You already know that getting enough protein is essential for bodybuilding and trying to gain weight. But how much protein is the body capable of absorbing in a single sitting? Should you space your protein intake over six to eight meals a day to promote optimal absorption? Or can you stick with three meals a day and still meet your needs? Let’s take a closer look at this topic.

meal frequency

First of all, we need to dispel the myth that you must eat six to eight meals a day or your body will go into a catabolic state. This is completely untrue and if you are three hours and one minute from your last meal, all your progress will not stop.

Bodybuilding websites often say that you need to eat as often throughout the day if you hope to gain weight, but the main reason for this is not to prevent catabolism (breakdown of muscles), but to help you get those calories.

If you’re a man who needs 5,000 calories a day to build muscle, imagine eating meals that contain between 1,500 and 2,000 calories. You will be FILLING!

protein needs

Regardless of WHEN you get your protein, one thing is for sure and that is that you will need enough. If you’re not eating one gram per pound of body weight, you may not be getting the maximum results from your bodybuilding program and need to fix it right away.

While you don’t need much more than a gram per pound, going short of this number is something you don’t want to risk.

Get that protein, every day, every time.

protein frequency

Which now brings us to why we’re here: to talk about the frequency of proteins. This is going to depend on a couple of things.

First, if you have trained in the last few hours. Immediately after a training period, the body’s utilization of protein will be high, so it’s a smart plan to get a bit more during this time period.

After that, we need to look at your individual metabolic rate. Obviously, the faster you are burning calories and metabolizing cellular processes, the higher your need for protein frequency.

However, as a result of this, if you eat more protein per session, it will counteract this effect as it will take longer to metabolize the protein you ate at each meal.

Finally, the last factor that comes into play is the form of protein you consume. If it is a simple whey protein concentrate or powder, these are digested quite quickly. If it was a piece of red meat or some casein protein like that found in cottage cheese, then your body will feed on that for hours (assuming you’ve been given enough of it).

So, to summarize, don’t worry too much about going three hours without a serving of protein as long as:

1. Meet your total protein needs on a daily basis and never fall short.

2. Eat good quality protein sources that are naturally slower to digest.

3. Not dieting (eating excess calories, which you should because this is necessary to gain muscle in the first place).

Doing all these things should ensure that you don’t run into problems. Also keep in mind that the old notion that you can only use 30 grams of protein at a time is completely off the mark. The body is capable of handling much higher doses when it needs to, so don’t let that influence your meal planning process.