wannabebig.com/diet-and-nutrition/is-there-a-limit-to-how-much-protein-the-body-can-use-in-a-single-meal/

Yep

And this from him:

Myth #1: "High protein intake is harmful to your kidneys."

The origin: Back in 1983, researchers first discovered that eating more protein increases your "glomerular filtration rate," or GFR. Think of GFR as the amount of blood your kidneys are filtering per minute. From this finding, many scientists made the leap that a higher GFR places your kidneys under greater stress.

What science really shows: Nearly 2 decades ago, Dutch researchers found that while a protein-rich meal did boost GFR, it didn't have an adverse effect on overall kidney function. In fact, there's zero published research showing that downing hefty amounts of protein—specifically, up to 1.27 grams per pound of body weight a day—damages healthy kidneys.


http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/food_myths/High_Protein_is_Harmful.php

Note: this is not saying that more than 1.27 does - just that studies have not specifically tested for amounts high in regard to this subject.

StrongFitSexy

The least I eat is about 150 grams of protein and the most I eat is about 250 grams...
Im doing this along with eating little carbs because my goal is to lower my bodyfat further and because my weight training is intense
This method is working for me and im seeing more muscle definition little by little:)

So in other words, it all depends what are your goals and how are your workouts as well, this is my opinion

PikaKnight

The Body can ONLY absorb 26 grams or less of "protein" per day. Everything else is waste! I put protein in quotations because there is No such thing as protein; there are aminos and someone came up with which ones THEY believe are essential. Protein is a Myth, and the need for it in great numbers are an even Bigger myth, this is one reason for so many diseases, EXCESS "protein" actually it is Excess food products that carry these aminos that the Body can not digest to get to the aminos...such as meats and dairy. Those excess food products can not be broken down by the Body so they just sit and cause damage. Ever heard that beef can stay in the intestines for yrs...TRUE. And guess what, it is just rotting there, a cancer waiting to happen.

In for broscience...

And for lurkers trying to educate themselves...Just say NO to the above. Take it from someone who suffered from protein deficiency.

TheFitnessTutor

The Body can ONLY absorb 26 grams or less of "protein" per day. Everything else is waste! I put protein in quotations because there is No such thing as protein; there are aminos and someone came up with which ones THEY believe are essential. Protein is a Myth, and the need for it in great numbers are an even Bigger myth, this is one reason for so many diseases, EXCESS "protein" actually it is Excess food products that carry these aminos that the Body can not digest to get to the aminos...such as meats and dairy. Those excess food products can not be broken down by the Body so they just sit and cause damage. Ever heard that beef can stay in the intestines for yrs...TRUE. And guess what, it is just rotting there, a cancer waiting to happen.

So much bullshhh. As a matter of fact, I would suggest you deactivate your account and never post on any ADULT/Fitness based site ever again. Anything sitting in a tract for years is due to other factors such as inadequate hydration and inadequate fiber intake. You're vilifying amino acids?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? I'm copy and pasting this crap to do a video about later. Thanks. And oh yea, ever heard of Nitrogen?

Anyways....

"high" protein intake isn't harmful to a healthy kidney or liver, given a decent hydration and electrolyte balance. Everyone wants to pick one of the three macronutrients and demonize it! There's only 3 people! Get a clue! What else is there left to eat?

And funny how civilization made it this far without cloggin up our tracts and having kidney failure throughout our pass and snuffing us out of existence. It's all the other crap we eat nowadays and the harmful ways we raise and treat our sentient sources (meat) that leads to problems. Feeding a cow corn all day and pumping it full of steroids might have some issues for you if you consume alot of that. There's no question about that.


A simple answer to this question is an analogy i like to use: If you were in the wilderness...if all hell broke loose, again, or for whatever reason you were living on your own having to hunt and gather for food....think about it...you already know the answer.

Conspiracy theories are starting to look more plausible! "make them believe they should eat low fat and low protein so they'll be more docile, have lower testosterone and less aggressive" As the saying goes, Try to rule the world on berries and twigs if you want to. I'm not an aggressive type, but I'd much rather defend my family against someone afraid of protein!

Less we forget, your cells are always replicating. What is your DNA made up of?
.
Unless you're trying to be a professional body builder there's no reason to even worry about this question. Research says you would want to slowly ramp up your intake if you're going to get to a new set point. I'm sure 50 grams is doable for about anyone in a sitting.

There probably shouldn't be a person on this whole forum eating under 150 grams of protein a day. Do that, THEN distribute the rest of your carbs and fats accordingly with good hydration and good fiber, and unfortunately for mfp, you probably wouldn't need to come here too often.

TheFitnessTutor

And yea...to whoever had the gall to post wikipedia as a source...you made my night!

Laugh...out....loud!!!!!

You'd been better off quoting the USDA or the FDA...

On that note, I'm gonna eat some more kettle chips, take a shot of tequila, and go to bed.

mockchoc

And yea...to whoever had the gall to post wikipedia as a source...you made my night!

Laugh...out....loud!!!!!

You'd been better off quoting the USDA or the FDA...

On that note, I'm gonna eat some more kettle chips, take a shot of tequila, and go to bed.

and I'm just here to continually perv at your picture. sorry about that! yum.

Matt_Wild

In athletes/bodybuilders:
In a review of 41 studies examining the purported adverse affects of high protein diets in athletes, it was noted that protein intakes of 2.8g/kg did not impair kidney function in the short term (Manninen 2004). In an even more comprehensive review of 111 studies, specifically looking at protein intake and kidney function, it was found that athletes who habitually consumed over 2.0g/kg of protein showed no impairments in renal function (Martin et al, 2005).

Lastly, it was noted that bodybuilders who habitually consumed more protein than athletes, who habitually consumed more protein than non athletes had no increase in calcium excretion. It is worth mentioning that the bodybuilder group consumed 50% more protein than the athletes, and the athletes consumed significantly more than the non athlete group (Bradley-Popovicha et al, 2003). A similar review titled “Protein and amino acids for athletes” had the same conclusions (Tipton et al, 2004), as did a more recent review “A Critical Examination of Dietary Protein Requirements, Benefits, and Excesses in Athletes” (Phillips et al, 2007).

Normal people
In direct studies on non-athlete populations, similar results were found. This implies that neither the physical activity of athletes nor a possible bias held by the review authors is skewing the data. One study showed that there were no detrimental effects on kidney, liver or bone health after one year of consuming protein intakes of 2.2g/kg of lean body mass (Li et al, 2010). Another study showed that a diet consisting of 25% protein with an additional 50g of supplemental protein daily, had no ill effects on health (it also happened to be the best for maintaining a healthy weight after dieting) (Claessens et al, 2009). With such a staggering amount of evidence showing that high protein intakes have very few of the purported health risks


Hope that is of assistance.

TheRealParisLove

The Body can ONLY absorb 26 grams or less of "protein" per day. Everything else is waste! I put protein in quotations because there is No such thing as protein; there are aminos and someone came up with which ones THEY believe are essential. Protein is a Myth, and the need for it in great numbers are an even Bigger myth, this is one reason for so many diseases, EXCESS "protein" actually it is Excess food products that carry these aminos that the Body can not digest to get to the aminos...such as meats and dairy. Those excess food products can not be broken down by the Body so they just sit and cause damage. Ever heard that beef can stay in the intestines for yrs...TRUE. And guess what, it is just rotting there, a cancer waiting to happen.

This is old, flawed information. There was a recent study on elderly women who were fed 50-80 grams of protein per meal and up to 175 grams per day. They were able to absorb it just fine with no negative side effects. The study was on the effect of a high protein diet on bone density. Although high protein did not effect the density of bone, the study did disprove the previous assumption that humans are only able to absorb a small amount of protein per meal or per day.

TheRealParisLove

Less we forget, your cells are always replicating. What is your DNA made up of?

Wait! I know the answer to this one: Deoxyribonucleic acid . Ding, ding, ding!

savithny

I wonder what our ancestors did with all that extra meat after hunting a mammoth when they realised that your body cant eat that much protein?

After passing it around to all the folks who directly helped with the hunt, their families, and everyone else in the band... what extra meat are we talking about again? Not to mention, this was ice age megafauna which implies fat galore.

Exactly -- mammoth hunting was probably as much about fat as it was about protein. Wild game hunters have always target fat animals over lean, muscular animals. I'd have to re-locate it, but I remember an interesting anthro article about how buffalo hunting tribes on the plains would target pregnant females in the spring in order to eat the fetuses, and they'd leave the lean meat There can come a point where the game is so lean from winter starvation that hunters reject it for sources of fat instead.

Protein on its own, you can starve on (see the "rabbit starvation" link above. But most protein comes handily packaged with eitheir fat or carbs. The problem is when people decide both carbs and fat are bad and try to live without either).

Wetcoaster

From Layne Norton

BioLayne Video Log 4 - Myths About Protein

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjmV8BlsJTQ

AnvilHead

The Body can ONLY absorb 26 grams or less of "protein" per day. Everything else is waste! I put protein in quotations because there is No such thing as protein; there are aminos and someone came up with which ones THEY believe are essential. Protein is a Myth, and the need for it in great numbers are an even Bigger myth, this is one reason for so many diseases, EXCESS "protein" actually it is Excess food products that carry these aminos that the Body can not digest to get to the aminos...such as meats and dairy. Those excess food products can not be broken down by the Body so they just sit and cause damage. Ever heard that beef can stay in the intestines for yrs...TRUE. And guess what, it is just rotting there, a cancer waiting to happen.

In for broscience...

And for lurkers trying to educate themselves...Just say NO to the above. Take it from someone who suffered from protein deficiency.

For a little insight, read the poster's profile. Wow.

In along with everybody else to say that the above could not possibly be any more completely wrong in any/all ways. There is not one single sentence in that entire post which contains any correct information.

owieprone

check out the below link

http://www.musashi-slm.com.au/tools-library/protein-calculator/

that'll tell you how much you need for your body, and even gives you a sample meal plan to follow to help you out.

totally agree with anvilhead btw.. whoever he's quoting isn't well educated and has regurgitated someone else's data with no research of their own.

someone great once said (i can't mind who):

cut out [refined] carbs = no effect
cut out fat = malnutrition in months
cut out protein = incapacitation within 7 days.

says it all.

Brad805

The Body can ONLY absorb 26 grams or less of "protein" per day. Everything else is waste! I put protein in quotations because there is No such thing as protein; there are aminos and someone came up with which ones THEY believe are essential. Protein is a Myth, and the need for it in great numbers are an even Bigger myth, this is one reason for so many diseases, EXCESS "protein" actually it is Excess food products that carry these aminos that the Body can not digest to get to the aminos...such as meats and dairy. Those excess food products can not be broken down by the Body so they just sit and cause damage. Ever heard that beef can stay in the intestines for yrs...TRUE. And guess what, it is just rotting there, a cancer waiting to happen.

Are you sure its not 28g? Please keep your none sense to yourself. You are welcome to live your vegan lifestyle, but please get some of the facts correct.

kwedman488

I feel that I should just put the general, straightforward answer so here ya go: you're supposed to have an intake of .5-1g per pound of body weight. If you're less active, aim for .5 or .6g per pound. The more active you are, the more protein you should try to take in so that your muscles can use it to function properly and convert fat to muscle. You don't really need to worry about taking too much, because really you would have to be actively trying to overdo it on purpose for it to happen, but like I said if you're less active, your muscles/body aren't needing that excess energy that you're getting from protein, since it yields 4 kcal/g just like carbohydrates. So overdoing protein can still cause you to gain an excess of fat if you aren't expending those extra calories from too much protein. So for example: I am 107 pounds and I am very active, so I multiply my weight by .8 to get roughly 85 ish grams of protein that I should aim for per day. I currently get to about 81 g or so every day, so I call it close enough. It's all kind of a rough estimate, but as long as you don't try to exceed your protein needs by a large majority, you will be fine.