How much Protein can the body absorb at once?

jonesybgonsy13 · May 2019

Hey guys, just had a company meeting and a lady came and talked to us about macros, she said the body can only take in 20-30 g of protein within a 3-4 timeframe and if you exceed that amount its stored as body fat. Is this correct??

lemurcat2 · May 2019

No, it's not.

There is a theory that you can only use 20-30 g at a time for muscle building (related to the whole thing about protein consumption in a window). That's likely not true or more complicated, as shown by the ability of people to gain or maintain muscle even when using eating patterns like IF/OMAD. Here's a discussion of it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5828430/ and here: https://examine.com/nutrition/how-much-protein-can-you-eat-in-one-sitting/

It's also why vegetarians don't have to worry about pairing protein sources to get all amino acids, as your body can slow down it's use of them, have them on hand longer than we thought at one point.

Beyond all this, even if only 20-30 g could be used for muscle building/repair at a time (which again seems not to be true), that would NOT mean the rest became fat. You will not gain net fat in a calorie deficit.

Carlos_421 · May 2019

She's mostly wrong.
It is generally accepted that 20-30 grams at a time is the most that your body will use for muscle protein synthesis (muscle building) but even this belief is overly simplified and contains a certain amount of myth (the upper limit is dependent on age, body size and other factors including the protein source and how quickly that source is digested).
That said, even if only the first 30 grams is used for building muscle, that doesn't mean that anything beyond that will be stored as fat. It means it will be oxidized for energy. Whether or not that energy gets stored as fat in your body will depend on whether or not you are in a net calorie deficit or surplus.
If you are burning more energy overall than you are eating, you will lose fat overall. If you are burning less than you are eating, you will gain fat.

Your body is constantly (even simultaneously) storing and releasing fat to and from your fat cells. Whether you release more fat than you store or store more than you release (fat loss vs fat gain) will depend solely on your overall calorie balance.

apullum · May 2019

Long term fat gain happens when you eat more calories than your body burns. It doesn’t have anything to do with which macros you eat or your nutrient timing. Nutrient timing has very little relevance unless you are a competitive athlete.

It sounds like this person is giving advice that is oversimplified to the point of being bad advice. I hope your company gets a more informed speaker next time.

NorthCascades · May 2019

No.

Excess calories will be stored as fat, no matter what macros they come from. Some people want that not to be true for dogmatic reasons, but wanting something to be true doesn't make it true or we'd all be rich.

psuLemon · May 2019

https://youtu.be/CTF9YR6BU9k

How much Protein can the body absorb at once?

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