Accepted answer
Two meals of 60 g is fine for your stated goal, and the leucine-threshold literature does not say otherwise. The distribution effect is real but small, it was measured mostly in young men in energy balance who were trying to gain, and it shrinks further when total daily protein is already adequate. Here is the arithmetic and where the caveats actually bite.
The leucine threshold, in grams of real food
The threshold is usually quoted as 2.5-3.0 g of leucine to maximally stimulate a synthesis response in a young adult, higher in older adults. Leucine content varies by protein source, so convert:
| Source | Leucine as % of protein | Protein needed for 2.5 g leucine | Protein needed for 3.0 g leucine |
|---|
| Whey isolate | ~10.5-11% | ~23 g | ~28 g |
| Chicken, beef, fish | ~8.0-8.5% | ~30 g | ~36 g |
| Whole egg | ~8.6% | ~29 g | ~35 g |
| Casein / dairy protein | ~9.3% | ~27 g | ~32 g |
| Soy isolate | ~8.0% | ~31 g | ~38 g |
| Pea protein | ~8.0% | ~31 g | ~38 g |
| Wheat protein | ~7.0% | ~36 g | ~43 g |
Your 60 g meals of chicken-and-dairy protein deliver roughly:
60 g protein x 0.085 leucine fraction = 5.1 g leucine per meal
That is roughly double the threshold. You are not under-dosing leucine. You are over-dosing it twice a day, which brings us to the actual question.
Is the excess wasted?
Partly, and less than the older literature implied. The per-meal saturation figure people cite is about 0.4 g of protein per kg of body weight, which for you is:
0.4 x 78 = 31.2 g per meal to saturate the acute response
Over 4 meals: 4 x 31.2 = 125 g/day (matches your 120 g)
Over 2 meals: 2 x 31.2 = 62 g/day (would be badly short)
So on a strict reading of the acute studies, your two 60 g meals "waste" about 29 g each. But the acute studies measured synthesis over 3-5 hours after a single bolus. A 60 g mixed meal with fat and fibre in it empties slowly, and on a GLP-1 it empties much more slowly than normal, which spreads the amino acid appearance over a longer window and blunts the saturation problem. Gastric emptying delay is, for once, working in your favour here. Longer-term nitrogen-balance and body-composition studies comparing even versus skewed distribution at matched total intake have generally found small or no differences in lean mass over weeks to months.
Where it would matter
- If you were trying to gain rather than retain. Distribution effects are more defensible for hypertrophy than for maintenance.
- If you were older. Anabolic resistance rises with age, the per-meal threshold rises with it, and the argument for hitting a higher bolus more often gets stronger.
- If total intake were marginal. At 120 g for 78 kg you are at 1.54 g/kg of body weight, above the commonly cited breakpoint. At 80 g you would want to think harder about placement.
- The overnight gap. Your 7pm meal to next-day breakfast is potentially a 13-14 hour fast. That is the one distribution change I would actually make: move some of the evening protein to a slow source, or add a small casein or Greek yoghurt serving later, if you can do it without wrecking sleep.
Verdict: keep two meals. Do not manufacture a third you cannot eat. Spend the effort on total intake and on progressive loading in your three sessions, both of which have larger effect sizes than meal timing.
3Slower gastric emptying widening the amino acid window is a genuinely underrated upside of these drugs. – aine_mulcahy 7 months ago 2The overnight gap point is the actionable one. Everything else is noise at 1.5 g/kg. – Dr_Rosalind_Achebe 5 months ago add a comment