If you give a rat the same amount of protein in three meals instead of saving most of it for dinner, it builds more muscle over 11 weeks.

If you feed adult rats protein from sources like whey or eggs instead of wheat or soy, their muscles grow bigger and repair faster after eating, especially after the first meal of the day.

If you're a young guy who already trains regularly and you spread your protein across either three or five meals a day — as long as the total protein is the same — you'll likely gain about the same amount of muscle and strength either way.

Muscle protein synthesis remains elevated for several hours post-exercise without requiring frequent meals to maintain muscle mass.

In adult rats, how well their muscles use essential amino acids to build protein depends on whether they get their protein spread out through the day or all at once, and also on how much leucine is in the food they eat.

If you're lifting weights and want to build muscle, eating at least 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight every day is the biggest factor that helps — more protein means better results, and when you eat it doesn't matter as much.