Can you build muscle eating only two meals a day?

Short answer

Yes. Splitting the same food into 3 or 6 meals made no difference to muscle gain, and arm and thigh muscles still grew when people ate everything within 4 hours on 4 days a week. Two meals were worse only during weight loss on 1,200 kcal a day.

Can you build muscle eating only two meals a day?
'Fewer meals → protein supply cut off → less muscle': does this formula hold?
For years people have said you need 5-6 meals a day to build muscle. For busy people, two meals is a realistic choice. We checked whether the number of meals itself changes muscle.
What happens when you pool meal-frequency studies?
The benefit of more meals came from one study
An analysis that pooled 15 studies changing meal number at first showed more lean mass (muscle and everything except fat) with more frequent meals. But when studies were removed one at a time, this result came from a single study. That one study included exercise and lasted only 2 weeks.
Two meals were worse when calories were very low
On 1,200 kcal a day for 2 weeks, more muscle was lost
12 people lost weight on only 1,200 kcal a day for 2 weeks. Weight loss did not differ between two meals and six meals, but the two-meal group lost more lean mass.
And when calories are sufficient?
3 meals versus 6 meals: no difference in muscle gain
10 people trying to gain weight were given the same food split into 3 or 6 meals. Body weight and lean mass rose with both approaches, with no difference by meal number. Hunger did not differ either.
Is a big serving wasted?
Even 100 g at once was used for more than 12 hours
In a 36-person trial, eating 100 g of protein at once after exercise produced more muscle protein building than 25 g, lasting more than 12 hours. The amount of protein burned barely rose. However, in a 24-person trial splitting 80 g over 12 hours, 4 servings of 20 g produced 31-48% more building than 8 servings of 10 g or 2 servings of 40 g.
On two meals, protein amount made the difference
Eating 105 g a day gave the best protein balance
30 people (average age 61) eating only two meals a day were split by protein intake. For a 70 kg (154 lb) person, those eating 105 g a day had a higher whole-body protein balance than those eating 56 g or 77 g. Muscle protein building did not differ among the three groups.
Packing meals into 4 hours cut intake
On 4-hour eating days, people ate about 650 kcal less
Among 18 people lifting weights for 8 weeks, the group that ate everything within 4 hours on 4 days a week ate about 650 kcal less on those days. Even so, arm and thigh muscle size grew in both groups. The change in lean mass (+2.3 kg versus -0.2 kg) did not count as a difference.
Summary: muscle grows on two meals too
Daily totals come before meal count
With enough calories, meal number did not change muscle gain, and muscle grew even when eating was packed into a short window. Two meals were worse only during weight loss with a big calorie cut. On two meals, a 70 kg person can eat about 105 g of protein a day, about 53 g per meal.