Kefiw

Archived noindex page. Kefiw's public focus is Property decision help.

Archived page

This older Kefiw page is kept for reference, marked noindex, and removed from the primary sitemap. The current Kefiw experience is focused on property decisions: cost, quotes, damage, buying, selling, owning, and packets.

Go to Property

Protein Bolus MPS Guide

Why 0.4 g/kg per meal beats 1.6 g/kg in one sitting.

MPS saturates at 0.25-0.40 g/kg protein per meal with ~2.5 g leucine; spacing 3-5 meals outperforms front-loading the daily total.

Daily protein total is not the whole story. Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) rises sharply with each feeding, peaks at ~90 minutes, and returns to baseline within 3-5 hours — even with continued amino acid supply. The saturation point per meal is 0.25-0.40 g/kg bodyweight, corresponding to ~2.5 g leucine to trigger mTOR (Moore 2009). Exceeding that in one sitting adds no MPS; the excess is oxidised. Spacing 3-5 boluses across the day produces more total MPS than front-loading the same daily grams.

Part of: Bio-Chemical Logistics

Quick answer

MPS saturates at 0.25-0.40 g/kg protein per meal with ~2.5 g leucine; spacing 3-5 meals outperforms front-loading the daily total.

What you are trying to do
Why 0.4 g/kg per meal beats 1.6 g/kg in one sitting.
Best next step
Anabolic Trigger · MPS Bolus
Limit to remember
Treat this as a practical aid for the task, not a replacement for professional judgment.

Key points

  • ▸ Per-meal saturation: 0.25-0.40 g/kg bodyweight. For an 82 kg lifter, that is 21-33 g per bolus.
  • ▸ Leucine threshold: ~2.5 g per bolus to reliably trigger mTOR-mediated MPS. Whey delivers ~2.5 g leucine per 25 g protein; plant sources often need larger serving sizes to hit the threshold.
  • ▸ Refractory window: 3-5 hours. Closely spaced meals produce a blunted second MPS response — "muscle-full" effect.
  • ▸ Daily floor: 1.6-2.2 g/kg (Morton 2018). At 82 kg that is 131-180 g daily. Split across 3-5 meals = 26-60 g per bolus.
  • ▸ Front-loading fails: a single 120 g bolus activates MPS no more than a 40 g bolus. Spread intake.
  • ▸ Protein quality matters via leucine density: whey > egg > soy > wheat. Plant-dominant diets may need 10-20% more total protein to match animal-source MPS response.
  • ▸ Pre-sleep casein (30-40 g) extends overnight MPS — the overnight fast is otherwise a 6-8 hour MPS gap.

How to

  1. Compute daily protein floor: bodyweight_kg × (1.6-2.2) depending on training state.
  2. Choose meal frequency: 3-5 meals typically. Serious lifters in a surplus often use 4-5.
  3. Compute per-meal bolus: daily_total / meals. Verify each bolus clears 0.25 g/kg minimum.
  4. If daily_total / meals is below 0.25 g/kg, either add a meal or accept that some boluses will not saturate MPS.
  5. Check leucine: whey/egg/dairy at ≥25 g protein clears the 2.5 g leucine threshold. Plant-source boluses may need 30-40 g total protein to match.
  6. Respect the 3-hour minimum spacing between boluses; closer together and the second meal does not fully activate MPS.

Examples

  • 82 kg (180 lb) · serious lifter · 4 meals
    Daily floor 164 g (2.0 g/kg). Per-meal bolus = 164 / 4 = 41 g (0.50 g/kg — above saturation, fine). Comfortable total; leucine cleared in every meal if from whey/dairy/meat.
  • 82 kg · 3 meals · 120 g daily (under-fed)
    120 / 3 = 40 g per bolus (0.49 g/kg — MPS saturates) BUT daily total is 1.46 g/kg, under the 1.6 floor. Either add a fifth meal or raise bolus targets to 55 g.
  • 70 kg female · cut · 5 meals · 154 g daily
    Per-meal 31 g (0.44 g/kg — saturates). Pre-sleep meal as 35 g casein extends overnight MPS through the 8-hour fast.

When to use which tool

▸ Operational Thresholds
  • CYAN · STABLE — Per-meal ≥ 0.4 g/kg and daily ≥ 1.8 g/kg — both MPS saturation and daily adequacy cleared.
  • GOLD · GUARDED — Per-meal 0.25-0.40 g/kg and daily 1.6-1.8 g/kg — minimum thresholds met; adequate for recomp and most hypertrophy.
  • MAGENTA · CRITICAL — Per-meal under 0.25 g/kg or daily under 1.6 g/kg — MPS under-triggered per meal or daily total below the Morton floor; muscle loss accelerates in deficit.
▸ Pivot
Trigger dialed. Partition the rest of the fuel (fat floor + carb backfill) around the protein anchor.
Fuel Partitioning · Macros →

Related

Frequently asked questions

› Does protein source matter for MPS?

Yes — via leucine density. Whey saturates MPS at ~25 g protein (2.5-3 g leucine). Soy needs ~35 g for the same leucine. Wheat protein needs 40-50 g. For plant-dominant diets, either up bolus sizes or supplement free leucine at 1-2 g per meal.

› Can I front-load all my protein at breakfast? Trust & accuracy

No. A single 120 g bolus activates MPS no more than a 40 g bolus — the "muscle-full" effect caps per-meal gain. Daily MPS area-under-curve is maximised by spacing 3-5 saturating boluses across the day, not by dumping the total into one meal.

› Is pre-sleep protein worth it? Trust & accuracy

Yes, specifically for overnight MPS. 30-40 g slow-digesting protein (casein, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese) within 30 min of sleep extends MPS through the first 3-4 hours of the overnight fast. Trommelen 2016 shows measurable muscle gain differences over 12-week trials.

› How should I use this guide with a Kefiw tool? How-to

Use the guide as the plan and the linked Kefiw tool as the check. Read the steps first, try the move manually, then use the tool to compare outputs, catch edge cases, and decide whether the result actually fits your task.

› What mistake do tool guides help avoid? Troubleshooting

Tool guides help avoid using a utility mechanically without understanding what you are trying to accomplish. Most word, writing, and text utilities are fast, but speed can hide context mistakes. Know whether you are solving a puzzle, cleaning copy, drafting a line, or checking a rule.