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Can excess protein be stored as fat?
- Thread starter rikishi
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Iron Warrior707
Banned
Excess calories can be stored as fat even protein, BUT protein have thermogenic effect which makes them harder to be stored, but its defiantly possible if you over do them..
Ripp42
Banned
The calories can. But aminos no right? Isnt protien aminos?
Ripp42
Banned
Well haaaaa dam!!!
Everyone knows that overeating leads to excess weight. This concept comes in many flavors these days, though. Some people think that carbohydrates are the culprit. Others think it's sugar. Some people think that eating lots of protein couldn't possibly make them gain weight. Hmmm . . .
The only way to determine the answer to this enigma is to go inside the human body and take a look at how fat gets there in the first place. Let's follow a bite of pepperoni pizza and see what happens to its sugar, fat and protein. Open wide!
The food enters your mouth:
Saliva contains enzymes that break any starch in the food down to sugar.
This, along with any fat and water in the food, travel to the stomach, which churns them up.
Pepsin (an enzyme that digests protein) and hydrochloric acid further break down the food, turning it into a substance called chyme.
The mixture enters the duodenum, (the place where the gall bladder secretes its bile).
This bile dissolves the fat in water, thinning it out and making it easier to absorb.
Enzymes from the pancreas enter the duodenum and further break down the sugar, fat and protein.
Now everything is dissolved and is in fluid form, so it is absorbed through the lining of the small bowel. Fat, sugar and protein wave good-bye to each other and go their separate ways.
What happens to the sugar:
It also goes directly into the blood stream, and several different organs take the sugar they need as it passes by.
Some is stored in the liver as glycogen.
Whatever is left is converted to fat and stored in fat cells with the excess fat above.
What happens to the fat:
First, it goes into the blood stream and travels to the liver
The liver burns some of the fat, converts some to other substances (one is cholesterol) and sends the rest to fat cells, where they wait until they are needed.
What happens to the protein:
It is broken down into building blocks known as peptides.
Then, it is further broken down and it becomes amino acids.
The amino acids are absorbed through the small intestine's lining and enter the blood stream.
From here, some of the amino acids build the body's protein stores.
Excess amino acids are converted to fats and sugars and follow the paths described above.
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This is such a simple concept, but many people still believe that consuming lots and lots of protein will put muscle on their bones. Don't be fooled by this notion! Even excess protein turns to fat.
Here is a picturesque illustration of the real cause of weight gain. Eating too much food! Dietary fat is obviously the substance most often stored as fat in the end, but no matter what you eat, your body takes whatever it can't use and sends it to fat cells. If you don't burn it off or expel it, it hangs around in your fat cells, no matter what it consists of.
Everyone knows that overeating leads to excess weight. This concept comes in many flavors these days, though. Some people think that carbohydrates are the culprit. Others think it's sugar. Some people think that eating lots of protein couldn't possibly make them gain weight. Hmmm . . .
The only way to determine the answer to this enigma is to go inside the human body and take a look at how fat gets there in the first place. Let's follow a bite of pepperoni pizza and see what happens to its sugar, fat and protein. Open wide!
The food enters your mouth:
Saliva contains enzymes that break any starch in the food down to sugar.
This, along with any fat and water in the food, travel to the stomach, which churns them up.
Pepsin (an enzyme that digests protein) and hydrochloric acid further break down the food, turning it into a substance called chyme.
The mixture enters the duodenum, (the place where the gall bladder secretes its bile).
This bile dissolves the fat in water, thinning it out and making it easier to absorb.
Enzymes from the pancreas enter the duodenum and further break down the sugar, fat and protein.
Now everything is dissolved and is in fluid form, so it is absorbed through the lining of the small bowel. Fat, sugar and protein wave good-bye to each other and go their separate ways.
What happens to the sugar:
It also goes directly into the blood stream, and several different organs take the sugar they need as it passes by.
Some is stored in the liver as glycogen.
Whatever is left is converted to fat and stored in fat cells with the excess fat above.
What happens to the fat:
First, it goes into the blood stream and travels to the liver
The liver burns some of the fat, converts some to other substances (one is cholesterol) and sends the rest to fat cells, where they wait until they are needed.
What happens to the protein:
It is broken down into building blocks known as peptides.
Then, it is further broken down and it becomes amino acids.
The amino acids are absorbed through the small intestine's lining and enter the blood stream.
From here, some of the amino acids build the body's protein stores.
Excess amino acids are converted to fats and sugars and follow the paths described above.
ADVERTISEMENT
This is such a simple concept, but many people still believe that consuming lots and lots of protein will put muscle on their bones. Don't be fooled by this notion! Even excess protein turns to fat.
Here is a picturesque illustration of the real cause of weight gain. Eating too much food! Dietary fat is obviously the substance most often stored as fat in the end, but no matter what you eat, your body takes whatever it can't use and sends it to fat cells. If you don't burn it off or expel it, it hangs around in your fat cells, no matter what it consists of.
Iron Warrior707
Banned
Thats excatly what i meant by protein converting to fat if you over do them.. Any form of calories can be stored as fat, protein is the hardest out of fat and carbs.. But Free form of bcaa cant convert to fat..
You'll get a kidney stone before you get fat from BCAAs. Theoretically you could convert BCAAs back to fat but it's thermogenically inefficient and as I stated above, you'd probably get a kidney stone first.
As for protein in general, you can most certainly eat too much of it, and many experienced bodybuilders make this mistake. Just because it's good for you doesn't mean it's a free for all. Portion sizes are the name of the game
jennifer778
New member
You'll get a kidney stone before you get fat from BCAAs. Theoretically you could convert BCAAs back to fat but it's thermogenically inefficient and as I stated above, you'd probably get a kidney stone first.
As for protein in general, you can most certainly eat too much of it, and many experienced bodybuilders make this mistake. Just because it's good for you doesn't mean it's a free for all. Portion sizes are the name of the game
So for a newbie here...what's the recommended dose/portion for protein?
So too much protein can cause kidney stones?
Ripp42
Banned
1-1.5 per lb of ur body wgt.
DZLS
New member
well i learned something new today... good to know...
i never consumed a crazy amount of protien so i assume i never had to worry about excess being stored as fat... of course i assume if you are on a high protien diet and training hard, you really would never have to worry about excess protein being stored as fat...
i never consumed a crazy amount of protien so i assume i never had to worry about excess being stored as fat... of course i assume if you are on a high protien diet and training hard, you really would never have to worry about excess protein being stored as fat...
ianbell121
New member
as far as i know that is not possible.
D
Deleted member 33117
Guest
Amino acids/protein can be converted into glucose by the liver which can be converted into bodyfat, however there are quite a few steps involved for all of this to happen. The real question becomes, are you eating only protein? Any excess calories will most likely be stored as bodyfat. For example if your TDEE is 3000 calories for a day and you are eating 250g protein, 250g of carbs,112g of fat a day (33/33/33 ratio on 3000 calories) your weight will stay roughly the same. However if you add another 250g of protein to that for a 1000 calorie a day surplus even if none of the protein itself ends up being converted to bodyfat, you are now eating a surplus of 1000 calories... and 2000 calories of your diet is in the form of dietary carbs and fat (1000 of which is surplus)... you can expect to gain some body fat accordingly. You cannot survive on a 100% protein diet... but even if you cut down to the minimums, and cut out all dietary carbs, and ate only 10% of yoru calories in a nice balance of n-3 and n-6 fats so that you are eating EFA's. still as much as 40% of your protein (amino acids) can convert to glucose which can easily convert to bodyfat... so it is still possible to gain fair amounts of bodyfat this way if on a large caloric surplus.
Any questions?
Any questions?
D
Deleted member 33117
Guest
Now as to my previous examples... yes there is some debate regarding the caloric value of protein due to its higher termic value and some nutrition researchers would like it to be considered 3 calories per gram instead of 4 in terms of human metabolism... however once that is calculated adding 250g of protein if TDEE = caloric intake already will still results in 750 surplus calories a day... the fat and carb calories you also eat that day do not suddenly not count just becuase you added 750 protein calories.
Now all of that being said we know protein per gram is less likely to convert to bodyfat, tends to fill us up faster than most other calories and higher amounts usually = more muscle growth... particularly when on gear. However eating a very high protein diet does not mean surplus calories are not going to convert into bodyfat at all... excluding of course things like very high protein diets when on tren and/or hgh which do seem to inhibit fat gain to some extent, but not completely.
Now all of that being said we know protein per gram is less likely to convert to bodyfat, tends to fill us up faster than most other calories and higher amounts usually = more muscle growth... particularly when on gear. However eating a very high protein diet does not mean surplus calories are not going to convert into bodyfat at all... excluding of course things like very high protein diets when on tren and/or hgh which do seem to inhibit fat gain to some extent, but not completely.
You can't easily store protein as fat if your calories are still in check.
If you're eating a hypocaloric diet, consisting nearly 100% of protein (no carbs or fats) you won't store any of it as fat and will likely lose fat and possibly muscle.
Eating a hypercaloric diet (say, 1000kcal over TDEE) in only protein will lead to a fat gain of around 2lbs a week.
Certain amino acids are easily converted into sugar in the liver through amino acid Gluconeogenesis. The only amino acid that can not be used for this purpose is leucine, a BCAA, so storing BCAA's as fat through their sugar conversion is nigh impossible.
Your body digests and uses everything you ingest. It was starving through millions of years of evolution. The name of the game is calories. Too many and you gain weight, regardless of the foods you eat.
If you're eating a hypocaloric diet, consisting nearly 100% of protein (no carbs or fats) you won't store any of it as fat and will likely lose fat and possibly muscle.
Eating a hypercaloric diet (say, 1000kcal over TDEE) in only protein will lead to a fat gain of around 2lbs a week.
Certain amino acids are easily converted into sugar in the liver through amino acid Gluconeogenesis. The only amino acid that can not be used for this purpose is leucine, a BCAA, so storing BCAA's as fat through their sugar conversion is nigh impossible.
Your body digests and uses everything you ingest. It was starving through millions of years of evolution. The name of the game is calories. Too many and you gain weight, regardless of the foods you eat.
Here's a question. As I understand it fats are triglycerides, protein is made up of amino acids and carbs are polysaccharides. They all have distinctly different molecular structures. How can protein/amino acids or carbs/polysaccharides convert into fats/triglycerides? Surely that'd be like turning water into wine? Or lead into gold?
Or is it that they're simply stored IN fat cells even though they're not actually fats?
D
Deleted member 33117
Guest
Are you wanting an actual breakdown of the chemistry? Do you have a chemistry background? If not the details might be wasted... a simple google search should answer the question in layman's terms.
Your basic assumptions are incorrect also:
Actually sugars and particularly fructose are converted to blood triglycerides by the liver.
Dietary fat starts as a triglyceride but cannot pass through the intestinal lining in that form and is broken down into a glycerol backing and free fatty acids during the digestion process prior to entering the blood stream.
Surplus protein is converted to glucose by the liver... excess glucose (the form dietary carbs end up as once digested) are stored in the fat cells and converted to fatty acids.
Feel free to google all the biochemistry you like if you want to understand the various processes involved.
I find this fascinating, I did sports science at college but that was over 12 years ago. I'd been under the impression that protein and carbs couldn't convert to fat, bit like lead can't be converted to gold.
Fascinating thing the human body.
Fascinating thing the human body.
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