Looking at protein intake in that way is counterintuitive and can lead to false assumptions. At any given time, yes, the body can only digest and absorb protein up to a certain maximal rate. Many factors influence this such as your metabolism, your hormonal enironment, the type and amount of protein being taken in, the composition of the meal etc. what the research has shown is that it takes very little total protein in a given meal to spike muscle protein synthesis or MPS, 20-30g if protein is enough to spike MPS and more protein does not further increase the amplitude of the spike. Many people falsely assume and report back from this that the body can't absorb more than 20-30g of protein in one sitting which is false.
Worrying solely about spiking MPS is myopic bc it ignores the need for your total daily requirements which take overall precedence. You should not limit your meals to 30g of protein bc fhe body doesn't spike MPS any moreso than that. That would mean a 250lb athlete who's taking in ~250g of protein would need 8meals to eat all 250g of protein if he stuck to <30g protein/meal. Not only is this inconvenient for many since we don't all have the time to eat 8x/day but it can be detrimental actually bc increasing the frequency of MPS by too much for too long can lead to a smaller amplitude spike which offsets any gains made by creating more spikes.
The body can only digest nutrients so fast and part of the speed of digestion is based on the volume food eaten during the meal. The ileal tract is the small intenstine's and body's natural "braking system". The ileal tract regulates the rate of flow of food into the intenstines and it slows digestion for a large volume meal while it speeds it up for smaller meals. So what this means to us is that you mustn't worry about the amount of protein taken in per any given meal, you should worry about the total intake over any given day or week bc the body can only spike MPS to a certain extent but it will not waste protein by leaving it undigested and it will not stop digesting protein if you eat in excess of 30g protein/meal.
^^^that in no way is advising you to eat ridiculous amounts of protein. Your body actually only requires a minimum amount. Any more than that amount and personal food preferences and other factors should take priority for consideration. As an example, I am 205lbs at the moment. I'm aiming for 200-250g of protein a day. Will my results be different or any less if I reduced that to 180g of raised it to 275g? No, the differences once your needs are met are negligible. So in my case I realize I don't necessarily need this amount of protein but protein has the highest thermic effect of food (TEF) so it requires the most energy to break it down, protein has the highest satiety rating of any macro, protein tastes damn good (imagine a nice big steak, burgers, chicken, grilled salmon, etc), and since protein is almost never stored as fatty acids or converted to glucose via gluconeogenesis or de novo lipogenesis, eating rational amounts of protein in excess of your minimum daily requirements is not going to negatively impact anything in terms of results. You would alter your carb and fat intake if your protein intake was particularly high or you would intake no less than the minimum protein requirements you need tailored to your goals. In the end, I love protein since I'm a big meat eater, big chicken eater, enjoy seafood, etc so I take in more than my minimum requirements in protein bc its a personal preference and i still meet my requirements for dietary fat and fill in the rest with carbs.
. enjoy dinner brother!
