Can your body only absorb 30 grams of protein at once?

On Ep. 364 and Ep. 400, Nikkiey separates two ideas that often get blurred. Absorption has no hard 30-gram cap. The 30 to 50 gram range is about getting the most muscle-building signal from a meal. Eating 80 grams in one sitting does not double that response compared with 40 grams. Nikkiey says roughly half would go toward building muscle and the rest would be used elsewhere in the body. She is clear that this extra protein is not stored as fat.

On Ep. 389, Maggie explains where the myth likely came from. Most older studies stopped measuring at about four hours, so it looked as if the body stopped using protein past a certain amount. A study that ran for 24 hours found the body kept using it, just at a slower rate. The hosts add that whole-food protein digests slowly, sometimes over many hours after a big meal, so a large steak or chicken bowl behaves very differently from several protein shakes in a row. Their view is that it is very hard to overeat protein. They do note that an extreme amount, like 400 grams in an eating contest, is not a good idea.

If you have kidney issues or another medical condition, check your protein target with your doctor.