I am saying this completely from my experience.
I would keep this short so that I can share my experience about the constipation I received because I might have gone over the limit.
When. I first started at the gym, I was not obsessed with protein, infact I used to take just regular food for protein. It included everything: carbs, vitamins, lentil protein, fats, and all.
I started going to the gym regularly, and in my 3-4th month, I started looking up protein supplements.
I tried taking opinions from various gym bros, and obviously I ended up being more confused.
So, I just ended up buying a protein altogether from the internet. Let’s keep the company names a little secret for now. For the first few weeks it was all good; the protein was chocolate flavour, so it tasted good. But yes, it did leave a smell behind after I finished my shake.
Everything seemed normal until one day I really had to go to my day office.
And yes, it was the first time I had to take a shit in the office itself. Now the real struggle began here in the office. Even I could feel the pain, I could not pass the stool. The pain of that thing coming out was unbearable, and that was the first time I ever experienced a tear in my rear.
So, as I went home, I evaluated everything that I had been eating, and yes, the first thing that came to my mind was the protein.
I checked the protein for any expiry date or anything malicious but found none; everything seemed to be perfect. The protein did not smell bad or have any bad taste either, which would signify that it was damaged.
So the next day I felt the same, and I found it very hard to pass the stool.
Thinking it was too much to bear, I did run to a physician who diagnosed me, and he did figure out instantly that yes, it might be because of the protein.
But he also emphasised one thing to me. He did not ask me what type of protein I was eating but rather asked me how much of protein I was eating. To that, my answer was “4 scoops”.
And yes, he instantly nodded and asked me to lower the intake immediately.
I came home with medicines, had my soft lunch, and with medicines I slept.
It was the next day, and because of the medicine, the stool was turned soft, which was very easy to pass now, but I started to lessen the amount of protein I was having.
I came down to like 1 scoop, or now I even skipped the powder protein completely and had lentils, chicken, and dark fish instead to get the protein I needed. Eventually I used the protein calculator through which I could easily calculate my protein intake.
I researched the whole internet and found various articles about this topic; Reddit forums also had the same. Some of the beginners did experience the same thing as I did. They did not know about the calculation part and just went straight into getting as much protein as possible and ended up constipated.
In my research, I came to learn that
- Eating too much protein does not help the intake of fibre, which is very important for gut and bowel health
- Too much protein might also make you a bit dehydrated because your kidneys work extra hard to flush waste
- Too much protein would cause your stomach to bloat.
And yep, I took the first part of the research very seriously, and I also started taking high-fibre meals per day, fruits, green veggies with some beans and yes, lentils.
This did help me a lot.
The lesson I did learn from here was that the protein itself was not bad but how much protein I was having was bad. This was one of the reasons why I made this calculator: to make people aware that taking protein in good quantity is advisable, and too much protein does not always mean that you will build more muscle.
Now I suggest everyone at the gym to calculate first and make themselves know about just how much protein they need per their goal.
