Fact or Fiction?

Bump....This is something that I have been told different things about as well...I consume at least 60-70 when I drink one protein shake...I used to consume more at times but was told that this is not a good idea...It's just a waste of protein basically b/c your body will only use so much of it...So what is the REAL story???

Great topic!!

So....

Are you thinking if you down a 20 oz Porterhouse your body doesn't bother to digest most of it because there is too much protein?

This is a total myth, your body digests protein same as fat and carbs, you can't eat "too much" to digest.

Bump...Would love to know if anyone knows this info at all...

I had never heard that but I googled it and the first three articles said it's a myth. One even had supporting studies.

Intuitively, I would think it's not true because we're hunter/gatherers biologically. We could get protein only several meals per week, or less. It would behoove our body to store it.

I think how it works is the body disassembles the compounds we eat and reassembles them as needed. This is why we have the term "essential fatty acids". They're the one thing our body must get directly from our diet. It can't create them from other compounds.

The body only needs 40-60 grams of protein to build and maintain muscle mass. You can however become toxic on too much protein. I had a friend how was having 80-120 grams per day. He became lethargic, tired, jaundice and kept doing it. Finally doctors realized he was poisoning himself. The excess protein caused his liver to overwork and thus his liver shut down and subsequent organs. If it would have been a few weeks longer before treated, he probably would not be around.
Stick with 40-60, that will be plenty.
And, to help breakdown proteins, drink some apple cider vinegar. It helps increase with protein digestion.

The answer to your question is a resounding "Yes!"

Remember that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. In all my research on this, here is the best statement I ever came across...

So what’s the take home message here? The research on this isn’t 100% crystal clear as there are a number of variables to be taken into account: Trainee age, training intensity, total amount of protein given per day, type of protein administered, and so on.

The body will not store excess protein, but I don't think there is a specific number that is the same for everyone.

Myth:

http://www.wannabebig.com/diet-and-nutrition/is-there-a-limit-to-how-much-protein-the-body-can-use-in-a-single-meal/

I can see where a limit of 10g/h might lead to 20g per meal on the basis of two hours to absorb it.

Absorption time would be dose dependent. Wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that a meal of 60g would just take much longer to fully absorb?

It's not a myth. Your body can only absorb so much protein in a given time period, though I admit the science of the study I was reading was a bit over my head.

The way the myth was conceived was basically the construct of people bad at math who don't understand systems.

Protein can only be absorbed so fast from various foods. This is pretty well known and the data is readily available.
Somebody made the two following INCORRECT assumptions:
1) That stacking is not allowed
2) That the absorbtion takes place fully in the stomach, and the stomach is cleared within a fairly short period of time.

Combine those two assumptions with the average protein absorbtion rate for food and you "discover" that there is maximum daily limit of protein that the body can absorb, and that the limit is quite low.

The people that made that logical leap and made that "discovery" apparently ignored the data about protein utilization, that is the % of protein absorbed from various foods is dependant on the food itself and not the timing of eating; this myth absolutely has to be false if that is true.

The problem is that both those assumptions are wrong. Protein absorbtion from a particular food can go on for many hours into the small intestine. While protein absorbtion from that meal will continue at the maximum rate for the food, the digestive system can handle multiple meals simultaneously. Thus the digestive system is stacking absorbtion and has much, much longer to do its thing than the creators of the myth thought.

Like I said, just like there is a maximum absorbtion rate there is also a utilization rate. Funny thing is these tend to go hand in hand. Studies tend to include both pieces of information. If the body has a maximum daily absorbtion, utilization rate cannot exist as maximum daily absorbtion would be a boundary condition.

And really common sense is all that is needed to debunk this myth. You don't for real believe that our body can only process one of the big 3 macronutrients at a limited quantity per day. The sniff test for any sort of thing like this is "would this be a good or bad evolutionary adaptation", having a limited capacity to process one of the macronutriets is obviously bad evolution.

Where did this myth come from? It is obvious. There are a lot of people always fearful of they or them, seeing conspiracy in everything. Many people beleive that the need for elevated protein is just a myth created by suppliment companies and perpetuated by fitness mags to sell you stuff. This is not helped by the pitiful RDA on food labels and lack of any sort of useful official gov't guidance. Instead of performing actual trials on themselves to determine protein need (though creating an n=1 experiment for most is not something they are capable of doing well), they instead find ways to critque and push back against what they see as a conspiracy by greedy corporations by trying to bend science to fit what they want it to say.

In this instance though they are flat out WRONG. That the body can only absorb X grams of protein a day is a myth.