Til: What Can Happen If You Take In Too Much Protein
We all know today that protein is being heavily marketed as certainly being a benefit to your health. However, taking in too much protein can negate all its advantages and really have an unfavorable result on your health. Today I'm going to be broadening on 4 of the primary risks of taking in too much protein.
1. Dehydration
Research studies have actually revealed that consuming large volumes of protein can have an unfavorable impact on your hydration levels, even when you're consuming a lot of water. Dehydration has a variety of undesirable negative effects consisting of a dry mouth, restricted tear production, restricted sweat production, muscle cramps, queasiness, heart palpitations and more.
2. Increased Body Fat Levels
Many individuals think that they can consume as much protein as they desire because it has no effect on body fat. This is a big reason why such diet plans of low carbohydrate, high protein such as the Atkins diet and the Paleo diet are so popular.
While it holds true that protein does burn more calories throughout food digestion than carbs or fat and you can get a temporary boost to your metabolism, you still should not overdue it on the protein consumption. A lot of calories (despite whether they're carbohydrate calories, fat calories or protein calories), will get saved as body fat and trigger weight gain.
3. Kidney Stones
When you are taking in protein, your body breaks it down into particular amino acids, one of the spin-offs is uric acid. To neutralize this level of acidity, your body then launches calcium phosphate (an alkaline compound) into your blood stream. The combination of calcium phosphate and uric acid will form kidney stones. These painful stones must be passed through the urine.
4. Weak Bones
As discussed above, if you take in a lot of protein, your body releases calcium phosphate to reduce the effects of the uric acid. This calcium phosphate is launched from the bones and typically results in low calcium bone levels which then leads to a condition called osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is identified by minimized bone mineral density and compromises your bones, making them a lot more most likely to break and fracture.
Summary
As long as you do not take in too much protein, the unfavorable signs noted in this short article will not be an issue for you. If you are active then you should be taking in more than a non-active person. It is always good to consult your physician about any questions you may have.
Here is a formula often used to determine protein intake:
1 - Find your bodyweight in pounds and divide by 2.2 to get kg.
2 - Multiply by .08 (if non-active), 1.3 (if active), or 1.8 (if extremely active)
I hope this article has helped you to understand that too much protein can be doing more harm than good for your health. What do you think? Are you taking in too much protein? Comment below and please upvote. Thanks for reading!
photo credits:
commons.wikimedia.org
Great post. I found this out myself in the past. The reason that diets like Atkins and the like work is likely due to:
Protein shakes don't have the same effects and that is likely due to the source of the protein (whey) and the fact that they usually contain a lot of sugar.
More sugar = more insulin = more fat in most cases.
I hear of many, especially in the gym world, that are taking in what they weigh in grams of protein. Then they wonder why they bloat and gain fat.
It's happened to me a few times myself. People tend to forget about calories. You see it both ways though. I see some guys religiously going to the gym but they never get any bigger because they don't eat enough protein - they just eat the same way they did before they started training.
Thanks for the great comments!
The protein powder industry has become a big business!