Can excess protein be stored as fat?

[DZLS]

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...

 

[ianbell121]

as far as i know that is not possible.

 

[Deleted member 33117]

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?

 

[Deleted member 33117]

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.

 

[kagenical]

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.

 

[Colstreamer]

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?

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?

 

[Deleted member 33117]

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?

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.

 

[Colstreamer]

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.

Thanks.

 

[TONY83]

yes, where else is it going to go? you are only gonna be able to excrete a small amount of it via urination.

 

[Colstreamer]

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.