How much protein per meal

The question of how much protein should be consumed per meal cannot be answered with an absolute and finite amount.  Before an answer can be provided more questions need to be raised; who is eating this meal, how many meals are being consumed per day and what are the health and fitness goals and needs of the individual? In short, different people have different protein needs.

A simple individually customised formula can provide a guide to how much protein per meal. First calculate your total daily protein needs. One gram per pound of bodyweight is a common recommendation (for active, strength-trained individuals), although total protein needs should take in account age, gender, body size, lean body mass, activity levels, energy status (deficit or surplus) and fitness goals. Then, take your daily needs and divide that amount by the number of meals you eat each day; so either 3 or 5 to 6 if you are adopting a grazing style.  For example: If you’re a 145 pound female athlete, then 135 grams a day would suffice; spread over 5 meals a day, that’s 29 grams per meal. If you’re a 270-pound male bodybuilder, eating six times per day, that’s 45 grams of protein per meal.

There is a commonly accepted idea that 30 grams of protein per meal is an ideal amount given that this is all the body can digest.  There is no hard scientific evidence to support this. The digestibility rate of protein sources is 94 to 97%. Generally what happens with a large meal, including a large protein intake, is that the meal will take longer to digest, but the body will increase the rate of gastric emptying and nutrient absorption in response to the larger food intake. The widely believed 30-gram “rule” is simply an average figure and just because the “average” comes out to around 30 grams per meal, does not mean that 30 grams is the most that you can digest.

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