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eazy · #1 (**permalink**) 05-17-2014, 04:18 AM

Eat protein every 3 hours or you shall dwindle away to nothing

These people seem to have an infatuation with protein, likely because skeletal muscle tissue is the body’s largest reservoir of amino acids. Therefore, they assume that the more frequently they hit the body with a rush of protein, the more optimally they will*stimulate muscle growth.

However, this is in fact not the case as studies have shown that the body actually has a refractory period to protein intake, which blunts the protein synthetic response. [8] This means that eating protein too frequently would actually be an inhibitory and inefficient process if you’re looking to optimize muscle protein synthetic response to feeding.

A more pragmatic approach is to eat a nominal amount of protein, let muscle protein synthesis go through its paces and return to baseline levels, and then soon thereafter hit the body with another protein-rich meal. It’s safe to say that if you’re eating a sufficient amount of a leucine-rich, complete protein source with each meal that postprandial muscle protein synthesis will likely be elevated for at least 4-6 hours, so the idea that you need to eat protein every 3 hours (or less) is not a very sound one.

Something to keep in mind when it comes to many things in health and fitness is that more is not always better; better is better. Just because some dietary protein is indeed crucial for muscle maintenance and growth doesn’t mean you can’t overdo it.

The bottom line

Rather than frequently trickling protein/amino acids into the body throughout the day, try spacing your meals out so they occur say every 5-6 hours and take in a nominal amount of a leucine-rich, complete protein source with said meals (the actual amount will vary based on your size and needs, but for most people, 30+ grams of protein is a good starting point).

Don’t fall prey to the idea that your body is somehow “going catabolic” just because you feel hungry and have gone more than 3 hours without a meal or protein shake. You don’t have to graze on protein, and in fact it’s likely not doing you any favor if you do that. Eat a solid, balanced meal, go live life for awhile, let yourself get hungry, and then eat again; it’s not that complicated really.