Someone ask me the other day if one ate too much Protein, then what would the body do with the protein that wasn’t utilized,--Would the body store it as Fat? Now at Europa Sports Product we have a lot of active employees. The best people in the world I might add! Europa is the largest distributor of Nutritional supplements in the United States, so with all the active employees (75% of our employees use our 5,000 square foot weight training and fitness facility), you would think there would be a lot of big guys and muscular ladies walking around the halls of Europa. And with Europa selling tons of Protein each and every day most of those employees would be ingesting a lot of protein, and you would be right on all accounts! Most are big and muscular with very few over weight! To answer this question, I needed to give them more than what I just explained to you. I needed to give them some up to date, hard scientific, nutrition evidence to back up what I see at Europa and also what I believe to be true just with my many years of experience. So I turned to (as I most always do) Dr. Jose Antonio, the Co-Founder and CEO of the International Society of Sports Nutrition and Assistant Professor at Nova Southeastern University, plus more importantly a good friend. I knew that he had just done a study on the effects of a high protein diet and perhaps this study could shed some light on this very question.

Before I get to Dr. Antonio’s research I’ll also share some information from the book “Nutritional Timing for Peak Performance” by Heidi Skolnik and Andrea Chernus on how our bodies use protein and just how much protein we need during the day. They state that the body doesn’t have a large storage depot for protein, as it does for carbohydrate and fat. They go on to state that the amino acids in the pool are ready and waiting to be utilized when protein in whatever form we eat it enters the stomach. Either the amino acids are used within a limited time to build a body protein, or they are transformed into glucose for energy or stored in the body as fat.

You’ll also read other articles stating how protein is stored as fat

when not used. However, according to Dr. Jose Antonio’s latest research- that may not be the

case!

One more point before we get into the study. Our bodies can only utilize around 8 to

10 grams of protein in one hour; however this may vary from person to person depending on many aspects of his or her body and body type, genetics and so on. According to the position

stand by the ISSN, intakes of 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg/d are needed for physically active individuals. A

high protein diet would be anything that exceeds 2.0 g/kg/d. However, little is known

regarding the effects of protein intake exceeding 2.0 g/kg/d. The purpose of Dr. Antonio’s

investigation was to determine the effects of a very high protein diet, (4.4 g/kg/d) on body

composition in resistance-trained men and women. The formula for finding out just how

much protein that is a day, let’s say that someone weighs 220 lbs., so 220 divided by 2.2 =

100; 100 X 4.4 = 440 Grams of protein a day! That my friend is a lot of protein!

Thirty healthy resistance-trained individuals participated in the study. The subjects

were randomly assigned either the controlled group (CON) or the High Protein Group (HP).

The controlled group were instructed to continue eating as they regularly do each day and

the HP group were given and instructed to consume 4.4 grams of protein per kilogram of

body weight and were given the protein to do so, compliments of Europa Sports Products.

The subjects continued this diet for 8 weeks.

Conclusion: The study found that consuming 5.5 times the recommended daily

allowance for protein had NO effect on body composition in resistance trained individuals

who also maintain the same resistance training program. This is the first interventional study

to demonstrate that consuming a hypercaloric diet does not result in an increase in body fat.

It should be noted that in other studies, subjects that consumed a hypocaloric diet

that is higher in protein and lower in carbohydrate, experienced more favorable alterations in

body composition. However, the effects of consuming extra calories above normal baseline

intake coupled with changes in macronutrient content have not been fully elucidated. Dr.

Antonio’s current investigation found no changes in body weight, fat mass or free fat mass in

the high protein diet group. This amazingly occurred in spite of the fact that they consumed

over 800 calories more per day for 8 weeks! The high protein diet group also consumed an

extra 145 grams of protein daily. This is the highest recorded intake of dietary protein in the

scientific literature that Dr. Antonio is aware of. A key point also to take in consideration is

that Dr. Antonio’s study had his subjects performing resistant training during the entire study

while other studies similar to this one did not.

So the next time someone comments and says “all that PROTEIN that you are taking is

just being stored as FAT!!” Then just pull out or state this study to them, and watch their

mouths drop wide open!

For the entire study, just go to www.jissn.com/content/11/1/19

Chip Sigmon CSCS*D, USAW, CFMTWellness Coordinator, Europa Sports Products

chipsigmon@europasports.com