Too Much Protein?

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Hi! I'm new to the site! And I just started tracking my food. I didn't change any of the suggested amounts for calories, fat, carbs, etc. This morning I ate 2 eggs and for lunch had 4oz of chicken breast. With the other things I ate today - that puts me over the suggested protein amount. I am still well in the correct range for calories, fat, carbs....The suggested protein amount is 45 and I have already had 55. I plan on having more for dinner. Is too much protein a bad thing?

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  • butterfly10398
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    I've had this question a lot myself... And from what I've read, as long as you are drinking PLENTY of water, they should just flush out of your system... it makes your kidneys work harder, but that shouldn't be a problem, unless you are predisposition to having kidney problems... As long as your body is normal and healthy too much protein really won't be a problem, just drink TONS of water so you don't get dehydrated.
  • super_jade
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    I often knock my protein into the red aswell. I never knew it affected kidneys....ive had trouble with my kidneys!! Ive started always having a bottle of water with me so i sip at it all day and i find not only am i not bored eating im also fuller alot longer. only down side is you got to pee all the frickin time!
  • wynnn
    wynnn Posts: 9 Member
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    if you are working out alot of protein is good. it repairs all you muscle tissue. i work out 6x a week and in order to not be sore the next day i consume alot haha.i am a strength and conditioning major with a associates in personal training you should consume 1g of protein per lb of LBM (lean body muscle) if you need the formula to figure this out i can give it to you. but alot of protein wont hurt as long as u are working out. hope i helped out some :) i should consume 167.5g of protein a day..
  • Di3012
    Di3012 Posts: 2,250 Member
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    Hi! I'm new to the site! And I just started tracking my food. I didn't change any of the suggested amounts for calories, fat, carbs, etc. This morning I ate 2 eggs and for lunch had 4oz of chicken breast. With the other things I ate today - that puts me over the suggested protein amount. I am still well in the correct range for calories, fat, carbs....The suggested protein amount is 45 and I have already had 55. I plan on having more for dinner. Is too much protein a bad thing?

    I regularly go over mine, the protein levels on MFP are low.

    Unless you have kidney problems, don't fret about going over protein at all :)
  • BigRich822
    BigRich822 Posts: 681
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    I do no think there is nothing wrong with protein. I eat about 160 grams a day. I use my own ratio for my marcos witch is 60 of y daily calorie allowance comes from protein and 20% carbs and 20% Fats
  • traceyjason
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    Great, thank you! I ate about 97 g of protein yesterday. And my kidneys are fine and I don't have any medical issues. I really need to drink more water!!! That's my biggest problem.
  • katysmelly
    katysmelly Posts: 380 Member
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    A lot of people find that eating meals higher in protein helps them feel full longer.

    For lunch today I had a grilled chicken breast with onion gravy and a whole lot of cabbage. That was mostly protein and fibre. I felt very full and stayed that way for most of a very active afternoon.

    For breakfast, I ate almost twice that many calories, primarily in carbs. I was very hungry in an hour.
  • BigRich822
    BigRich822 Posts: 681
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    You can never have to much water. Its good to drink about half your body weight in ounces a day at least.
  • BLy82
    BLy82 Posts: 33 Member
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    Too much protein actually CAN be a problem. A bigger problem is too much lean protein in the absence of other calories (this is sometimes called 'rabbit starvation', this is very very unlikely to happen to someone who is eating food from our modern food supply though).

    You are, however, relatively unlikely to actually reach toxic quantities of protein by just eating actual foods. People who suffer from problems normally fall into some category like living under circumstances where lean protein is all they get (hunter/gatherer societies in the spring for example, when meat is lean but not many edible plants have come in yet), are supplementing protein like crazy (drinking lots of shakes that are virtually pure protein and that sort of thing), or have some kind of liver and/or kidney issue that lowers their body's ability to process it (it's important, for example, for people who've gotten kidney transplants to take it easy on the protein to extend the life of the donor kidney).

    The typical advice is not to get in excess of 30% or so of your calories from protein, and not to exceed probably something in the ballpark of 150g a day for a typical-sized woman casually. If you wanted to go well above that (like if you were getting into bodybuilding), it would be smart to talk to a doctor about the possibility of doing a blood test just to double check and be sure that it doesn't look like your liver or kidneys are in any kind of distress about it (sometimes early disease of those organs doesn't show any obvious symptoms).

    Beyond that, you should mostly make sure that you're not letting foods that are mainly protein without a lot of other nutrients become such a big part of your diet that they start displacing more nutrient-dense foods (like vegetables) from your diet.