Me and a friend were talking and we were wondering exactly how much protein the human body can aborb at one serving. Cause taking 50 grams of protein in one shake is absolutely useless if the body can only absorb 30. Also how long is a serving good for. If the body absorbs 30 can I drink anothr shake in an hour or do I have to wait 4? Let me know if anyone has some stats.
Thanks,
Mike
I don’t know if there is a blanket statistic as to how much protein the body can absorb. Because everyone?s base metabolic rate is different, as is everyone’s absorption rate. It will also differ if you have just worked out, if you don’t do anything active, etc. I’m just guessing but I don’t think you can really say how much your body will absorb unless you participate in a study or something.
No one knows if there is even a limit.
You ever eat a steak. Well one bigger than 4 0z. Then you are getting more than 30grams and you didnt poo out a steak did you. I hope!!!LOL
Nough said,
Hope that helps,
Phill
[quote]Watson2K5 wrote:
No one knows if there is even a limit.[/quote]
…and even if there is one, it stands to reason that body size and metabolism have much to do with it. I would expect a larger bodybuilder who weighs over 230lbs to be able to get down much more protein in one sitting than only 30gr. If I drink a protein shake, the amount of protein is usually close to 50gr or above. I haven’t had any problems. Timing would be another factor considering that I am sure that if carbohydrates are provided, that additional protein post-training has a higher chance of uptake. While none of this proven, your body is adaptive to the degree that the concept of it rejecting everything past 30gr at all times makes little sense. If someone only weighed 150lbs, I would expect for their degree of uptake to be less, as is the case with overall calories needed, if the metabolism was the same as someone much larger.
I eat enough meat in one sitting to negate that whole idea.
LOL!
Man, there’s nothing better than eating a 12-16oz steak! And you know that thing has more than 70 grams of protein!!!
Whenever I go to a restaurant, I always ask the waiter/waitress, “Which of these is the biggest?” Referring to the meals listed (steak, chicken, salmon or other fish). As I always go for the meal that is going to contain the largest amount of meat/protein per serving. Besides, I can eat a lot, and I need a lot to fill me up.
It’s not too rare to find me eating a 1lb burger or going to Sonny’s for all-you-can-eat chicken and eating 4-7 chicken breasts, a sweet potato and a little bit of baked beans (no bread, no fries and none of the other garbage!).
And within two hours, I’ll be hungry again.
One of my typical meals. Whenever I eat a burger, I always stack a few patties on one bun…to help cut down on eating crappy white bread.
In addition to the triple burger and other goods on the plate, I had a brautworst (no bun) and went back for seconds on the baked beans and a little more potato salad.
And, no, I’m not drinking a Pepsi! I had a cup of water…a few, in fact.
I’ve heard that 30g thing before too. I think there was some kind of study on it, though I don’t remember exactly what they did, and I’m pretty sure it refered to the average couch potato.
Being physically active I would guess that we can absorb much more than that at once, especially post workout.
Plus your body doesn’t store protein as fat as easily as it does saturated fats and carbs, so an excess of protein is better than too much of an excess of the others.
Just to make it clear, I’m saying it’s not absorbed AS EASILY. I’m NOT saying that it can’t be stored as fat at all, just a lot less likely.
I personally would rather have too much than too little.
There is no such thing as wasting protein. Protein will be broken down one way or the other. Depending on the state of the body when you eat it, you’re using it for anabolism and converting any “extra” into glucose via a heat wasting process called gluconeogenesis. The Thermic effect of food (TEF) is a good thing and will help keep you lean. Also, proteins are used for much more than just building muscle. You’re really selling yourself short if you stop at 30g in fear of “wasting” it.
[quote]SWR-1222D wrote:
Plus your body doesn’t store protein as fat as easily as it does saturated fats and carbs, so an excess of protein is better than too much of an excess of the others.
I personally would rather have too much than too little.[/quote]
Ok this is the perfect place to mention it. I made a post for it before, but never got a response.
The reason why I’m concerned with the topic is because in that same conversation my friend told me that in a book he read that you don’t want too much protein because your body will get used to eating the protein instead of the carbs. Has anyone ever heard anything of this?
[quote]Seeves wrote:
SWR-1222D wrote:
Plus your body doesn’t store protein as fat as easily as it does saturated fats and carbs, so an excess of protein is better than too much of an excess of the others.
I personally would rather have too much than too little.
Ok this is the perfect place to mention it. I made a post for it before, but never got a response.
The reason why I’m concerned with the topic is because in that same conversation my friend told me that in a book he read that you don’t want too much protein because your body will get used to eating the protein instead of the carbs. Has anyone ever heard anything of this?
[/quote]
And what’s the down side of this?
Seeves, nice call on considering absorption instead of just digestion! This is a first for me!
Anyway, the very premise of the idea may be flawed, because there is no definition as to what point absorption STOP’s -from our transporters “giving out”. Eat more protein, get more absorption, simple as that.
Our concern should be the quantity that we can consume before the amino acids are simply burned off (ie oxidized). For example, 40g of amino acids were given after training and most of this was burned off. I don’t think the exact amount was ever quantified.
Also, the delayed digestion of beef has more to do with digestion than protein absorption.
I’m always available to complicate things. LOL
Cheers
in the book SLICED which was my introduction into body building and lifting weights (4 years ago) it says on page 61:
“The human digestive system is capable of procssing between 20 and 25 grams of protein from any given meal, so it’s obvious that six meals per day will allow you to digest twice as much protein as three meals”
granted this book was written in 1991 or so, if this was a FACT then it is still a FACT, but who knows?
The rational they are presenting though, is that if you wanna get big, or get lean, you should eat 6 meals a day. I know that Berardi has said that eating 6+ meals a day speeds up metabolism, and he’s also said that it keeps a constant flow of nutrients entering the blood.
So if there exists some hypothetical limit on how much protein you can digest and utilize at one sitting or meal, it would only make sense to eat 6+ meals a day to get the most progress!
[quote]CU AeroStallion wrote:
in the book SLICED which was my introduction into body building and lifting weights (4 years ago) it says on page 61:
“The human digestive system is capable of procssing between 20 and 25 grams of protein from any given meal, so it’s obvious that six meals per day will allow you to digest twice as much protein as three meals”
granted this book was written in 1991 or so, if this was a FACT then it is still a FACT, but who knows?
The rational they are presenting though, is that if you wanna get big, or get lean, you should eat 6 meals a day. I know that Berardi has said that eating 6+ meals a day speeds up metabolism, and he’s also said that it keeps a constant flow of nutrients entering the blood.
So if there exists some hypothetical limit on how much protein you can digest and utilize at one sitting or meal, it would only make sense to eat 6+ meals a day to get the most progress![/quote]
Just to point out the obvious…25 multiplied by 6 equals 150. This means that the most protein someone could ever ingest and utilize over 6 meals is only 150gr. If that were true, anyone over 200lbs would HAVE to eat more than 8-10 times a day just to meet the requirements considered by most, especially when dieting. Needless to say, that is ridiculous.
If I weigh 265lbs, I would have to avoid sleep just to make sure I ate enough times to meet my body weight in protein. That quote is bogus info. Proof of this is in any gym with bodybuilders over 250lbs who have ever dieted for a contest without eating 12+ times a day.
From my experiences in life there is a cut-off limit and it can be somewhat detrimental (sp) to go over that level on a constant basis. I say this because my roomate at the moment is a wreck physically (allergic to everything etc…) and he had to take a jug of his urine into the doctor which showed that he was taking in so much protien that he was in fact just urinating it out of his system which in turn means that it will start causing kidney damage in the long run if my roomate was to continue with his diet at the time (this was what the doctor said not just something that I inferred).
Overall he was cut back on supplements for a while but did not stop entirely, but with the way the doctor freaked out after seeing the analysis of my roomates urine so I would assume that more=better is not the case… there is a gray area in my opinion.
I am a generally new lifter and fairly hazy on the nutrition side of lifting but this is just my two cents. Also, sorry for the grammar I am being lazy!
Josh
[quote]TheJosh wrote:
From my experiences in life there is a cut-off limit and it can be somewhat detrimental (sp) to go over that level on a constant basis. I say this because my roomate at the moment is a wreck physically (allergic to everything etc…) and he had to take a jug of his urine into the doctor which showed that he was taking in so much protien that he was in fact just urinating it out of his system which in turn means that it will start causing kidney damage in the long run if my roomate was to continue with his diet at the time (this was what the doctor said not just something that I inferred).
Overall he was cut back on supplements for a while but did not stop entirely, but with the way the doctor freaked out after seeing the analysis of my roomates urine so I would assume that more=better is not the case… there is a gray area in my opinion.
I am a generally new lifter and fairly hazy on the nutrition side of lifting but this is just my two cents. Also, sorry for the grammar I am being lazy!
Josh[/quote]
Do you know what your friends daily intake was?
I think I’d worry about the supplement cocktail before I’d worry about the protein.
Is it going to be necessary for us to wander down the road of mythery whenever a nutrition topic comes up?
There is no evidence that healthy people with functioning kidneys have to worry about protein consumption at any level.
I’m so tired of protein, testosterone, creatine, bodybuilding and strength all being the damned boogeyman…
[quote]TheJosh wrote:
From my experiences in life there is a cut-off limit and it can be somewhat detrimental (sp) to go over that level on a constant basis. I say this because my roomate at the moment is a wreck physically (allergic to everything etc…) and he had to take a jug of his urine into the doctor which showed that he was taking in so much protien that he was in fact just urinating it out of his system which in turn means that it will start causing kidney damage in the long run if my roomate was to continue with his diet at the time (this was what the doctor said not just something that I inferred).
Overall he was cut back on supplements for a while but did not stop entirely, but with the way the doctor freaked out after seeing the analysis of my roomates urine so I would assume that more=better is not the case… there is a gray area in my opinion.
I am a generally new lifter and fairly hazy on the nutrition side of lifting but this is just my two cents. Also, sorry for the grammar I am being lazy!
Josh[/quote]
I seriously hope that you and your friend realize how dumb it would be to act as if protein is the only nutrient you need…which is exactly what that scenario sounds like. You could kill yourself by drinking too much water. A “little” knowledge is dangerous.
A few years ago, Will Brink offered a prize of $10,000 to anyone who could find proof of the mythical “30 gram per sitting” barrier.
No one ever collected.
This 30 gram thing has been floating around as long as I can remember, and there’s still no proof of it.
[quote]Watson2K5 wrote:
Seeves wrote:
SWR-1222D wrote:
Plus your body doesn’t store protein as fat as easily as it does saturated fats and carbs, so an excess of protein is better than too much of an excess of the others.
I personally would rather have too much than too little.
Ok this is the perfect place to mention it. I made a post for it before, but never got a response.
The reason why I’m concerned with the topic is because in that same conversation my friend told me that in a book he read that you don’t want too much protein because your body will get used to eating the protein instead of the carbs. Has anyone ever heard anything of this?
And what’s the down side of this?[/quote]
Watson2K5, the down side of this is, like Seeves said, your body will start to use protein as energy. You want your body to use carb as energy, not protein.
GB