Yesterday there was a discussion on a thread about IP products supposedly being GMO free.That thread is still on page 1 or 2 so I am not addressing that issue here.

In trying to follow the logic of the poster I went to various links and one on a page about metals in protein drinks really surprised and baffled me.
I guess I didn't catch who said it when I copied it.. It was a nutritionist in a Consumer Reports article.


"The body can only break down 5 to 9 grams of protein an hour. Any excess that is not burned for energy is converted to fat or excreted, so it's a ridiculous waste to be recommending so much more than you really need," she says.


This is very different than anything else I have read on the subject and wonder if anyone else has heard this?

At my goal weight of 130 from what I read I should have 65 grams of protein a day. If this statement were true I should break down what I eat to small meals 6-7 times a day with small amounts of protein at each time.

As I said this baffles me, I will add I am officially in maintenance but need to re-lose 5 pounds that have crept up on me.

Any thoughts?
Pat

I hope this is not the case, and if it was wouldnt we have heard about it way before now? What would be the point of power lifters drinking a large quantity of protein after a workout if only 5-9 grams would be usable?

time for research!

Well, here's my take:

We're following a plan that is outside of "mainstream" nutrition. A nutritionist from Consumer Reports would be pretty mainstream.
Unless that info (about only processing x amount of protein per hour) could be verified in numerous scientific places, I'm not sure I'd be too concerned about what one person has to say. Remember, food stays in our digestive tract for a long time after eating.

Protein can definitely be turned to sugar and then stored as fat. The process is called Gluconeogenesis (had to go search for the spelling for that one!)

This is one of the reasons IP limits protein intake (I used to be on Atkins where I could eat a LOT more!). One of our non-IP board visitors often talks about the possibility of being in ketosis but GAINING weight. You can blame gluconeogenesis for that.

This program has done me well so far. I'm still trusting it.

The quote above is misleading and wrong.

First - protein is never converted to fat in humans. In theory the pathways for this to happen exist but in reality it simply never happens. Also, in humans carbs are almost never converted to fat and stored. We get fat because fat is absorbed and stored when we consume excess calories. This has been studied quite extensively and not really up for debate.

As for protein, it is very much true that we can only process so much at once but there are a number of misleading aspects to the quote above. Lyle Mcdonald has a fantastic series of articles on this topic but the very short version is.

Protein digests very slowly. A very high percentage is digested depending on the source. When you eat a lot of protein it simply takes longer to digest. Very little is wasted. This is why eating 6-7 times a day is not needed.

A couple links:

Lyle's article on protein which debunks the above quote completely.

Leangains client results. (These guys follow a specific dieting protocol, never eat breakfast and normally eating only twice a day ... while not scientific it provides great visuals that make it fairly obvious protein doesn't need to be spaced out over 6-7 meals to maintain muscle)

thx JohnP! Ya just did my research ! Appreciate it

THUMBS up on that explanation John

Thanks, it was stated so matter of factly as if a well known fact.

Another interesting point someone put in a response to the brief article on metals in protein drinks is did people not realize there are metals in the "real" foods that are grown.

Yep. The topic of diet and nutrition is incredibly confusing for this very reason. My guess would be the person quoted is pushing a vegan agenda.