Most apps only track how much protein you eat. Pulse tracks how much and when — hit your daily total, spread evenly, for a small extra edge in muscle protein synthesis (MPS).

Your daily goal is split across a few windows — breakfast, lunch, dinner (and evening, if you're on 4). Log a meal and a 3-hour MPS window opens for that pulse — that's the stretch of time your body is actively building muscle off that meal.

Hitting your protein target inside each window (not just somewhere across the day) is what the pulses are for. Missing a window doesn't undo your progress — it just means that particular pulse didn't hit its target.

Big meals aren't wasted. Newer research shows your body keeps using a large dose of protein for muscle — it just takes longer. Pulse still flags a pulse carrying a lot, because a more even spread makes the rest of your day easier to hit, not because the extra is lost.

Most nutrition tracking is built around one number: your daily total. The daily total is still the biggest factor for building muscle. But muscle protein synthesis (MPS) doesn't run flat all day — it rises after a protein-rich meal, peaks, then tapers off over a few hours. How you spread your protein can add a modest extra benefit on top of the total.

What about a per-meal ceiling? A widely cited review (Schoenfeld & Aragon, 2018) suggested about 0.4–0.55g per kg of body weight per meal. A later study (Trommelen et al., 2023) found 100g in one sitting produced a bigger and much longer muscle-building response than 25g. So there's no hard cutoff, just diminishing returns per meal. Pulse uses 0.4–0.55g/kg as a sensible target per pulse, not a limit.

Spacing matters as much as amount. Areta and colleagues (2013) compared three feeding patterns using the same total protein: very frequent small doses, moderate doses every 3 hours, or two large meals. The 3-hourly moderate pattern won, beating both extremes.

Distribution matters more than most people realise, too. Mamerow and colleagues (2014) found spreading protein evenly across breakfast, lunch and dinner produced 25% more muscle protein synthesis over 24 hours than the exact same total protein skewed toward a big dinner — a very common real-world eating pattern.

Age changes the picture too. Older adults show anabolic resistance — the same protein dose triggers a smaller MPS response than it would in a younger person, meaning a higher per-meal amount is often needed to get things going in the first place. It may also mean the usual "ceiling" applies differently: in a small randomized crossover trial, Park and colleagues (2020) found the anabolic response in older adults was still further stimulated at 70g of protein in one meal compared with 35g — another sign that big meals aren't "wasted". It's a small study (n=8), so Pulse only widens the per-pulse range for 60+ users rather than setting a precise new number. Set your age in Settings and your per-pulse range adjusts.

Sources: Areta et al., J Physiol 2013 · Mamerow et al., J Nutr 2014 · Schoenfeld & Aragon, JISSN 2018 · Park et al., Nutrients 2020 · Trommelen et al., Cell Rep Med 2023

That's the whole idea behind a pulse. Not eat more — just eat on a rhythm that actually gives your body a chance to use it.