• All new members please introduce your self here and welcome to the board:
    http://www.professionalmuscle.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259
Buy Needles And Syringes With No Prescription
M4B Store Banner
intex
Riptropin Store banner
Generation X Bodybuilding Forum
Buy Needles And Syringes With No Prescription
Buy Needles And Syringes With No Prescription
Mysupps Store Banner
IP Gear Store Banner
PM-Ace-Labs
Ganabol Store Banner
Spend $100 and get bonus needles free at sterile syringes
Professional Muscle Store open now
sunrise2
PHARMAHGH1
kinglab
ganabol2
Professional Muscle Store open now
over 5000 supplements on sale at professional muscle store
azteca
granabolic1
napsgear-210x65
advertise1
over 5000 supplements on sale at professional muscle store
over 5000 supplements on sale at professional muscle store
ashp210
UGFREAK-banner-PM
esquel
YMSGIF210x65-Banner
over 5000 supplements on sale at professional muscle store
over 5000 supplements on sale at professional muscle store
over 5000 supplements on sale at professional muscle store
over 5000 supplements on sale at professional muscle store
over 5000 supplements on sale at professional muscle store
over 5000 supplements on sale at professional muscle store
over 5000 supplements on sale at professional muscle store

Does protein burn more calories than carbs/fats during digestion?

syntherolman

New member
Registered
Joined
Sep 9, 2011
Messages
289
So does protein really burn more calories during digestion than carbs and fats? If so, what's the difference per 100 calories?
 
[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermic_effect_of_food"]Thermic effect of food - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 
Yes. protein is a much less efficient energy source than fats or carbohydrates.

takes between 20-30 calories to process 100 cals protein.
Fat's don't really require much digesting at all, they are almost readily absorbed.
Glucose requires ATP to catabolize, but so long as you are aerobically metabolizing your glucose and not doing glycolysis there is also minimal energy input/waste.
 
Last edited:
Off the top my head, yes.

Whole protein is a long complex chain of aminos that takes much more effort from the stomach to break down than any fat or carb. And of course all that energy expenditure creates heat.

Anabolic Diet always gives me insane 'meat sweats' mid-meal. I can set my clock to it. I never get used to it either.
 
It is interesting to note that meats subtract roughly 25% calories due to energy required to break them down, yet it's carbs that ramp up the metablolism....I've always found this odd
 
Apples and oranges, my friend.

The increase in metabolic rate and the thermic effect of food are two different things.

The physiological response from bolus carbohydrate ingestion is much more hormonally based.

The physiological response from bolus protein ingestion is much more "mechanically" based. The metabolic rate does not increase from protein ingestion as much as the energy ingest is wasted as heat. Making your normal metabolic processes less efficient.
 
Last edited:
Remember that protein has about 5.5 calories per gram, not 4. So the cost of digestion is already accounted for if you count protein as 4 calories per gram.
 
Indeed, but I reckon the amount of weight loss associated with high protein diets in bodybuilders is greater because they regularly consume 40+ % of their calories from protein versus 10-20%

People lost more weight when increasing their calorie content from protein (albeit very small). Their starting protein% was already low (compared to bodybuilders) and after the increase it was still pretty low (compared to bodybuilders)

The small amount of weight loss in them is likely going to be larger for bodybuilders because of a much larger % of our calories from protein.

Interesting to speculate, but unnecessarily complicates eating. Most certainly not worth mapping a diet around it, or losing sleep over.
 
It is interesting to note that meats subtract roughly 25% calories due to energy required to break them down, yet it's carbs that ramp up the metablolism....I've always found this odd

Lol our bodies are a crazy thing
 
What I have read, 20 percent of protein burns up indigestion. Need extra enzymes. Carbs 8 percent and fats 2 percent
 
It is because protein is not fully oxidized like it is in a bomb calorimeter. If it were, we would excrete nitrate instead of compounds like urea.
 
Yes. You really only get 3.2 calories per gram from ingestion, not 4 like is usually claimed.
 
Incorrect. That is assuming 100% of the protein you use goes to gluconeogenesis. Which it is not.

The weighted average is still 4.
 
It is because protein is not fully oxidized like it is in a bomb calorimeter. If it were, we would excrete nitrate instead of compounds like urea.

Some is lost to digestion (about 10%) but the rest is lost to excretion.

Yes. You really only get 3.2 calories per gram from ingestion, not 4 like is usually claimed.

This is true, there is another 20% lost in the liver for gluconeogenesis.

Incorrect. That is assuming 100% of the protein you use goes to gluconeogenesis. Which it is not.

The weighted average is still 4.

4 doesn't represent the average left over after gluconeogenesis, it represents combusted value minus estimated digestion, minus uncombusted excretion. It ALWAYS assumes 100% of the protein is metabolized.

Any UNMETABOLIZED protein has approximately negative .5 calories per gram, the protein is not metabolized at all, and is used in tissue, it now becomes potential energy, however it does not release any energy. 10% is still lost in digestion, because this is NOT actual metabolism of the amino acid.

Percentage of protein lost to gluconeogenesis is going to be completely different in each situation, all the way from 0% to 100%.
 
Last edited:
It's called the Termic effect of food. TEF of protein does require additional energy as opposed to the other macronutrients. However, keep in mind that the TEF only has about a 10% influence on your BMR with physical activity and LBM being the primary components of overall calorie expenditure at rest.
 

Staff online

  • rAJJIN
    Moderator / FOUNDING Member
  • Big A
    IFBB PRO/NPC JUDGE/Administrator

Forum statistics

Total page views
558,067,749
Threads
135,760
Messages
2,768,725
Members
160,343
Latest member
12cc
NapsGear
HGH Power Store email banner
your-raws
Prowrist straps store banner
infinity
FLASHING-BOTTOM-BANNER-210x131
raws
Savage Labs Store email
Syntherol Site Enhancing Oil Synthol
aqpharma
yourmuscleshop210x131
hulabs
ezgif-com-resize-2-1
MA Research Chem store banner
MA Supps Store Banner
volartek
Keytech banner
musclechem
Godbullraw-bottom-banner
Injection Instructions for beginners
Knight Labs store email banner
3
ashp131
YMS-210x131-V02
Back
Top