How much protein can the body digest?

Hi Mitch,

Most quality proteins are absorbed almost 100% from the gut into the blood. It is a complete myth that the body can only absorb a certain maximum amount. The question is, "how much protein can your muscles take up and retain" - that, my friend, will indicate how much your muscles grow.

Of all the proteins, whey protein has the highest "BV". BV measures exactly this - how much of the protein that you absorb is retained in the body.

So even though we may need to take in 150 to 200 grams of protein per day to obtain the best results from our training, we may only retain a small fraction of that protein. The rest gets metabolized in one way or another and much of the protein (amino acids) is converted into substances required by the body, burned off and excreted in the urine.

So you need the protein to provide the signal to increase the muscle-building process but much of the protein is not actually used to build muscle...the body is a complex organism!