Philip Pape: 0:01

If you like, using protein powder to support your muscle building goals, but you've heard claims that it's just wasted. If you have too much protein or too much protein powder, or it turns into sugar or fat and you're questioning should I even be using this stuff? This episode is for you. Today, we are talking about input output systems to understand how your body processes protein powder. You'll discover the truth about the protein powder is wasted claim and how to choose the right one for your goals. So if you want to know whether that scoop of protein is helping you or just going down the drain, stick around. Welcome to Wits and Weights, the podcast that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique.

Philip Pape: 0:59

I'm your host, philip Pape, and today we're answering a question that's been floating around the fitness industry for years Is protein powder actually used by your body or does it turn into sugar and fat? Now, I was a little bit surprised that this question is so common, but I've heard it multiple times. Sometimes people are talking about excess protein in general, but some brands actually make this claim, and I was. I was pretty shocked, but maybe I shouldn't be, and so this question comes from listener, sarah S, and I wanted to give her a big shout out for inspiring today's episode, because she wrote, quote I've been using protein powder again recently after giving it up for a while. The reason I gave it up is sources like and I'm going to leave the brand name out claim that protein powder isn't actually used by the body and is instead turned into sugar than fat in our bodies. I've been using a different brand name protein powder recently, but we'll be trying this other brand name's new powder as soon as it runs out. What are your thoughts on this? End quote All right, thank you for the question, sarah, because it is one I'm sure many listeners have wondered about, if they've heard this claim, and today we're going to get into some of the science and engineering behind protein metabolism to get to the bottom of this. And so I just want to jump into the topic today and address the claim that protein powder isn't used by your body and just turns into sugar and fat, and I'm going to extend this to apply to quote-unquote excess protein in general, because this one idea or the other has been floating around for quite a while and I still hear it, and it's based on a misunderstanding of how our bodies process protein, and so we're going to use a concept from engineering today called input-output systems.

Philip Pape: 2:44

Very simply, an input-output system is a model that describes how a system processes inputs to produce outputs. And think of it like a manufacturing plant. Raw materials go in steel, wood, whatever finished products come out, and your body is essentially a highly complex input-output system. The food that you eat, including the protein powder, that's the input, and then the outputs are things like your energy, your muscle tissue, your hormones and, yes, sometimes stored energy in the form of fat. It's got to go somewhere. Let's just put it that way. Now the confusion comes in, because some people claim protein powder goes straight from input to an unwanted output like sugar or fat, without being used for its intended purpose. But our bodies are much more complex. We know this. They're very good at adapting as well, and so let's talk about exactly how this works.

Philip Pape: 3:39

On the input side, when you consume protein powder, it's broken down into amino acids in your digestive tract, and these are the raw materials Again, the manufacturing plant analogy. These are your raw materials, amino acids that your body then uses for a whole bunch of metabolic processes. So, number two, processing. Your body does stuff with this. It distributes them. It distributes the amino acids where they are needed. This could be muscle repair and growth, it could be enzyme production, it could be immune function. There's actually a ton of things that amino acids are used for. Very exhaustive list. And then number three, the output.

Philip Pape: 4:23

Only when your body has more protein than it immediately needs will some of it potentially be converted to glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis. Right, and that's when you hear of it. Okay, it's converted to sugar, and even then, this glucose is then primarily used for energy. Right, it doesn't mean it's automatically stored as fat. It's like any other source of glucose, namely, for example, carbs. Right, we don't avoid them because we're worried about getting fat. Actually, I should. That I knew as soon as I said it out of my mouth what the response would be. A lot of people think you should avoid them because they make you fat, but in reality they do not. We know this because plenty of healthy, fit people can eat hundreds of carbs, grams of carbs, and be in peak performance and health and body composition and leanness, myself included. So we know that that doesn't happen. And so that's the same glucose that protein can get converted to as well through gluconeogenesis, but it rarely happens. It actually rarely gets to that point.

Philip Pape: 5:18

Your body is very efficient. It doesn't just take a valuable input like protein and just immediately convert it into some waste product. I mean, that would be like a car engine turning fuel straight into exhaust without moving, without producing motion or energy at all. And so I want to address the specific claim about protein powder being inferior to whole food sources. First, or not. First, but in addition to this, as a side tangent, because it's important, I think high quality protein powders, especially whey or pea and rice protein, which is great for vegetarians or people who avoid milk products, are actually some of the most bioavailable protein sources out there. Right, and so your body can efficiently use them for muscle protein synthesis. That's why I don't shy away from them at all, and I think most people trying to get a decent amount of protein you know, 120, 140, 160 grams will often end up supplementing a bit with some protein powder. Right, and it's convenient in other ways. But despite all that, you know, whey protein is sometimes considered superior to many whole food protein sources because of the high leucine content. Right, leucine is one of the essential amino acids and it's the most important one, or at least it's one of the most crucial ones, for triggering muscle protein synthesis. And if you look at, if you take a whole list of protein sources and rank them in terms of percentage of leucine content, whey is going to be at the top.

Philip Pape: 6:45

So now, why do some people experience, say, weight gain when using protein powder? Well, it has nothing to do with the protein itself being converted to fat. It's simply because they're over-consuming calories, period, and they haven't adjusted to anything else. You can definitely get fat on protein if you just eat too much of it, and by too much I don't mean too much for your body. There's no such thing as too much protein in and of itself, but there is such thing as too much protein leading to too much calories. Too many calories, and then you're over consuming and gaining weight when you don't intend to. That's it right.

Philip Pape: 7:19

Our body is an input output system. It follows the laws of thermodynamics. If you constantly consume more energy than you expend, you're going to gain weight, regardless of the source of those calories. Period, end of story on that. That's it. So that's kind of the long and the short of it. When you think about it, our body's going to use the energy and anything it can't use it's either going to expend or store, depending on how much you've consumed right and how much you are, how much you need it and by needed I mean all the things you're doing, as well as all the things going on inside your body, as well as what your organs need and so on. So I think that settles it. In other words, the answer is no. It's not going to get converted to sugar and fat and make you fat. Yes, it can get converted to glucose if all the protein you possibly need in your body has been used, but very few people actually get to that point. In fact, we know that you can consume quite a bit of protein and it's still going to get used. And you can consume it even all in one meal in a day instead of spreading it out, and it's still going to get used. Recent research even backs that up. So there's a ton of flexibility.

Philip Pape: 8:22

Now as far as like choosing the right protein powder, because, sarah, you mentioned trying all these different brands. Again, I'm not going to mention them on the show and frankly, I don't think you have to jump around. I think if you find one that meets the general things that you're going for, without big marketing claims, you're good. Of course, even good ones have good marketing, so that can be confusing as well. What matters most is the ingredients, the protein content, the amino acid profile, and that it's a trusted brand. So what do you look for? Number one protein content. It should like a scoop of protein of like 26 to 30 grams should have most of those grams as protein. So if it's 30 grams as a scoop and it's like 26 grams of protein, you're good. But if it's a 30 gram scoop and it has, you know, 15 or 20, something's off. There's something else in there, you know, it's just, it's just a matter of weight, right?

Philip Pape: 9:17

Then you also want to look at the amino acid profile. If it's whey protein, you're fine, but I've seen some wonky brands that claim to be whey and then when you then they list their amino acids and are missing some of the essential amino acids, and that is fishy to me as well, unless it's just a typo on their nutrition label. Then the next thing which is important for more important for some than others is the number of ingredients and the additives, right? Fewer ingredients usually means less processing, and you want to look out for things that you may be concerned about. You may be concerned about red dye, you may be concerned about artificial sweeteners or other things that are in there, and not all proteins are pure protein too. Some proteins are like whole food substitutes and they have carbs in there as well, or they're like meal replacement proteins. So just watch out, because it may have a bunch of carbs that you didn't want, because they're put in there on purpose for people who want that. And then, lastly, just make sure that you're getting what's on the label because of the quality of the company and the third-party testing that they do so, for example. This is why I usually recommend a brand like Legion or First Form brands like that. I use them all. I use a bunch of brands, but First Form is one that I love for protein powder. They meet all the criteria.

Philip Pape: 10:34

Maybe some people would argue that on the ingredient side there are purer forms. Excuse me, there are purer, less ingredient versions of powder out there, but if you want kind of the flavored protein, you're gonna end up having some extra ingredients in there. Of course, you can get pure, just pure whey protein, nothing else in there, and then you flavor it how you want, if you even need it flavored, or you just dump it in some milk or almond milk and just chug it down. It works really well with milk because it basically is come, it comes from milk, um, and then you know if it meets all the criteria and it tastes the way you want. Great, you know, that's it. And if you want to try out first form, I will put the link in the show notes to find some products in First Form. But that's all I'm going to say about it.

Philip Pape: 11:15

Just keep in mind that protein powder is a supplement. It's not a necessity. It's not technically a quote-unquote whole food, but from the nutritional and health profile it is pretty much just as good as whole food, if you will. Some people will argue with that and you can have your opinion, but a lot of people I found have success when they couldn't quite get their protein. They do a little supplementation with protein powder and now they're good and they're better off than the alternative of constantly missing on their protein. And then of course you try to shift toward more and more whole foods.

Philip Pape: 11:48

Right, if you have a high protein requirement, if you have a busy lifestyle, if you travel, if protein powder can be a convenient and perfectly effective way to support muscle growth and recovery. There's another cool little benefit of protein power and that's it kind of. If you're in a muscle building phase, for example, it is more easily digestible and doesn't take up as much space. It is kind of slightly less filling than a whole food version of protein. This can be a benefit if you need the extra calories, right, if you feel like you can't fit it in. Actually, in fact, I've had many female clients, you know women who they're not on that high level of calories but yet they still don't get hungry. And I find this with older women as well, like in menopause. For some reason they just don't have the hunger they used to have because of their hormones and they're like how do I even eat more? I feel full already. Protein powder can be great for that.

Philip Pape: 12:41

So if you're struggling to meet your protein goals, consider protein powder. It's just fine, any brand that meets the criteria we talked about. Don't worry about over-consuming or just general consumption leading to sugar and fat storage. It doesn't work that way. Only energy balance and calorie consumption leads to excess fat storage and that's it. You got to find what works for you and for your lifestyle and don't listen to what other people say with a fear mongering. Right, if protein powder helps you consistently meet your goals and support your training, it can definitely be a valuable part of your nutrition strategy.

Philip Pape: 13:12

So again, if you want to try high quality protein powder that I personally use and recommend, definitely check out First Form. They're third party tested. They taste really good, they mix really easily, and then I'll throw the link in my show notes for that. Give it a try. Let me know your favorite flavor. They've got a lot of cool flavors. They have some pumpkin stuff now, of course, for the fall. No surprise. Until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember your body is a complex system but with the right inputs you can engineer the outputs that you want. And yes, protein powder is perfectly fine. This is Philip Pape and you've been listening to Wits and Weights. I'll talk to you next time.