Too much protein?

[Propnose]

Is there such thing as too much protein? I am quite sure I am in no danger of this, but my wife and I were discussing diet and nutrition and just wondering.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

[Sterling]

Is there such thing as too much protein? I am quite sure I am in no danger of this, but my wife and I were discussing diet and nutrition and just wondering.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

Mark: I'm sure your could eat too much protein, but you are not likely to. You would have to purposely set out to do it.

Normal protein intake for maintaining muscle and losing body fat is 1.5-2 grams per lean body pound. So if you weigh 200 lbs with a body fat of 15%, you'd take 170 lbs * 1.5 = 255 grams of protein/day (170*2=340) or 340 grams of protein/day. To give you some perspective, 2 lbs of chicken breast is about 260 grams of protein. That's about 10 'servings' of chicken. That is a lot of chicken!

[FitRunner]

I thought that the kidneys could be stressed by too much protein, but that doesn't seem to be the case unless you already had a kidney problem: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/high-protein-diets/AN00847

[Dave]

I think you can take in too much protein. There are a few different theories on how to calc that protein requirement. Tony Horton and Missy Costello talked about this at camp. Their recommendation was lower. More like 1g per lean body mass. The point that they were making is not that taking in that much protein is necessarily a bad thing for you (although I have hear the kidney thing), but that by taking in too much protein, you may be excluding other macronutrient groups (i.e. carbs & fat). If all your daily nutrition comes from protein, then that's too much. You need carbs (in appropriate amounts, of course) and fats in your diet as well.

[FitRunner]

Yeah, maybe that's really the best functional definition of too much protein - at SOME point, you aren't eating something else you do need to eat as well. Guess where that is depends on your stomach capacity :)