PROTEIN OVERDOSE?

How much protein can your body absorb in one sitting?

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1. Counselling Conundrum: a real question from a patient

2. Concise Conclusion: a straight-forward patient-friendly answer 

3. Quick Wrap-up 

Clearly, there are nuances that may not be captured in this format. The goal here is to provide you with helpful counselling tips which often draw from multiple sources or those which are not commonly accessed by busy healthcare providers serving the community.

Counselling Conundrum: "I know you said I should get around 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight, but I also do intermittent fasting. Can I take all that protein in one meal? Will my body actually use it to build muscle?"

Concise Conclusion: Excellent question! Although intermittent fasting can be effective for weight loss by making it harder to eat the same amount of calories in a smaller window of time, this can be potentially detrimental if you're looking to maintain or gain muscle. I would recommend spreading your total daily intake into 3-5 meals of 30-60 grams of protein. If you eat your entire day's protein in one meal, not only will this be very difficult, but you're unlikely to stimulate muscle growth the same way. It's not totally clear, but it looks like there is an upper limit to how much protein can be absorbed in one sitting, but it depends on the type of protein, your body mass, and several other factors.

Quick Wrap-up: Research shows you need around 25-30 grams of protein in one sitting to stimulate muscle protein synthesis (MPS). Animal products will have higher bioavailability than plant products, and foods (as opposed to say, a whey protein shake, which is absorbed very quickly) tend to be absorbed slower, allowing your body to put it towards MPS for longer.

Dive Deeper

1) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4675798/

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