How much grams protein we should take in 1 meal?

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AbhishekDas08
AbhishekDas08 Posts: 5 Member
edited April 2023 in Getting Started
How much grams protein we should take in 1 meal?
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  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,019 Member
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    Up to you.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 889 Member
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    That depends on how many meals you eat in a day and how many grams of protein you are shooting for each day. That'll be different for every person.

    If you eat 3 times per day...you can divide the grams of protein you want by 3 and shoot for that much per meal ... or if you have one meal that has a lot of protein, you don't need to eat as much in the other meals.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,970 Member
    edited April 2023
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    .8 g's per lb of lean mass divided equally into your meal schedule, as a minimum and doesn't fluctuate regardless of calories consumed. imo. Cheers
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 9,370 Member
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    I respectfully disagree with @neanderthin's response, as it makes it sound like you don't have any flexibility, that you HAVE to have x grams of protein per meal, never changing. (At least that's how the post comes across to me.)

    But let's face it, some meals have more protein in them (gimme a steak with baked potato) or less protein (bowl of cereal with a cup of milk). IMHO it's the total for the day which needs to be met as much as possible, not the total per meal. If your goal is 100g each day and you get 80g on steak night, it doesn't mean you have to limit yourself to only 20g the rest of the day. Nor does a goal of 100g split across 4 meals (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner) mean that you HAVE to have 25g per meal. Eat more one meal, less another, you're fine.

    Some people may find it easier to reach a total if they make a conscious effort each meal, and more power to you. Maybe you want to add some eggs on the side of your breakfast cereal to make it easier to hit your goal. But nothing says you have to, it's simply an option.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,970 Member
    edited April 2023
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    nossmf wrote: »
    I respectfully disagree with @neanderthin's response, as it makes it sound like you don't have any flexibility, that you HAVE to have x grams of protein per meal, never changing. (At least that's how the post comes across to me.)

    But let's face it, some meals have more protein in them (gimme a steak with baked potato) or less protein (bowl of cereal with a cup of milk). IMHO it's the total for the day which needs to be met as much as possible, not the total per meal. If your goal is 100g each day and you get 80g on steak night, it doesn't mean you have to limit yourself to only 20g the rest of the day. Nor does a goal of 100g split across 4 meals (breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner) mean that you HAVE to have 25g per meal. Eat more one meal, less another, you're fine.

    Some people may find it easier to reach a total if they make a conscious effort each meal, and more power to you. Maybe you want to add some eggs on the side of your breakfast cereal to make it easier to hit your goal. But nothing says you have to, it's simply an option.

    No problem and I'll just add a little more nuance to my meaning without going down the rabbit hole, but we can if you like.

    What actually doesn't fluctuate and your right it may have sounded like I was being inflexible was the total amount of protein a person requires daily based on their lean mass. I don't think many people here that have some researched knowledge of the subject would disagree with that. This protects the amount of protein consumed when for example an RDA and a 1200 calorie diet is recommended and consequently if it's percentage of protein consumed, depending on the diet someone is on, can be insufficient and possibly dangerous.

    Also when I said equally distributed between meals I meant that they should be close to evenly distributed and not to be wildly different. Quite a few people tend to consume most of their protein in their evening meal. For example, if a person needs to consume say 100 g's of protein for the day to try a keep protein close in each meal but that doesn't mean each meal has to have exactly 33.3 g's in a 3 meal schedule, but relatively close is better to maximize protein anabolism and synthesis and while not doing this isn't necessarily bad it's just not optimal and I believe one of the main tenets of weight loss should be to protect lean mass as much as we can. cheers.

    https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/144/6/876/4589937

    Dietary Protein Distribution Positively Influences 24-h Muscle Protein Synthesis in Healthy Adults
  • AbhishekDas08
    AbhishekDas08 Posts: 5 Member
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    That depends on how many meals you eat in a day and how many grams of protein you are shooting for each day. That'll be different for every person.

    If you eat 3 times per day...you can divide the grams of protein you want by 3 and shoot for that much per meal ... or if you have one meal that has a lot of protein, you don't need to eat as much in the other meals.

    Can I consume 50-60 g of protein in 1 meal?It’s very difficult for me to eat 6-7 small meals in a day.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,433 Member
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    That depends on how many meals you eat in a day and how many grams of protein you are shooting for each day. That'll be different for every person.

    If you eat 3 times per day...you can divide the grams of protein you want by 3 and shoot for that much per meal ... or if you have one meal that has a lot of protein, you don't need to eat as much in the other meals.

    Can I consume 50-60 g of protein in 1 meal?It’s very difficult for me to eat 6-7 small meals in a day.

    Maybe it's just me, but your question is unclear to me.

    Are you just eating one meal a day (OMAD)? For most people 50-60g is quite low as a daily total, with possible exceptions for someone who's very petite.

    Whatever your protein goal is, it's probably ideal to split it over the number of meals you have, semi-evenly most of the time, but variation is fine.

    If your question is whether it's logistically practical to get 50-60g of protein in one meal, or asking whether 50-60g in one meal would be too filling so not possible . . . that's kind of individual.

    I can structure a meal with 50-60g of decent-quality protein even as a vegetarian, though that wouldn't be my most common eating pattern. (I do occasionally exceed 50g in one meal, but it's usually 30s-40s.) And I can certainly consume that meal without being unpleasantly over-full, because I weirdly still have fat Ann's volume-intake capacity.

    Can you structure a meal with 50-60g protein and not feel over-full when you eat it? Since that's individual, you'll have to figure that out yourself, I think - if that's the question.
  • sarabushby
    sarabushby Posts: 784 Member
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    There is some belief that consuming more than 20g protein at any one time is a waste as your body can only use so much and the rest is wasted. I am not clued up on whether this is true or not but you could do a Google and see what you find.
    Note that’s 20g protein, not the same as 20g chicken or 20g steak.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 9,370 Member
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    I no longer have the link to the video, but there's a thread here in MFL which addresses how much protein can be consumed in a single meal before the extra protein is wasted. Bottom line is there is no actual max, the body will take advantage of ALL the protein you consume, it's just a matter of how long it'll take, which could impact how hungry you are later down the line. If you eat a high-carb, low-protein breakfast, you may be hungry only an hour later, where if you eat a high-protein lunch you may end up skipping your usual snack because you're simply not hungry until dinner time.

    So the belief that 20g is the most at one time is bogus. I wouldn't do 200g+ at one time (and I have before...ask me sometime about the great 72oz steak dinner), but probably shoot for at least 20g per meal (2 cups of milk is 17g by itself, so it's not hard) just to help control hunger in the hours after.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,970 Member
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    sarabushby wrote: »
    There is some belief that consuming more than 20g protein at any one time is a waste as your body can only use so much and the rest is wasted. I am not clued up on whether this is true or not but you could do a Google and see what you find.
    Note that’s 20g protein, not the same as 20g chicken or 20g steak.

    Total protein consumption and maximizing muscle protein synthesis are two different things. The body will absorb pretty much all the protein you consume for the bodies total protein metabolism but as far as muscle protein synthesis is concerned depending on the persons physical makeup the amount will vary from around 25g's to about 50g's in one sitting. Cheers
  • InspiredBrunette
    InspiredBrunette Posts: 43 Member
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    I consume about 60 grams for breakfast & a total of 100+ grams of protein everyday