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| Protein and Effects: The Truth About High-Protein Diets |
The Effects of Eating Truckloads of Protein
Can You Eat an excessive amount of Protein?
Ever been accused of consuming an excessive amount of protein? If you've got, you've probably also been told that your kidneys are getting to explode from all that "protein" and fly out of your back during your next heavy deadlift.
I hear stuff like this all the time. In fact, once I teach exercise physiology, I issue a challenge to my students to ascertain if they will find a peer-reviewed study showing that in healthy people, an excessive amount of protein will damage their kidneys. are you able to guess what they find?
Nothing, nada, zilch, zip. the info doesn't currently exist.
Then why does this myth exist? a part of the rationale is that eating more protein will increase the quantity of labor your kidneys need to do. Markers like creatinine (NOT creatine) and GFR (glomerular filtration rate) may go up, indicating that your kidneys are working harder. But does that mean there's any indication of damage? Let's dive in.
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Protein and Kidneys: The Science
Here's a quote to urge us started:
From Phillips, SM 2014: "An examination of the statements made by both the Institute of drugs in setting the protein RDA in North America, also because the World Health Organization's report on protein intakes, indicates there's no evidence linking a better protein diet to renal disease."
According to two top agencies, the danger of injury to the kidneys in healthy subjects appears to be slim. therefore the dangerous-protein myth isn't wealthy.
"Prolonged intake of an outsized amount of protein has been related to potential dangers, like bone mineral loss and kidney damage.
In otherwise healthy individuals, there's little evidence that prime protein intake is dangerous. However, kidney damage could also be a problem for people with already existing kidney dysfunction." (Tipton KD, 2011).
So far, it appears that having your kidneys do more work isn't a nasty thing in itself. once you attend the gym to try to an arm workout, your biceps do more work and as a result they bigger (hypertrophy). Could an equivalent thing happen together with your kidneys?
Researchers in 2015 found that increasing protein did require the kidneys to try to more work; however, it didn't do any damage to them (no increase in microalbuminuria, which indicates damage). Your kidneys, like your biceps, will get bigger with more work, but that growth isn't from any damage. They were just adapting to the strain placed on them.
So, the present data just doesn't support the assertion that protein is dangerous. But what if you are a hard training lifter and you consume an MT of protein?
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Show Me The Studies
If you are a bodybuilder or athlete, you do not do things normal people do, thus the quality pencil necks utilized in most studies don't apply. But these do...
One of the first studies on the protein was from Poortmans JR and Dellalieux O. in 2000 who suggested that excess protein is hazardous to the kidneys. This study investigated bodybuilders and other well-trained athletes with high and medium protein intake.
So what did they find? Well, while those that ate a high protein diet did have higher plasma concentrations of acid and calcium, the bodybuilders had normal renal clearances of creatinine and urea (waste products). Scientists concluded that protein intake under 2.8 g/kg didn't impair renal function in well-trained athletes.
Another study was done by Brandle and colleagues in 1996. While the study wasn't perfect, it had been the primary to seem at the consequences of protein on kidney function. They found no correlation between albumin excretion rate (urinary albumin arguably being a damage variable) and gross protein intake (as assessed by nitrogen excretion rate).
What About Body Comp and Fat Gain?
In a recent study done by Dr. Jose Antonio and colleagues (2016), they took it to the acute by watching heavy benching dudes consuming lots and much of protein.
They did what's called a "randomized crossover design" on resistance-trained male subjects. The dudes lifted and ate copious protein. the typical bench press at baseline was 126.4 kg, which is 278 pounds for those that think the system of weights and measures was invented just to torture you.
For eight weeks, participants scarfed down a high protein diet at over 3 grams per kilogram, per day which for a 220-pound person (100 kg) is 300 grams of protein per day. They coupled it with a periodized heavy resistance educational program. During the opposite 8 week period, they consumed their normal, lower protein diet.
The results? albeit the high protein group was eating more calories within the sort of protein, there have been no significant changes in body composition – they didn't get fat despite the increased calories. Nor did they see changes in markers of health in either group (blood lipids, glucose, renal, kidney function, etc.).
Despite consuming massive amounts of protein, their kidneys didn't launch an attack to exit their low back thanks to the high protein intake. To further copy their point, researchers did a subanalysis on two subjects who ate the foremost protein within the study. They didn't find any renal (kidney) issues despite these two subjects consuming 483-724% over the RDA for protein.
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Need More Proof?
You could argue that this data remains short term. Most lifters are eating high protein for years to decades. What about 6 months into their high protein eating plan? What happens to their kidneys then? Dr. Jose Antonio again in 2016 published a 1-year study. Yep, one year. In terms of research projects, that's a freaking eternity.
They took fourteen healthy resistance-trained men who'd been training a mean of just about nine years for a randomized crossover design study. that they had them consume their normal diet altered with a high protein version (>3 g/kg/d) in order that on the average, each subject was on each version for six months.
They found that, for those that consumed a high protein diet (about 2.5-3.3 g/kg/d) for one year, there have been no harmful effects on measures of blood lipids also as liver and kidney function.
And despite the rise in total calories during the high protein phase, subjects didn't gain fat. Yep, plenty of protein for a year in high-level trainers with lifestyle humans. It doesn't get far better than that for scientific data.
Protein Power
Out of all the items you'll do to enhance your health, performance, and body composition, worrying about an excessive amount of protein is much down on the list. In fact, if you are going to stress about protein in the least, it'd make more sense to stress about not getting enough.
Most people I work with do far better by increasing their protein intake. Now obviously this does not offer you free reign to consume 400+ grams of protein a day for years on end to prove some laboratory coat nerd wrong. At some point, it might be bad. an excessive amount of is just too much. After all, even an excessive amount of water can kill you too.
But the info that protein is harmful to your kidneys is simply NOT there.