Nutrient timing

[Pearse Lehmann]

Why is it more beneficial to space your protein out into around 5 meals? And given that it is better to space the protein out, how can people still grow having 2 big meals a day (with protein sufficient for the day?

Another similar question is:
My understanding is that the protein stimulates muscle protein synthesis and the more spikes the better, so how would only getting one or 2 spikes of 100 grams of protein each get you better than 2 spikes of 50 grams of protein?

[Support]

Research generally shows that if you stimulate muscle protein synthesis (MPS) 3-4 times across a day then this is sufficient proving you have adequate protein for your given goal.

You can still grow if you had 2 meals, you can probably even grow with 1, is it optimal? probably not. If your goal is to give your body the best chance to build muscle then being in a calorie surpluss, with adequate protein for the day and stimulating MPS 3-4 times will give you the best chance. (providing sleep, stress, training, food quality etc are all on point too).

Leucine is the determining factor in stimualting muscle protein synthesis and you should ensure that you have a meal containing adequate amounts of leucine, approx 3-3.5g to maximally stimulate MPS. Once stimulated MPS will remain for 3-5 hours. MPS has a ceiling and can not be further increased by consuming more protein in this period, as long as you hit the threshold you are covered, which is why it is more optimal to spread meals out 3-5 hours apart, making sure that each hits that MPS threshold, instead of trying to consume all your protein in 1 or 2 portions.

Providing you are getting 35-50g quality protein at a meal, this will trigger MPS to it’s max extent.

The more times we can trigger MPS the more beneficial it will be if building as much muscle as possible is your goal.

[Anonymous]

Pearse Lehmann wrote:

Why is it more beneficial to space your protein out into around 5 meals? And given that it is better to space the protein out, how can people still grow having 2 big meals a day (with protein sufficient for the day? Another similar question is: My understanding is that the protein stimulates muscle protein synthesis and the more spikes the better, so how would only getting one or 2 spikes of 100 grams of protein each get you better than 2 spikes of 50 grams of protein?

 

Once muscle protein synthesis (mps) has been maximally stimulated adding in even more protein won’t further increase the mps response. Meaning if you ate a meal consisting of 50g of high quality protein doubling that amount doesn’t mean you get double the gains if you know what I mean.

And to the second question, that’s actually not quite accurate. There are downsides to both too frequent and too infrequent protein feedings.

[Author]

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