The maximum loading depends, in part, on the resolution from the nearest impurity. If there is a closely eluting impurity, the maximum load will be small. If the nearest impurity is far away from the desired protein, one can load more on the column.
Although adsorption chromatography, see: Dolan, J.W. How Much Can I Inject? Part 1: Injecting in Mobile Phase. LCGC North Am. 32(10)
His analysis doesn't cover column over-loading where compounds reaching the column soonest after injection fill the available adsorption sites, so the part of the injection arriving at the column later has to travel further down the column to adsorb, leading to band broadening.