The Truth About Protein Absorption: Science vs. Bro Science

Have you ever been told that your body can only absorb a certain amount of protein at one time?

Well that claim is completely false. Your body can absorb as much protein as you take in. If it couldn't, you would end up running to the bathroom every time you ate a steak. Think about it... all that excess protein would stay in your gut and retain a bunch of water. I'll let you decide what would happen after that.

There may be a maximum amount of protein that our muscles are able to use for protein synthesis, but that remains to be discovered. Importantly, the amount of protein you ingest is NOT the same as the amount of protein that will be circulating around in your bloodstream, and eventually be delivered to your muscles to stimulate protein synthesis. IN FACT, that amount is somewhere around 50% of the protein that you take in. This is because of a process called “first-pass metabolism”, where your liver gets first dibs on all the nutrients that you take in. As it turns out, your liver needs A LOT of amino acids (the building blocks of protein), leaving only the remaining amino acids to be available for the muscle. To put that into context, if you slam a 30g protein shake after a workout, and assuming you absorb all 30 grams, your liver may take 15g of those amino acids, leaving 15 grams available for your muscles. But your muscles can utilize A LOT more protein than 15g. So why not give them a little more, and not listen to the gym bro.

Here are a couple studies demonstrating the muscles ability to utilize much more than 30g of protein (one of the studies used 100g!!!)

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To learn more, tune in to the Kickback Science episode titled: “Let’s Talk Protein” where we discuss all things protein! What is protein? can protein be utilized for fat loss? how much protein do we need? Is there such thing as too much protein? Can our body only utilize a certain amount? AND MORE!!