Protein/How Much & When?

http://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-myth-of-1glb-optimal-protein-intake-for-bodybuilders/

Take Home Messages

• There is normally no advantage to consuming more than 0.82g/lb (1.8g/kg) of protein per day to preserve or build muscle. This already includes a very safe mark-up. There hasn’t been any recorded advantage of consuming more than 0.64g/lb. The only exceptions to this rule could be individuals with extraordinarily high anabolic hormone levels.
• Optimal protein intake decreases with training age, because your body becomes more efficient at preventing protein breakdown resulting from training and less protein is needed for the increasingly smaller amount of muscle that is built after each training session. The magnitude of this effect is unclear.






And



http://www.lookgreatnaked.com/blog/our-meta-analysis-of-protein-timing-thoughts-and-perspectives/


Practical Implications and Other Observations

The take home message from the meta-analysis is that there does not appear to be a narrow “anabolic window of opportunity”; for the vast majority of the population it really doesn’t matter whether you consume protein immediately after training or wait for a couple of hours. This should be liberating for most lifters. You don’t have to worry about slamming a shake the minute you finish lifting. It’s okay to relax a bit, do whatever you need to do, and get in your post-workout nutrition when its convenient.

Now the findings of our study come with several caveats. For one, our criteria for timed consumption was < 1 hour pre- or post-workout, while the non-timed groups were > 2 hours. It is not clear if waiting say 5 hours or more after a training session would have a negative impact. In my previous review with Alan, we proposed that a window probably exists, but it is rather wide (4-6 hours) and will depend on when you ate your pre-workout meal. Our findings in this meta-analysis do nothing to change these guidelines.

Another important point is that there is a paucity of studies that have matched protein consumption between the timed vs untimed groups. Although our subanalysis failed to show any differences, statistical power was lacking and it remains possible that there may be an underlying effect that we were not able to detect. We need more well-controlled research where intake is matched between groups.

Finally and importantly, the majority of studies were carried out on untrained subjects; none employed elite bodybuilders or athletes. There are numerous differences between newbies and experienced lifters, including anabolic responsiveness, the ability to train at higher levels of intensity of effort, the capacity to recruit the full spectrum of muscle fibers, etc. These factors may or may not have an impact on the importance of timing. We simply don’t have enough info to make a determination at this juncture. Moreover, the measures used to assess hypertrophy (i.e. DXA, MRI, CT, etc) have inherent limitations and might not be sensitive enough to show small effects that potentially could be meaningful to competitive athletes. So if you are a highly trained lifter where it is essential to achieve absolute maximal hypertrophy, it makes sense to consume protein as quickly as possible post-workout; doing so certainly won’t hurt and possibly might help, albeit to a small extent

Just shoot for a daily goal. Don't worry about timing. And you don't have to get it from powder/shakes. It's fine if that's what you prefer but you'll probably find food more satiating. Should be fine with .8g per lb.