Dr.ReproEndo 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.

Happy to go further on any of that.

One concrete data point for the thread. The boring version of this is the one that works, and the boring version is: measure a baseline, change one variable, wait, measure again under the same conditions. Nobody wants that answer and it is still the answer.

Happy to go further on any of that.

PeptideChemSF said:

I will push back on the powder-first advice.

Coming at PeptideChemSF’s question from a different direction. The distinction that resolves most of these threads is between what is true on average and what is true for one person. Both are real; they answer different questions and get quoted as if they were the same one.

One thing that is still open after MikeKY_noInsulin’s answer:

Whether the RDA is the wrong reference entirely during rapid weight loss, and what the actual target should be?

OP back with an update, since a thread like this is useless without one.

Front-loading was the answer. Same total intake, same drug, but two thirds of the protein before midday and I am hitting the target most days now.