Yo,
Most of us are aware of the importance of protein within our diets. However, if you don’t know, let’s go into a brief breakdown of the importance of it.
Protein is a macronutrient that is made up of amino acids and it’s needed to maintain, repair and grow muscles. It does have other functions, but that’s probably the main thing that you want to know about.
So, it sounds and is pretty essential to achieve our dream bodies. It’s no wonder you hear the gym bros talk about high protein ideas and stress over getting enough in for the day. Alongside the gym bros, many fitness influencers and pretty much anyone else within the fitness space will always be wondering about how they can get in more protein for the day.
They focus on avoiding under-consuming protein. Rightfully so though. I mean, since we know the purpose of it. If we don’t get enough, then obviously we will struggle drastically with maintaining and recovering our muscles. However, there is one side of the coin that does not seem to get enough recognition.
That is overconsuming protein. To be honest, when I started paying closer attention to my macros, I always aimed to get enough protein (although I struggled initially) and avoid under consuming. I never once had the thought of over-consuming. However, as I gained experience and no longer struggled to eat enough, the thought of overconsuming crossed my mind. This is because when I planned my food at times, the protein looked too high to me.
This leads me to explore if it’s possible to eat too much. Let’s get to it.
Identify your consumption
It’s going to be quite difficult to identify if you are consuming enough if you lack awareness of how much you are supposed to be eating. As a general guideline, I aim to eat around 2g of protein per kg of body weight (or 0.9-1 per pound of body weight). From my experience, this is what I prefer and have seen good progress with it.
Other people will recommend other guidelines, so go with what you want.
Some of you may also be wondering how you can even eat a high-protein diet, or how you can count calories. To briefly get into this, download an app that has a barcode scanner (such as my fitness pal and mynetdiary for example) and get scanning (We will get into detail surrounding calorie counting in another post).
You may find that when you identify your consumption necessary, and compare it to how much protein you are eating currently, don’t be surprised about how low you are potentially eating.
You can also search “protein calculator”.
Now that we have identified the necessary consumption, let’s move on.
The difficulty of getting to this point
We have just mentioned how it is not unlikely that you are eating much less than the required protein consumption to progress. This is certainly true. In fact, most people are under-eating their protein consumption without even knowing.
As a result, it’s no wonder the fitness space is more focused on avoiding undereating. To be frank, it can be really difficult at times. To eat enough protein, without overconsuming calories sure can be difficult if you are quite new.
This is not to say that it is impossible to eat too much, because it is possible. I just believe that it is necessary to outline that getting to the point of eating too much can be difficult. You need to be eating a lot of high-protein foods, without overconsuming calories to avoid excessive fat gain.
Moreover, if you’re in a cut, you are going to need to ensure that you are not only eating a sufficient amount of protein without consuming too many calories (so you can continue maintaining a caloric deficit) but also to make sure that you are having enough of the nutrients, to not deprive yourself.
In my experience, it’s easier to eat less than the required amount of protein, than it is to overeat the required amount. Don’t be surprised if you find this in your journey.
However, let’s get into what happens if you do manage to eat too much. Specifically, the effects.
Effects of too much
There comes a point where more consumption of protein does not equal more muscle gain. Essentially, you face diminishing returns. Make no mistake though, if you are under-consuming by a lot, and you consume a lot more protein. That will result in more muscle, assuming everything else is correct.
If you’re eating a sufficient amount of protein, and you suddenly add another 45g of protein, it won’t suddenly result in exponentially more muscle. This is because your body is already eating enough of what it requires to grow, repair and maintain muscle. There are side effects of eating too much protein and they include:
– More costs (It only makes sense, to eat more protein you need to spend more on protein sources)
– nausea
– Constipation
– Higher risk of kidney stones
– Nutritional imbalances (you may find yourself disregarding other nutrients and depriving yourself)
– Increased risk of heart disease
– Dehydration
Now, you won’t experience this after one, two, or three days of excessive protein intake. You will find this happening after prolonged excessive consumption, over many weeks and months.
Too much of anything is bad!
Like with everything in life, too much of anything is undesirable. Eating too low of protein is not ideal and as we’ve just gone through, too much protein is also bad. As you can see, there are certainly negative effects associated with both excessive and limited protein intake. You must find the sweet spot.
Too many carbohydrates aren’t good. Too much fat is bad. Too much sodium is bad. Too much sugar is bad.
You get the idea, protein is just like anything else. You must manage it.
So, where to go from here?
The goal of this post was not to make you fear protein, but to expand your knowledge and to debunk the notion of more protein=more muscle. So, what we’ve covered today is that:
– It’s important to know how much protein is necessary for us.
– It’s difficult to even get to the point of eating too much protein (for most people)
– There are numerous effects of too much protein consumption.
– Ultimately, too much of anything is bad.
Moving forward, I hope you’ve learnt to not adopt the mentality that more protein=more muscle and also remember to focus on other nutrients. Protein is one of the many nutrients that you should keep in mind and that you should focus on getting a sufficient amount, rather than an excessive amount.
Ever since proceeding with my nutrition in this way, it’s made my life much easier. I hope you’ve learnt something and feel free to share your thoughts as always. Thank you for taking the time to read.
See you next time
