How Much Protein Can You Absorb in One Sitting? – Simple Science

eating protein is an important driver of muscle growth but not all the protein you eat is used to build muscle ever heard somebody say that you can only absorb a certain amount of protein in a sitting and anything beyond this is just a waste well that's actually a myth and in this video we're going to talk about why that's not true and we're also going to go into how much protein you need to eat in the city in to effectively build muscle many people think that you can only absorb 20 to 25 grams of protein in a single meal but that's not true there's virtually no limit to the amount of protein that your body can absorb in a single setting so whether you're eating 30 grams of protein or 90 grams of protein it's not like your body puts a ceiling on how much of that protein can pass from your gut into your bloodstream regardless of the dose the protein you eat will be broken down into individual or very short chains of amino acids will pass through the cells of your intestine to the liver and will then enter the bloodstream to be sent around your body for use by various tissues all that said bioavailability does differ between protein sources meaning that around 95 percent of the protein you eat will be absorbed from animal sources and usually somewhere between 80 to 90 percent for most plant sources the lower bioavailability of most plant-based protein sources is due to the presence of plant cell walls and other anti-nutritional factors that keep enzymes from reaching the protein and breaking it down so again it's not like your body puts a hard cap on the amount of protein that can be absorbed outside of factors that affect bioavailability your body can absorb virtually all of it so clearly protein absorption is not the limiting factor when it comes to building muscle so then where did this figure of 20 to 25 grams of protein being the upper limit even come from the answer is that many people confuse the amount of protein that you can absorb in a single sitting with the amount necessary to maximize muscle protein synthesis and that's what we really need to be looking at when trying to figure out how much protein to eat to effectively build and maintain muscle muscle protein synthesis drives muscle growth and this pathways turned on by eating protein specifically the amino acid leucine leucine is the nutritional key that unlocks the door to muscle growth and about 2.5 to 3 grams is needed to fully unlock that door this can be accomplished by eating 20 to 40 grams of protein in a sitting or if a quality protein like whey is used like it is by athletes and in so many studies the amount needed is closer to 20 to 25 grams that's where the 20 to 25 gram figure came from with a protein absorption math you can absorb much more than 20 to 25 grams of protein in this sitting but that's the amount that you generally need to fully activate the muscle building pathway so if you need 20 to 25 grams of protein to stimulate muscle protein synthesis wouldn't eating more cause an even greater response well actually no studies seem to show that there's an upper limit when it comes to the amount of protein that will maximize muscle synthesis when 20 to 25 grams of whey protein is eaten there's a spike in muscle protein synthesis that peaks at one and a half to two hours after that meal then protein synthesis rapidly drops back to baseline even when more whey protein is eaten there's no significantly greater response in muscle synthesis and even if the meal is dragged out to last several hours muscle synthesis will still drop down despite more protein continuing to be shuttled into the blood this has been called the muscle full phenomenon since greater amounts of protein don't seem to translate to greater muscle protein synthesis and it won't prevent its drop it seems that the muscle is full at a dose of about 20 to 25 grams of protein this was shown in a famous study where 24 young men were split into three groups and asked to eat whey protein in one of three different eating patterns the first group 8 to 40 gram doses of protein over the day the second group ate 420 gram doses of protein over the day and the third group consumed 810 gram doses of whey protein spread throughout the day muscle protein synthesis was shown to be greatest in those eating four doses of 20 grams of protein and those who ate 40 grams of protein saw no greater benefit despite being twice as much whey protein in the city so it seems that there's a law of diminishing returns when it comes to how much protein will be used to trigger muscle synthesis and it's been proposed that anything eaten beyond that will just be broken down and used for energy but is there really a clear-line we're muscle is full well it turns out that the line for maximizing muscle protein synthesis isn't really as clear as you might think at this point a few different factors can raise the ceiling of protein needed to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis and also impacts how the protein is used so some people could benefit from eating somewhat more than 20 to 25 grams of protein in the city for example older people show a blunted anabolic response to protein and may need more than younger people in a single sitting those eating plant protein may need more than those eating animal sources of protein since plant protein is lower in leucine and essential amino acids and it's possible that those working out more intensely and using more muscle groups may possibly benefit from a larger protein dose after exercise although this remains hypothetical and has yet to be fully tested and this brings up a good point about exercise exercise really can change the way your body uses protein so even though the amount of protein necessary to stimulate muscle protein synthesis remains about the same after exercise muscle protein synthesis can remain elevated for much longer after exercise allowing your body to make better use of the protein you do eat for muscle remodeling building and recovery so the line for maximizing muscle protein synthesis may be slightly blurry with some people needing more than 20 to 25 grams in a sitting to fully activate muscle protein synthesis but complicating this further is the fact that muscle protein synthesis is only part of the equation when it comes to building muscle muscle building is a dance between muscle protein synthesis and muscle protein breakdown and the balance between the two ultimately determines how much muscle you build and maintain preventing muscle breakdown will have a much less powerful effect on building muscle than focusing on increasing muscle synthesis but it still matters studies suggest that the ceiling for preventing muscle breakdown is much higher than that for triggering muscle synthesis for example a meal containing 70 grams of beef protein has been shown to promote a greater whole body anabolic response compared to eating a meal containing 40 grams which is most likely due to the larger protein doses suppression of muscle breakdown so not only does the ceiling seem to be higher for the amount of protein that can stop muscle breakdown but it also seems that the type of protein and whether it was served in a meal along with carbs and fat might also matter the delayed digestion absorption of protein within a meal or certain protein sources like casein or beef results in a slower release of amino acids into the blood and this slower release of protein is not only more powerful for suppressing muscle breakdown but also may result in better use of the protein for building and remodeling muscle and other tissue reducing the amount of protein that will simply be broken down and used for energy so to sum things up how much protein should you eat in a single sitting to maximize muscle building I would say at least 20 to 25 grams although you'd probably benefit from eating closer to 40 grams if you're over 40 years old if the source of protein was plant-based or if you just did an intense full-body workout you should also keep in mind that eating above this certainly won't hurt especially since the ceiling seems to be a heck of a lot higher for preventing muscle breakdown which may contribute to a greater overall anabolic response and all that said if your concern the eating above say 25 to 30 grams of protein or above 40 grams will cause that extra protein just to be broken down and wasted don't be it's not like your body hits that point and then says oh I'm gonna oxidize all of this extra protein no keep in mind that a certain amount of protein is always being broken down and used for energy and even a smaller fraction of that is actually incorporated into muscle and that's not a bad thing muscle building is only part of a very big picture when it comes to how protein is used in the body

Channel: Avatar Nutrition

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Keywords: Simple science, how much protein, protein absorption, absorb protein, 30g protein, reverse diet, reverse dieting, mark springer, avatar nutrition, nutrition coaching, diet coaching, avatar nutrition review, fit, abs, lean, fat loss, weight loss, body fat, lose body fat, build muscle, protein, carbs, fat, macros, macro tracking, how to track macros, flexible dieting, bodybuilding, iifym, diet, dieting, weight loss diet, nutrition

Id: sqPQZgl4rKg

Length: 8min 11sec (491 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 18 2019