Training guide · 3 min read · MyoAmigo
Protein After Forty
Why the dose at each meal starts to matter more than the daily total.
The Same Dose, A Smaller Return
Somewhere in your forties, muscle gets harder to convince. The technical term is anabolic resistance: a given amount of protein triggers less muscle protein synthesis than it used to. Your muscle isn't broken — it's just less responsive to the same signal, so a habit built at twenty-five (a light breakfast, a bigger dinner) undersells you in ways it didn't before.
This doesn't mean eating more protein overall is the fix. It means the size of each dose starts to matter more than the running total.
The Per-Meal Threshold
Younger muscle can respond to a modest amount of protein at a single meal. Older muscle needs more per sitting to clear that same threshold and switch synthesis on. The practical number is roughly 0.4 g/kg of bodyweight per meal — enough at breakfast, lunch, and dinner to actually register, rather than one large dose at dinner and crumbs the rest of the day.
For a 75 kg person that works out to about 120-165 g per day.
That's the daily total split across meals, not a target for any single sitting.
A Daily Band, Not a Daily Number
Across a full day, the range that shows up in the research for people who train is 1.6–2.2 g/kg of bodyweight. It's wide on purpose — where you land depends on training volume, age, and how much muscle you're trying to hold onto or build. The point isn't precision. It's landing somewhere in the band consistently, meal after meal, week after week.
No Logging Required
MyoAmigo doesn't track food, and this article isn't an invitation to start. You don't need a food scale or a macro app to hit this. The move is simpler: a protein source at each meal — eggs, yogurt, chicken, tofu, a shake if that's easier some days — not a spreadsheet. If most of your meals have a protein source you could point to without thinking hard, you're probably close enough.
We cover the fundamentals — what counts as protein, timing myths, the basics worth knowing — in "Protein Without the Noise." Read this one as the age-specific addendum: same principles, adjusted for muscle that needs a slightly higher push per meal to hear the signal.
The One Lever Worth Being Deliberate About
Training changes with age. Recovery changes. Sleep changes. Protein is one of the few nutrition levers where the adjustment is small, well understood, and doesn't require overhauling how you eat. Spread it across the day, hit a real dose at each meal, and let the rest of your diet stay exactly as uncomplicated as it already is.
