Amount of Protein per meal

I read an interesting study last week about meal timing and amount of protein per meal.

If i remember correctly it was a 12 week study on trained individuals aged between 25-35.

They compared 6 meals a day with 30-40g of protein per meal to 3 meals a day with 70g of protein per meal. and then tested muscle protein synthesis and lean mass gain.


Conclusion was that while both groups saw positive changes, the 70g group experienced superior results. The 70g protein group saw a more positive nitrogen balance, resulting from lower levels of protein breakdown, and higher levels of protein synthesis

interesting read, can't remember where I saw it though.

That is really interesting and I would love to have a read.


Generally what I have read / heard is that your body can only take in / use so much protein at a time so eating large amounts of protein (such as 70g) in a single serving isn't all that great. Also something about excess protein turning into sugar / carbs ???? -shrugs-

When I am doing Intermittent Fasting I sometime struggle to break up my meals into smaller amounts and do end up eating larger portions of protein in a single meal. Like 70g+ of protein from chicken breast in a single serving type of thing.

From what i know your body is going to use it anyway, the digestion is just slower. A whole food meal is digested at between 4-6 grams of protein per hour. and whey is 10g per hour. But like most things in this industry there will always be people who disagree haha. But every person has a different rate of gastric emptying too so that also plays a role.

And yeah i used to do the same when i did IF, BIG meals that left you full for a while. I prefer bigger meals anyway, well at least from protein.

The body is highly adaptive and will adapt to what you do to it I suppose.

Oh yeah and I think the main thing for us gym rats is to get 5g of Leucine from the protein we consume per meal. Research has shown that 5g is what creates an anabolic response from food.

Tim Noakes has a few graphs in Lore of Running, basically showing that speed of gastric emptying happens inverse to concentration of calories in the food

Most top coaches like Milos Sarcev stick to 1.5g per pound of body weight divided into 6 - 8 meals.
Only the carb intake varies according to body type and activity.

Demolish wrote: I read an interesting study last week about meal timing and amount of protein per meal.

If i remember correctly it was a 12 week study on trained individuals aged between 25-35.

They compared 6 meals a day with 30-40g of protein per meal to 3 meals a day with 70g of protein per meal. and then tested muscle protein synthesis and lean mass gain.


Conclusion was that while both groups saw positive changes, the 70g group experienced superior results. The 70g protein group saw a more positive nitrogen balance, resulting from lower levels of protein breakdown, and higher levels of protein synthesis

interesting read, can't remember where I saw it though.

I remember that study it was very basic but I thought it was good. The fact that the higher amount of protein your body absorbs causes increased protein synthesis is glaringly obvious. So bearing that in mind, all that you can conclude from the study is that your body is able to efficiently absorb more than 40g of protein in a meal. It's important that you don't draw the conclusion that 70g protein per meal is the optimal dosage.

PsyCLown wrote: Also something about excess protein turning into sugar / carbs ???? -shrugs-

You are thinking of excess amounts of protein. If a person eats too much protein, the broken down amino acids must eventually be stored, but not rebuild as protein, instead converted to glucose for easy use. This is called proteinglucogenisis, or "sugar created by protein".

If you ever wondered why there is a protein limit in keto there you go. It's often recognised by an ammonia smell in the sweat and urine. It could also be an indication that the *quality* of protein is poor. For example if you eat whey and tofu all day in summer you will smell like drain cleaner.

Furk wrote:

PsyCLown wrote: Also something about excess protein turning into sugar / carbs ???? -shrugs-

You are thinking of excess amounts of protein. If a person eats too much protein, the broken down amino acids must eventually be stored, but not rebuild as protein, instead converted to glucose for easy use. This is called proteinglucogenisis, or "sugar created by protein".

If you ever wondered why there is a protein limit in keto there you go. It's often recognised by an ammonia smell in the sweat and urine. It could also be an indication that the *quality* of protein is poor. For example if you eat whey and tofu all day in summer you will smell like drain cleaner.

I see, interesting. How would one try and find out where that limit would be roughly?
I am assuming I am not there due to the fact that I do not really stink much when I sweat... However I eat over 2g per KG of bodyweight when it comes to protein.

Hi Psy.

Do you have a thread? Would like to hear what progress you are making on your natural lean bulk plan?

Rooi Bul 86 wrote: Hi Psy.

Do you have a thread? Would like to hear what progress you are making on your natural lean bulk plan?

No thread, the past week has been bad with regards to training and consistency with going away for a holiday and people being sick and such.

So I should get into the swing of things on Monday hopefully! I am following the PHAT training regime and so far it is going well! I have certainly made some gains and I am recording my weights I do each week so will post it perhaps next year when there is more data if you really want to see.