Can I get too much protein at one meal?

Lisa1971

Thanks so much everyone! Very interesting and good to know.

Showcase_Brodown

I would say no, you can't really have "too much" protein in a sitting.

I just had about 120 g in my lunch today. Am I worried about it going to waste? Not in the least. This isn't a quick shot of amino acids directly into my bloodstream, this is solid food that has to be digested. I imagine it will be a steady supply over several hours.

If I happen to get "too much" at any one time, whatever that means, oh well. I'd rather have more than enough than too little.

Rosie7891

Hey you all!
I just wanted to let you know... I am a medschool student and so happened to know little about the metabolism itself.... so I thought maybe you´ll be interested.
There is no wasted protein, and neither sacharides or lipids (fats) that you would eat and it would be "waisted" in your body. Everything you eat is broken down into small molecules, absorbed in your intestines, then transferred in blood to particular organs (usually first passing through liver).
So sacharides usually go into your blood (your glucose level) and that stimulates hormone insuline releasement. Insuline stimulates absorbtion of glucose by cells- every cell "eats" glucose/sugar and if you ate too much sugar the cells will start to store it as a fat, since they don´t need that much sugar. Therefore, avoiding sugar attacks will prevent you from fat building.
As for proteins. They are also broken down to aminoacids, these are absorbed and these aminoacids can be used for muscle building. So during your workout some of your muscles fibers are broken down and body/ muscle reaction to workout is to rebuild it and rebuild it little bigger so it would be ready for this "workout load" when it happens again. Because of that you have to have some protein/ aminoacids in a blood after workout- so you give your body building material for more muscle. If you don´t have any other protein available, your body simply have nothing to build from, thus you worked out, but are not gaining any muscle.
BUT if you have access protein in your body, it is used for energy, not muscle building. Proteins are though much harder for body to transfer into energy (compared to sacharides and fatts) and have side products- nitrogen compunds which are released when running on "protein energy". Your body have only limited ability to eliminate this through your urine and after that its harming your body- particularly liver and kidneys. So longterm protein abundance can lead even to kidney demage/failure, possibly later to liver demage. It is also believed that this nitrate compounts have oncogenic efect etc. it is harming your body in general!
I love proteins, and tend to eat a lot of them. But always try to balance it. If you eat few days more protein, give your body a day off etc. If you workout more, you need more protein, if not, you need just avarage protein amount per day- 0,7-1g/kg of body weight.
Since I mentioned other two... Fatts are devided into "bad" (saturated) and "good" (unsaturated). The bad ones are building your fatt and rising cholesterol levels. The good ones are very much needed for your body- each cell contains a membrane from "fatts", your brain and nerves need this "fatts", few hormones are "made from fatts" .... and of course fatts are a good source of energy. So fatts are good thing, very much needed in your body. However, just the propriate amounts and the right kind of them- avocado, nuts, oils....
As much as waisted nutrients- there is not such thing really- you absorbed most of what you eat and at the end- in your stool are pretty much undigestible foods such as fibers, then water and waists from your body.
I hope I helped. It is very basicly explained and I tried to explained it more metaphoricly then with any medical terms... but pretty much thats how it works....

GaGasheesh

Very good information, Rosie7891. I would add that from what I've read, the body is able to absorb/utilize about 30 grams of protein per meal. Spreading out your protein intake throughout the day at 30 grams per meal will help insure that it isn't stored.

psuLemon

Very good information, Rosie7891. I would add that from what I've read, the body is able to absorb/utilize about 30 grams of protein per meal. Spreading out your protein intake throughout the day at 30 grams per meal will help insure that it isn't stored.

The body doesn't have a limit on how much per meal it can take in at once.

Wetcoaster

Layne Norton - PhD in protein metabolism.

Coles notes - The body can absorb almost any amount of protein.....however maxing out the anabolic response is around 30-40 grams.


BioLayne Video Log 4 - Myths About Protein

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

Wetcoaster

Alan Agaron posted a link to a new study on his Facebook page today about protein and timing. Interesting read.

http://www.jissn.com/content/pdf/1550-2783-10-53.pdf

subsonicbassist

If it is true that the body can only absorb xgrams of protein in an hour, I would be screwed... I need about 250g of protein a day and I am an Intermittent Faster, so I only eat within an 8 hour period. That means I need to eat 30g of protein an hour, every hour... smells like broscience! Please go toBiolayne.com and watch "Biolayne video blog #4-Myths about protein", this guy has a PhD. in protein metabolism and sniffs through all of this crap. Just because enough people say something enough times doesn't make it true. Also, I don't believe many of us here are elderly women, so I find it hard to correllate those studies here.

karlsantiago

any extra and you will just pee it out....dont waste protein powder like that!!

longtimeterp

170g at dinner for me!!! YUMMMM!

edit: okay maybe not...i am having severe trouble getting down 1.5 lbs of chicken breast after a head of mashed cauliflower and 3/4 lbs of haricot verts! maybe there is a limit

jonnythan

"With respect to hypertrophy, total protein intake
was the strongest predictor of ES magnitude. These results refute the commonly held belief
that the timing of protein intake in and around a training session is critical to muscular
adaptations and indicate that consuming adequate protein in combination with resistance
exercise is the key factor for maximizing muscle protein accretion."

longtimeterp

"With respect to hypertrophy, total protein intake
was the strongest predictor of ES magnitude. These results refute the commonly held belief
that the timing of protein intake in and around a training session is critical to muscular
adaptations and indicate that consuming adequate protein in combination with resistance
exercise is the key factor for maximizing muscle protein accretion."

wish i understood statistics better...even after reading the effect size article on Wikipedia i still can't quite understand what it means? anyone maybe translate that into non-stat-speak?

i love my post workout shake, is this just saying it doesn't matter if i have it post workout as long as i have it at some point? there is no negative response from having it while sitting in the sauna right?

jonnythan

It means that total protein intake matters but timing doesn't.

chrisyang1995

Protein doesn't turn into fat so you'll be fine

WalkingAlong

Hey you all!
I just wanted to let you know... I am a medschool student and so happened to know little about the metabolism itself.... so I thought maybe you´ll be interested.
There is no wasted protein, and neither sacharides or lipids (fats) that you would eat and it would be "waisted" in your body.

Sorry, Rosie, you lost me at "waisted".

jonnythan

She must be a med student in Khazakstan.

Rosie7891

Ok, Kazachstan let it be...

I just wanted to say- there is no waisted protein and you don´t pee your protein unless you are in a kidney failure!!! (I don´t know where you got that from????)

You eat too much protein- it is used first for muscle building and the excess amount is used as energy for the body. During that process toxic molecules are produced which harm your body ( kidneys, liver,) and increase your chance of tumor formation.

That is why it is not perfect to eat too much protein....

Rosie7891

Very good information, Rosie7891.

thank you very much!

jonnythan

What country do you live in Rosie? I am guessing English is not your primary language.

Rosie7891

No... its absolutely not!

Prague, Czech rep.