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Comment by JPLeRouzic | Hacker News Reader

This is a 2006 article which was cited by 600 or so papers. I find this paper extremely interesting and I did a quick search on author's name, and a recent paper (2017) which has the same author [0] says:

"We conclude that over an 8-week intervention period, the protein intake distribution pattern in mixed meals does not play an important role in determining anabolic response, muscle strength, or functional outcomes."

Biology is hard!

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28318687

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If I understand you correctly, you are implying that the more recent paper in someway contradicts or undermines the earlier one. I don't think this is the case. The more recent paper is about the distribution of protein intake throughout the day, not the presence or absence of protein in one's diet. The only claim of the recent paper is that it makes no difference what time of day you choose to consume your protein. It is not comparing a diet with protein to one without protein.

He isn't saying that intake of sufficient protein isn't important in the new paper. Just that it doesn't matter when you get it in, so long as it is with mixed meals and the total protein consumption is the same.

Also of note, the study mentions that this is in older individuals. Impacts of protein timing in trained individuals may be different.

> the protein intake distribution pattern in mixed meals

Is this the academic way of saying "timing your protein intake"?

I don't believe so. The abstract of the paper indicates that they separated the groups into those who ate 15/20/65% protein ratio through the day, and those who did 33/33/33%.

In my experience, "timing your protein intake" refers to the timing of protein intake relative to exercise, about which I do not have any sense of measurable validity.

Read the abstract more critically

The percentages are across breakfast, lunch and dinner; not protein, fat and carbs as you might be assuming.

It also is clear that all participants had equal protein consumption: 1.1g/kg/day.

I understood that. My point was that people who say "protein timing" are referring to consuming protein supplementation around the time that they work out, to maximize hypertrophy or performance.

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