There's no real per-meal ceiling around 20-30g of protein: your total daily intake matters far more than perfect distribution.

noli's read

This is one of the best-sourced posts in the batch — it cites PMIDs directly, and they hold up. The old "20-30g max per meal" myth comes from 2000s-2010s acute studies (Moore et al., Witard et al.) measuring muscle protein synthesis over a few hours with a fast-digesting isolated protein. A more recent and far more thorough study (Trommelen et al. 2023, Cell Reports Medicine, quadruple isotope tracers over 12 hours) directly tested 25g against 100g of protein after exercise: the anabolic response wasn't just stronger with 100g, it was more prolonged, with no sign of a ceiling or increased waste through oxidation. On distribution across the day, chronic trials comparing a couple of large meals to even spacing find near-identical muscle gains, with at most a marginal (1-2%) edge for spreading it out — exactly what the post claims. "Stop stressing about timing, hit your daily total" is one of the most accurate, well-calibrated pieces of advice in this whole batch.

the sources

1. 1Morton RW, Murphy KT, McKellar SR, et al. 2018
2. 2Leidy HJ, Clifton PM, Astrup A, et al. 2015