Protein done properly — it's not just about the number

Nine times out of ten, when we actually look at how we consume protein across the day, it's not spread out. It's one big number, mostly at dinner — a solid piece of chicken or steak at night, and then hardly anything at breakfast or lunch.

The total looks right on paper. But your body doesn't use protein in one lump sum.

Why timing across the day matters

Muscle protein synthesis — the process that actually builds and maintains muscle — responds best to protein spread across meals, not stacked into one. The research on this is fairly consistent: distributing protein in doses of roughly 0.4g per kilogram of your body weight across three to four meals a day gets more out of it than the same total eaten in one or two sittings.

So if your total target is, say, 120g for the day, that's roughly 30g per meal across four meals — not 20g at breakfast, 10g at lunch, and 90g at dinner.

How much protein you actually need

For most active adults, the general range is 1.6–2.2g of protein per kilogram of body weight. If you're a woman in perimenopause or menopause, you sit at the higher end of that range — 1.6–2.2g/kg — and there's a good reason why.

Declining oestrogen increases your protein requirements. Under-eating protein while also trying to lose weight is one of the fastest ways to accelerate muscle loss during this stage of life — which is the opposite of what most women are actually trying to achieve.

What this looks like with real food

You don't need to overthink this. Eggs, chicken, fish, red meat, dairy, and legumes all count. Aim to include a source at every meal, not just the one you think of as "the protein meal."

Breakfast is the meal that most people skip on. Two or three eggs, a serve of Greek yoghurt, or protein added to your oats gets you a genuinely useful amount before you've even started the day — rather than leaving all the protein consumption to dinner.

The practical takeaway

Hitting your number matters. But so does how you get there. Spread it out — protein at breakfast, protein at lunch, protein at dinner, and a snack if you need one — rather than saving it all for one meal and wondering why it's not translating into how you look, feel, or recover.