How much protein is too much protein?

[RockStrongo]

Being busy and running a company means that I have very little time to pull away and grab a meal during the day. I've been subsidising my protein by drinking protein shakes and snacking on Almonds. I got to the point where I would eat a good breakfast but then have 4-5 protein shakes until dinner at 9pm.

I was getting the protein I needed but I also got a serious bout of the runs. The squirts aren't cool and it has to be from all the shakes. So the question is, how much protein is too much when it comes from a shake? I need solid foods and nutrients but sometimes that just isn't possible.

Am I going to die?

[goldseasy]

Being busy and running a company means that I have very little time to pull away and grab a meal during the day. I've been subsidising my protein by drinking protein shakes and snacking on Almonds. I got to the point where I would eat a good breakfast but then have 4-5 protein shakes until dinner at 9pm.

I was getting the protein I needed but I also got a serious bout of the runs. The squirts aren't cool and it has to be from all the shakes. So the question is, how much protein is too much when it comes from a shake? I need solid foods and nutrients but sometimes that just isn't possible.

Am I going to die?


We're all gonna die someday Rock ;)

The rule of thumb I try to go by is one shake P/W and no more than 1 other shake during the day. Solid food is always a better option. I know it's tough, I run my own business, too. I usually grill up 1-2 days worth of lean meat, eggs, etc and have 'em always on hand...

[willie99]

Just get 2grams per lbs. So 200lbs = 400 grams. Take that as a rule of thumb. Your body is excellent at absorbing protein. Besides what shakes do you take? Whey? Concentrate or Isolate? (Your body takes Isolate best, like 90% or so, concentrate less, like ehm .... 60-70%, correct me if im wrong).

Your body doesnt absorb 100% of protein shakes. It absorbs solid food much better, so its better to take that but as you said its hard. same goes for me. At work I cant cook or anything and grill the day before then imo it tastes like shit. I take 3 shakes (60gr whey isolate per shake) per day and thats fine for me. Other 4 meals are solid food.

[irish2003]

i've done my best with solid food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and a shake between meals and one before bed

[Dominator Human]

I work a full time job and run my own business full time and I have learned to use my time wisely.

I eat a lot of eggs and I boil 6 every morning to eat through the day if I can't get to a full meal, but If I don't eat a meal every 4 or so hours I get real bad hunger pains. I drink protein shakes and an hour later I'm having hunger pains.

Try to make several days worth of food during the week to help.

[roidboy]

yeah we all have this problem i think.
my sunday arvo consists usually of cooking for 2 hrs while the kids and wife have a nap.
i make 6 bacon,cheese egg white omlets (small amounts of B&C) i make 3 batches of body ripped pancakes 36. i get out about 6 rump steaks and 4 chicken breasts, i BBQ grill the steaks medium and i cut my breast into bite size bites and boil them have 200gr bags , when im finished let them cool bag into aloted sizes 200/250gram bags and freeze getting out what i want for the next day, i then take either frozen veggies and nuke and or a packet of nuke pastas, and i have shakes and bars as well.

[Dominator Human]

It helps to have a blender and rice cooker at work.

I even have a drawer with my peanut butter and a spoon.

[Alin]

It helps to have a blender and rice cooker at work.

I even have a drawer with my peanut butter and a spoon.

Always a great idea. Those Magic Bulletts are the BEST!!
Good idea to pack a cooler too if you can with meals and snacks.

[kaju]

All the above is good advice.
I have read any where from 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. It all depends on your goals. I too am a business owner so this is what I do.
I work out at 5am every week day. I drink a metrx or muscletech shake for breakfast after I workout. eat fruit as a mid morning snack. drink another protein shake for lunch another fruit for mid after noon snack and then a sensible meal fro dinner. I keep a bowl of fruit at work and I guard it with a samurai sword. Its mine all mine !!! no one can have any !!! of course while on a cycle I have to change my diet but it works for me.

[RANGER75]

I have only one shake per day. It's not good for you to have more than one. Synthetic protien is not good, so I try to aviod it all together. Everyone gets this image of bodybuilding and protien shakes, which isn't really needed. You can eat regular food instead, and it would be better. I reccomend eating your bodyweight in protien (grams that is) on off days and somewhere around 250 grams during training days.

[superbeast22]

I have only one shake per day. It's not good for you to have more than one. Synthetic protien is not good, so I try to aviod it all together. Everyone gets this image of bodybuilding and protien shakes, which isn't really needed. You can eat regular food instead, and it would be better. I reccomend eating your bodyweight in protien (grams that is) on off days and somewhere around 250 grams during training days.

Gotta disagree with you, the stuff in our shakes is NOT synthetic and protein shakes are essential, we need real food too, but when i am taking in 300-400g of protein, am i really supposed to eat that much meat? do you know how much that is? shit gets expensive.

protein we use in our shakes are usually based on whey... whey is milk plasma, liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained... nothing synthetic about it. its not like someone took an ecoli bacteria and programmed it to make protein molecules...

[willie99]

Gotta disagree with you, the stuff in our shakes is NOT synthetic and protein shakes are essential, we need real food too, but when i am taking in 300-400g of protein, am i really supposed to eat that much meat? do you know how much that is? shit gets expensive.

protein we use in our shakes are usually based on whey... whey is milk plasma, liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained... nothing synthetic about it. its not like someone took an ecoli bacteria and programmed it to make protein molecules...

bump ... i take 3-4 shakes a day ... otherwise i'd be poor now. Whey isolate only for me though.

[kaju]

HE HE HE ! ! ! if your not confused now about protien then write your own book about it.:D

[RANGER75]

Yes, food is expensive, depending on what you get. Cottage cheese, tuna, and stuff at Costco is a little more than the shakes, but it is real food and tastes good.

[giff]

gotta agree with sb i know i couldnt eat 400g protein in whole foods, which is what i eat every day, i tend to eat 4 meals a day and 3 shakes a day

[RANGER75]

400g. Wow man thats awesome. That is alot of protein.

[CollinDC]

i spend about $60-$70/wk jus on chicken breasts .. that comes out to around 3lbs a day,nm all the other food I buy. I ran outta protein powder and yes, i blast through so many lbs of chicken i need to get some damn whey :D

[TopGun1051]

I try to get around at least 300g a day...mostly from whole food but I get a couple shakes in there as well...it's damn near impossible to get that much w/out the shakes.

[kaju]

Again it all depends on your goals. If you want to compete in pro body building and be as big a those guys you need to eat 4 - 5 meals a day and have the protein shakes also. Some people have different goals. I have always been a fighter. I cannot go into a ring carrying that much weight. If I did my heart and lungs would explode. I go personally with 1 1/2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. I have a friend that is a bicycle racer and he eats 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Of course he runs a completely different type of cycle of gear than me. but I have to say that guy looks great all year long not just during cycles of gear. I get jealous sometimes.
Anyway it just depends on your goals.

[RANGER75]

Call me an idiot, but I believe your protien intake should be decided on how you train. For example. I train on M/W/F or T/Th/Sa. I do legs on the middle day. I do this for a reason. At least for me, this type of workout allows me to eat less protein (250g a day or so) because I get essentially three full days rest between each section (monday chest/abs/tris, wednesday legs, friday, bis, shoulders, back). My legs get an entire week off. This larger amount of rest lets me eat a moderate amount of protein and still grow amazingly. When I used to train monday, tuesday, and thursday, I saw medial results because I wasn't eating enough protein to cover the lack of rest I was getting. Are you catching my drift? In my opinion, protien intake should be calculated on three factors

1. How much you weigh
2. How much you rest
3. Quality of the protein your eating (shakes vs. actual meat and food)[Thats a different story though]

Hope this helps, and I just want to say I am no doctor or professional nutritionist, but this works best for me. I just want to get big and get a good physique, if you want to go to competition, then you might want to listen to somebody else.