What happens if you eat too much protein?

You get bigger muscles!!! :laugh:
I wouldn't worry about it too much, the settings on MFP are low anyways. I have never gone a day without going way over on my protein. Unless you're eating half a cow a day, I wouldn't really worry about it.

If you go WAY WAY over, and don't drink enough water... you will be constipated.



I set my limits to about 200g of Protein a day, because I am trying to build more muscle.

No matter what they try to tell you, there is no one-size-fits-all diet. Seriously, think of a 6'7" African guy and a 4'10" Asian woman. You really think their bodies are going to need the same kinds of foods in the same proportions? I don't think so.
It depends on your metabolism, everyone is different, you just have to figure out what works for you. There is no medical danger in eating too much protein, because your cells will only absorb as much protein as they need. Unlike sugar & carbs, it won't get stored as fat, it will just pass on out of your body if you don't use it.
Personally, I keep my settings at 5% carbs, 35% fat and 65% protein. That's about three times the amount of protein they recommend, but it's what my doctor told me will work best with my metabolism.

Nothing is going to happen.

nothing really. the protein setting are kinda low on here, so don't worry if you go over to much.
a common misconception is that protein builds muscles.. it doesnt. Working your muscles is what builds them, protein is what helps them mend
if you eat to much of anything, be it protein, carbs or fat, it will be converted in your body and stored as fat. the key is burning more than you take in, and you will be ALLLL goooood

Actually, protein does NOT ever get converted to fat. The chemical reaction doesn't work that way. Also, your cells communicate their needs through the release of various enzymes. They do need plenty of protein both for energy and for repair work, but if they have enough for now, they send the signal that says "No thanks, I'm good," and they won't absorb any more protein after that. And the unused protein will just pass on out of your body. Several people mentioned that you should also drink plenty of water if you eat lots of protein, and they're right, that's good advice, 'cause "passing on out" ain't always as easy as it sounds. :-)
It's only carbohydrates and sugars that don't trigger the "Stop, I've had enough" signals in your cells. Those things get converted to glucose in your system. Eating too much of those is what will cause your body to store the extra as fat.

AdAstra, I'm not sure why the hostility towards other members but while it is very difficult for protein to ever turn into fat, it can happen. The assisted pathways are usually created through excessive carbohydrate consumption.

Proteins break down into peptides, then further broken down into amino acids then it heads to the small intestine to be absorbed. Most of the excess winds up going through the kidneys as waste but it can turn into sugars and fats.

Bodybuilding.com is far more knowledgeable than half of those youtube videos and a 10 minute google search will reveal that protein can in fact turn into fat. You're absolutely wrong in every way possible by saying that protein can never turn into fats and any nutritionist or science major can tell you that.

nothing, you just poop out what your body does not absorb.

dang, this thread got nasty. I personally have long since forgotten the metabolic processes and what gets turned into fat but if it were true that the body doesnt store fat as fat, then why shouldnt we be drowning our salads in olive oil or slathering our toast with inches of butter?

I personally love bodybuilding.com for diet and nutrition advice. I wish more people here used it was a resource because they really know how to use nutrition and exercise to sculpt the body right. I also get lots of awesome high protein recipes there and I've never spent a penny there.

To answer your question, I'm going to agree and say that its not a big deal to go over your protein limit for the day. The MFP values are set incredibly low and you might even want to consider changing your nutrition goals to a higher protein, fiber, and sugar and lower carb setting to make logging make much more sense for a weight loss diet. Many trainers (I wont tell you from where) suggest a 40/40/20 carb/protein/fat ratio and/or eat 1-1.5g protein per lb of lean body mass, but you should do what works best for you.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=50900 This is a site I found online. You can read the entire aritcle by checking it out in full and make your own decision!


Too Much Protein
So think twice when you consider sacrificing the carbohydrates for a protein-dominant diet, Butterfield says. Drastically cutting carbohydrates from your diet may force your body to fight back.

She says that's because a diet in which protein makes up more than 30% of your caloric intake causes a buildup of toxic ketones. So-called ketogenic diets can thrust your kidneys into overdrive in order to flush these ketones from your body. As your kidneys rid your body of these toxic ketones, you can lose a significant amount of water, which puts you at risk of dehydration, particularly if you exercise heavily.

That water loss often shows up on the scale as weight loss. But along with losing water, you lose muscle mass and bone calcium. The dehydration also strains your kidneys and puts stress on your heart.

And dehydration from a ketogenic diet can make you feel weak and dizzy, give you bad breath, or lead to other problems.

Well, first I'll say that I've been studying advanced nutrition and human metabolism for the last 5 years, reading clinical studies, reading advanced college level graduate texts on metabolic rates, and working as a trainer, so I have a lot of both clinical knowledge and practical experience in this field, while I'm not a professional in the medical field, I would consider myself a very very experienced amateur with a college level chemistry background (Chemical engineering) and a vast understanding of human anatomy and bio-chemistry. So that's where I'm coming from.

This article lost me when it made statements about ketones being toxic. which they aren't. Then it lost me further when it said the body uses the kidneys to eliminate those ketones through waste. For the most part, ketones are used as an alternate form of energy from glucose and glycogen. As both glucose and ketones can be used by the brain as energy (triglycerides and free fatty acids cannot pass the blood brain barrier and thus need to be converted using the krebs cycle for energy use by the brain which uses about 25% of our total daily energy expenditure).
Protein is used for building blocks in the body, glucose is used as the primary energy medium in mitochondrial aerobic metabolism (most of the skeletal muscles in the body use aerobic respiration to create energy, only using anaerobic respiration when they lack sufficient resources), in the abscense of glucose, ketones can be used in a similar capacity, but the body generally won't use both at once, it will prioritize glucose as energy, and then fall back on FFA's (free fatty acids) for body energy, reserving glucose for the brain, if glucose becomes low enough that there isn't enough for the brain, it will then resort to converting FFA's and protein to ketones for brain use, and then use fat and some protein for what ever more energy is needed for TDEE (total daily energy expendature). The only time kidneys pee out ketones is when there is excess protein being eaten and it "slips" through the liver and there's no way back into the cycle.
NOW
This doesn't mean you don't pee out SOME ketones, you can, but it's a low percentage, and they aren't the reason why excess protein is a stressor for the kidneys and liver (it is), it's because in the process of breaking down proteins into their component amino acids for conversion into the frame for pyruvate (on it's way to using the krebs cycle for energy conversion) ammonia is produced (a by product of the conversion), and it's the ammonia that is toxic to the body, and it's the amonia that the kidneys need to convert to urea and pee out that puts more stress on the kidneys.

here's the thing though, if you have healthy kidneys, this probably won't be much of an issue, but if you have a history of kidney or liver issues, it's super dangerous to stress your kidneys (and your liver, all this goes for the liver to a degree also, as some conversion happens there as well, the liver is a highly active metabolic organ, making it work harder in the long term can be a risky proposition as you can survive with 1 kidney, but not without a liver).

There's a lot more to this story, but for our purposes this should suffice.

FYI while protein doesn't directly convert to adipose fat without help (I.E. lipids for lipoprotein which become FFA's), it can convert to the framework for gluconeogenesis (amino acids are rearranged to form glucogenic amino acids which are converted to glucose) which CAN be stored as fat. It's all very interconnected. Energy balance and a hypercalerific diet WILL trigger fat storage, no matter what the energy medium is, the only difference is the time it takes the body to store the fat upon ingestion, and the process by which the body uses to determine which energy it will use, and which energy it will store. These processes can affect total health, but only in certain situations, I.E. someone with high cholesterol and a history of heart disease should focus on different nutrition than someone with a family history of fatty liver or kidney disease.