too much protein?

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  • akork
    akork Posts: 31
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    During protein metabolism, some protein is converted to glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis, the formation of glucose from non-carbohydrate sources.

    The basic difference between protein and carbohydrate is that while carbohydrates are made out of simple sugars (carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen), protein is made from amino acids (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sufur). The nitrogen is a basic component of the protein's amino acids and accounts for 13 to 20% of the total mass.

    The first step in protein metabolism is to break it into its constituent amino acids. These are absorbed into the blood stream.

    The second step is to break down the amino acids into their constituent parts--catabolism, if you want to get technical about it. This removes the nitrogen or amino group from the amino acids. The process is called deamination.

    Deamination breaks the amino group down into ammonia and what is termed the carbon skeleton. Ammonia is converted to urea, filtered through the kidneys, and excreted in urine. The carbon skeleton--which is composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen--can then by used either for protein synthesis, energy production (ATP), or converted to glucose by gluconeogenesis.

    Lol if you want to get technical about it, I did mention that I was a biochemist right? Everything you say here is correct, however I would like to point out none of it traces a path from protein to fat.

    If you want something else to flip out over how about this one. Carbohydrates don't "turn" into fat either.
  • Jdine
    Jdine Posts: 36 Member
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    Is fat created by the tooth fairy? Since none of the macronutrients "turn" into fat.. Excess calories regardless their source will be stored as adipose tissue
  • akork
    akork Posts: 31
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    catabolic is the breaking down and anabolic is the building up

    Jdine was correct I was mistaken
  • akork
    akork Posts: 31
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    No, fat is ingested and retained in cases where the energy requirements are met or exceeded by your caloric intake. The other macronutrients are not "turned" into fat.
  • akork
    akork Posts: 31
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    Wait a second...are you calling glycogen stored in tissue "fat"? If so I think I see where the confusion lies. Glycogen is a polysaccharide (carbohydrate) while fat is a long-chain hydrocarbon stored as triglycerides branching off of glycerol in the form of lipids.
  • Jdine
    Jdine Posts: 36 Member
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    No, fat is ingested and retained in cases where the energy requirements are met or exceeded by your caloric intake. The other macronutrients are not "turned" into fat.

    Ha ha haa.. Err incorrect!!

    The word metabolism only describes the two metabolic processes catabolic & anabolic. catabolic is the breaking down and anabolic is the building up.. Lol please stop your making me laugh . You must be ripped.. please post some pics.
  • akork
    akork Posts: 31
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    Oops. You are correct about catabolism, I misspoke there and have removed that comment as it is incorrect.

    From your picture you are much more muscular than I am. Does that mean you are correct? I am confused by that logic.

    Simple question. Show me biochemically how you go from protein, to glucose, to glycogen to FAT. You keep saying this happens but you keep stopping at glycogen.
  • akork
    akork Posts: 31
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    I am going to try to restate this clearly. You tell me where you think I am wrong.

    First, macronutrients go to required body functions and maintenance of tissues then they go to thermal processes and energy

    Energy in this case is the creation and utilization of ATP.

    Carbohydrates in excess are stored as polysaccharide chains, in the case of humans a branched glucose polymer known as glycogen. Protein can be deaminated, the excess nitrogen excreted in urine, and the remaining carbon chain fed into the citric acid cycle to produce glucose which in turn can be stored as glycogen.

    Fats in turn are stored as triglycerides which are three saturated or unsaturated hydrocarbon chains attached to a glycerol.

    There is no conversion between Protein/Carbs and Fat, the storage molecule is different. Glycogen is stored in the muscle and its storage is generally limited and short term while fat can build up as long term storage. If your body has excess calories for its metabolic need be that energy from protein, fat or carbs ingested the body will form triglycerides from long chain hydrocarbons and store it. If you eat to much protein your body will store more fat, however it is INCORRECT to say that protein is metabolically converted into fat.

    If you were to eat a 7000 calorie excess of protein you most certainly would retain any fat you also ingested but you would not convert it to 2 pounds of fat you would excrete the majority of it. This would of course be a bad idea as your liver would be overtaxed for sure trying to process and excrete all that excess.

    How do we know this? You can radioactively label the carbons in a metabolite, ingest them and then track where they end up. If you C-14 label amino acids and feed them to a mouse the carbons do not end up in triglycerides. Thats all I'm saying.
  • Teemo
    Teemo Posts: 338
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    Excuse me?? Excess protein will be converted to glucose and stored as fat. I am a personal trainer and have been doing this for 13 yrs. If you dont believe me look at ACE( american counsel on Excercise) website http://www.acefitness.org/fitnessqanda/fitnessqanda_display.aspx?itemid=272

    A: The human body is unable to store extra protein. Protein consumed in excess of the body's needs is not used to build muscle; rather, it is used for non-protein bodily functions.
    If individuals consume protein in excess of their caloric and protein needs, the extra protein will not be stored as protein. Unfortunately such extra protein is converted to and stored as fat. As a result, if individuals consume large amounts of extra protein in addition to their regular dietary intake, any weight gain would very likely be in the form of fat.

    Edit: Eh, don't want to get involved in t his one.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    So, what your saying, is if people eat a 0 fat diet, and go THOUSANDS over their daily caloric requirement, their body will store 0 fat, and they won't gain any body fat? Unlikely.
  • akork
    akork Posts: 31
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    "So, what your saying, is if people eat a 0 fat diet, and go THOUSANDS over their daily caloric requirement, their body will store 0 fat, and they won't gain any body fat? Unlikely"

    No if someone ate a zero fat diet the body could undergo lipogenesis which is an alternate metabolic pathway in order to produce fat however its energetically unfavorable so you would have to eat thousands over your daily caloric limit just to survive that way. That is why for all pracitcal purposes fat is essential and there is no such thing as a healthy 0% fat diet. If you are consuming fat at all and are above your caloric limit your body will store the fat and utilize the protein for energy or glycogen production and excrete the rest.

    Although when one thinks fat one typically thinks that gristly part of meat the biochemical component of fat, glycerol and fatty acid chains, are present in all life plants an animals, and would be basically impossible to avoid completely in your diet.

    What I am talking about is what actually happens in your body in an everyday normal diet. You do not convert protein to fat even in caloric excess. Could you do some sort of wierd dietary contorsion to force that conversion...possibly, but it doesn't happen normally.
  • SWC54
    SWC54 Posts: 14
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    Thank you for this information. I have been going crazy trying to figure this out. Have had double digit carbs 'left over' at the end of the day and could not figure out why this seemed so out of whack. will follow your instructions tomorrow and get my protein goal under control. Have been coming in about 100 cals under daily calorie goal every day and was determined not to eat chips/pretzel type junk to come up to my carb #. Thanks again--Suzann

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