What happens if you constantly eat too much of one macro?

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soccerkon26
soccerkon26 Posts: 596 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What are the common side effects of eating too many carbs? What about fat? Protein? Sodium? Sugar? I do not have any health problems but I want to know what each of these can do to my body.

For example, too much sodium makes you bloat. I heard if you have too much protein you just pee it out so there aren't any issues there.

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  • benlockyer
    benlockyer Posts: 5 Member
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    Too much protein - farts
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    edited May 2016
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    Sodium really doesn't make you bloat per se - it doesn't make your abdomen swell. It makes you retain water in the form of greater blood volume. In some people who have high blood pressure, this can make the blood pressure even higher, but in most people, the contractile tissue around your blood vessels will expand and absorb the new volume of blood without raising blood pressure.

    High levels of protein can potentially be harmful to the kidneys, as they have to excrete a lot more nitrogen when you burn protein for fuel. High levels of carbs or fats are really only bad in that it probably means you're not getting enough protein. And of course high total calories will make you gain weight.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Sodium is not a macro; but anyway, too much of anything is bad, that's what too much means. Too much protein is bad for the kidneys, but how much is too much, is debatable. Increasing protein beyond some point it gets less and less beneficial, and then it grows gradually more and more bad. But you are most likely to be struggling a lot to get in enough protein to get health issues from it.

    Protein, fat and carbs are the macronutrients that provide energy, and we need all of them, in proper proportions. Too much (more than you burn) will make you gain weight. Too much of one or two at the expense of the other(s), will make you sick from malnutrition, while eating too much of one or two and enough of the other(s) will make you fat.
  • soccerkon26
    soccerkon26 Posts: 596 Member
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    rankinsect wrote: »
    Sodium really doesn't make you bloat per se - it doesn't make your abdomen swell. It makes you retain water in the form of greater blood volume. In some people who have high blood pressure, this can make the blood pressure even higher, but in most people, the contractile tissue around your blood vessels will expand and absorb the new volume of blood without raising blood pressure.

    High levels of protein can potentially be harmful to the kidneys, as they have to excrete a lot more nitrogen when you burn protein for fuel. High levels of carbs or fats are really only bad in that it probably means you're not getting enough protein. And of course high total calories will make you gain weight.

    Thank you so much for the great explanation! :)
  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
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    You go to macro purgatory.
  • AmyWebb2
    AmyWebb2 Posts: 69 Member
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    Will too much sodium make you regain weight (ie., water weight?)
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    edited May 2016
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    AmyWebb2 wrote: »
    Will too much sodium make you regain weight (ie., water weight?)

    Regain weight? Yes, you will gain water weight for a day or two until your kidneys expel the excess sodium.

    It certainly doesn't make you regain fat, though, which is what many of us actually care about.

    If you are really worried about too much water weight you can always go to the Red Cross and donate a pint of blood, that's one pound less right there :smiley:
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
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    Protein-gas.

    Sodium does cause fluid retention but sodium is not a macro

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