One of the most common myths about protein is that your body can only absorb a certain amount of it at any given time (the “magical” figure that most people land on lies somewhere in the range of 20-30 grams of protein per meal).
This is fake news. Here are some simple facts:
- The body has the ability to digest and assimilate much more than 20-30 grams of protein from a single meal.
- Virtually all of the protein that you eat can actually be absorbed/used by your body. Even if you eat a really high-protein meal that sits north of – say – 80g, your body will absorb and put it to use.
- The quality of your protein source can influence its rate of digestion and absorption.
- For muscle growth, you need less muscle loss and more protein synthesis…this happens through heavy weight-based training, enough calories, and high daily protein consumption…which means meals with 30+g of protein will be the norm.
The fine print: it’s important to distinguish between “absorption” and “utilization.”
Just because your body can “absorb” high quantities of protein doesn’t mean all of it is utilized for muscle synthesis.
In nutritional sciences, the term “absorption” describes the amount of protein converted from the food you eat into your circulatory system following digestion. However, it is possible that not all of that protein will be used for muscle growth, specifically. There are many variables that impact how much does (age, weight, current body composition, activity level, etc.), so it’s impossible to define a point of inflection where protein stops contributing to muscle synthesis and instead converts into different metabolic pathways.
In other words, your body may absorb the entirety of the aforementioned 80+ grams of protein you ate, but some of it may redirect to other processes, such as ATP (energy) production.
To be clear: this does NOT mean you should stop eating high protein meals, or that the protein converting to other pathways is “wasted.”
Instead of sweating the small stuff and stressing over whether or not you’re eating too much protein in one sitting, you’re far better off focusing on an overall daily protein goal (and keeping that average daily intake relatively consistent), and distributing your protein intake, at your discretion, throughout your primary meals in a way that’s convenient and sustainable for you. As a general rule of thumb, shooting for 0.8-1.0g of protein per pound of bodyweight is a great goal.
Do keep in mind that the more “macro-balanced” your plate, the more satiated you’ll feel from meal to meal, AND – bonus – the higher your TEF (thermic effect of food: the amount of calories you expend through the process of digesting your meals). So odds are, if you’re already representing protein, carbs, and fats and meal time, you’re already optimizing your protein consumption towards muscle synthesis.
