Amino acid analysis for peptide identity — beyond mass spec

PeptideSynthNJ said:

The RDA is the wrong reference and it is worth understanding why.

PeptideSynthNJ has the substance of this right. The condition it depends on is worth stating. Distribution matters less than total but it is not nothing. Roughly 25 to 40g per sitting with enough leucine to trigger synthesis, three or four times a day, is more effective than the same total in one enormous evening meal — and on a suppressed appetite the enormous evening meal is the one you will not finish anyway.

I would rather be corrected than agreed with, if it comes to it.

PeptideSynthNJ said:

The RDA is the wrong reference and it is worth understanding why.

I will push back on the powder-first advice. It works and it also trains people out of eating food, and when the drug stops the habits are what remain. Getting protein from meals is slower and holds up better afterwards.

Answering the narrow version, because the broad one does not have a single answer. On a suppressed appetite the winning strategy is protein density per unit of volume, not per calorie. Isolate powders, Greek yoghurt and cottage cheese, egg whites, lean fish, and tinned tuna all deliver a lot of protein in a small physical volume. Front-load it: appetite is usually least suppressed in the first hours after waking and worst on the day or two after dosing, so get the majority in early in the day and early in the week.

LabKate said:

Distribution matters less than total but it is not nothing.

Agreed, and for anyone with an eating-disorder history this needs a clinician in the loop rather than a forum. The same drug can be therapeutic in binge-eating disorder and actively harmful in a restrictive disorder.