protein timing after workout

[aklacor727]

I've often heard its best to have protein within the hour after finishing a workout. With the timing that I workout (8-9am), I dont want to have my protein till lunch time because I fast (only black coffee and water) till lunchtime. 

My question is, does it make much of a difference not having protein within the hour? 

Thanks!

[aurum]

@aklacor727 it might help, but if that timing works best for your schedule I wouldn’t sweat it. Something like that I would only worry about if you were a pro bodybuilder or athlete. If you’re just looking to put on a little bit of muscle and stay healthy, you’ll be fine.

[aklacor727]

@aurum ok awesome, thank you so much!!!

[GrowthPilgrim]

Hey, I recently read that having it immediately after the workout (or within the hour) does not have any noticeable benefits if you are no professional bodybuilder. Just make sure to include enough protein in every meal you consume. 

[UDT]

@aklacor727  

All people saying here "you will be fine youre not a pro" don´t understand. 
First, its more bang for your effort so would you rather have 50$ an hour or 60$ ? 60 of course. So use the anabolic window and get your extra reward from training lol?!

Second, if you are not adequately pre and afterfeeding your body you are putting it under unnecessary stress which has negative effects on again your growth potential and also leads to overproduction of adrenaline and cortisol which is stress for the body u dont want.

You should consume protein an hour before training and latest 3 hours after the training together with adequate carbohydrates and minerals

[Aquarius]

I'm not any professional or athlete or anything.. but you mentioned fasting with coffee and water, and I used to do the exact same thing in the past, so I hopped on this thread to say that it's extremely damaging to do that.

So if you can, please please eat 5 meals or more a day, that would include 3 big meals and a few snacks (perhaps protein bars or whatever you're having). And at least 3 to 5 portions of fruits or veggies raw daily. I've been studying these informations I just gave you for a while now and this is what they recommend for the best health. And I tried it and it really gives me great energy boost, also uplifted mood.

[Shawn Philips]

This is an old myth promoted by protein companies to make sure you buy their instant protein shakes: Hurry up and take your shake or the anabolic window will close and you wont absorb as much protein! lol

Theres not scientific data approving that taking protein after the workout will make you gain more muscle that taking it 1 hour later.

[UDT]

@Shawn Philips  

I condemn you to 10 minutes on Google scholar and 15 minutes to think about what you type into your computer.

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=muscle+protein+synthesis&oq=muscle+protein+

 

You do not even need any empirical research (which seems to be the crack of stage orange, who then shame all other people for their "beliefs").

 

Just use your common sense, you strain muscle fibre, you cause microtears, you cause adaption to future load.

Your body does need +1hr to digest protein.

 

Muscle fibre is made of protein.

 

When does the muscle adaption occur? In a span of roughly 48hours, bell curve shaped with a long tail end

 

What is adaption constrained by?

1. Stimulus 

2. Building blocks for tissue 

 

 

So what do we do?

 

1. We go create high quality stimulus 

2. We supply excess of building blocks 

 

And when do we supply building blocks (a.k.a nutrition). At the rising slope of the bell curve (a.k.a the first 3 to maybe 6 hours) 

 

?

[Ampresus]

Does not matter, as long as you stick to your daily amount of protein. You could have your shake during breakfast, at the gym, during dinner or as a late night beverage. Really does not matter.

[Ryan_047]

On 3/21/2022 at 4:11 PM, Ampresus said:

Does not matter, as long as you stick to your daily amount of protein. You could have your shake during breakfast, at the gym, during dinner or as a late night beverage. Really does not matter.

 

On 3/20/2022 at 3:20 PM, Shawn Philips said:

This is an old myth promoted by protein companies to make sure you buy their instant protein shakes: Hurry up and take your shake or the anabolic window will close and you wont absorb as much protein! lol

@UDT

What is the necessary amount of protein that is needed on a daily basis? I've heard people say 0.8-1 grams and other say 2g. I also heard people argue whether the animal based protein or plant based protein is better.  Could you please link some resources?

 

[T_i_m]

What's important is how much protein you eat throughout the day. You need to keep positive nitrogen balance.
And it's even better for muscle development to not eat anything at least the first hour after workout. At least that's what they doctors and coaches taught me when I was studying for being a personal trainer. There was a scientific explanation but I don't remember the  details.
 

[Ampresus]

7 hours ago, Ryan_047 said:

 

@UDT

What is the necessary amount of protein that is needed on a daily basis? I've heard people say 0.8-1 grams and other say 2g. I also heard people argue whether the animal based protein or plant based protein is better.  Could you please link some resources?

 

Watch this video by Jeff Nippard, one of the most well-respected fitness guys on YT. He explains everything you want to know, based on scientific studies that he links in the description of each video:

 

[Ryan_047]

@Ampresus Solid video, but I'm kind of skeptical of the last part in which he stated that some studies show that really high protein intake is not dangerous (3.4-4.4g/kg), but healthy instead. I genuinely don't buy into that, and some of his videos are too click baity which is a red flag for me. But this video was solid overall. 

[Ampresus]

@Ryan_047 Welcome to yt lol. At the end of the day it's a platform where everyone competes for your attention, so of course some of his titles and thumbnails will be clickbaity. I personally don't know how they got to 3.4-4.4g/kg protein per day without overusing protein powder or just eating chicken all day. I am struggling to get 160g in everyday, yet here he says that doing twice that is perfectly fine. Regardless he makes the best fitness yt videos as far as I know.

[Godhead]

On 18.3.2022 at 9:01 PM, UDT said:

First, its more bang for your effort so would you rather have 50$ an hour or 60$ ? 60 of course. So use the anabolic window and get your extra reward from training lol?!

I agree with your thinking, but it's not a 20% increase you're getting, more like 2-3%. Most newbies tend to focus on things like meal timing, equipment, etc. That's why they usually get the response, that it's not that important and that they should focus on other things.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Godhead

[The0Self]

On 4/9/2022 at 0:12 PM, Godhead said:

I agree with your thinking, but it's not a 20% increase you're getting, more like 2-3%. Most newbies tend to focus on things like meal timing, equipment, etc. That's why they usually get the response, that it's not that important and that they should focus on other things.

^^ Definitely true.

@aklacor727

Timing isn't completely irrelevant, but it is virtually insignificant in relation to other concerns as long as you're not training fasted. If you're not fasted, you'll still have circulating amino acids anyway, so the meal-timing anabolic window won't be very significant, although a bolus of carbs and protein immediately post workout can still be somewhat beneficial. But if you are fasted, you won't have a sufficient amount of amino acids circulating for optimal recovery, so you'll want to consume protein (and carbs) ASAP -- it's far better in virtually all scenarios to just train while fed though (meaning after having consumed at least one meal with at least 20-40g protein since waking up). In fact, pre-workout protein is arguably a lot better than post-workout protein, as it will be available both during and after training rather than only after -- and it's best to have the amino acids (and glucose) immediately available as the adaptation-producing training stimulus is occurring, so that they can be utilized exactly as soon as they're needed.

The most important thing by far is ensuring progressive overload (with multi-joint pushing, pulling, and posterior-chain/leg-dominant movements) in combination with optimal protein consumption throughout the day (meaning at least 120g per day over multiple meals). As long as you did that, you could even completely disregard timing.

(Key exercises include squat, deadlift, standing overhead press, bench press, and chin up. Multiple sets. Generally 5-15 reps per set, stopping short of failure on the big movements as failure induces asymmetrical neural stress and you end up getting stronger adaptation by just doing more work over additional submaximal sets. You can go to failure on smaller/ancillary exercises though -- side lateral raises, barbell curls, etc.)

3 meals (protein feedings) per day is definitively much better than 2, and 4 is slightly better than 3, but additional frequency (beyond 4/d) has no additional benefit (the science shows). So, a good guide is to eat 4 meals a day with at least 30g protein at each meal -- and to train full-body 3 days a week or upper/lower 4d/wk. Light "cardio" multiple days per week is fine too but it may hinder muscle and strength gains unless it is cardio that essentially signals the muscles not to eat themselves -- sled drags, prowler pushing, barbell step ups, push/pull/leg circuits, stair climber with heavy pack on, and even circuits of several of these 5 examples are all good for this.

[Vynce]

Feed your muscles some easy to digest sugar right after workout. Rice cakes or corn cakes are good options. This replenishes carbohydrates in muscle fibers and therefor ensures a "muscle growth environment". 

Protein intake should be ideal high throughout the day, not especially after workout. 

[UDT]

On 08/04/2022 at 7:45 PM, Ampresus said:

@UDT

What is the necessary amount of protein that is needed on a daily basis? I've heard people say 0.8-1 grams and other say 2g. I also heard people argue whether the animal based protein or plant based protein is better.  Could you please link some resources?

Your entire diet is important, not just protein intake.

Carb refeeds are essential. Imagine you only eat protein. Your body will create glucose out of the protein through gluconeogenesis to feed your body, wasting protein which could supply muscle fibres. 

 

got me?
its not so simple. 

 

Also Protein = 10+ Amino Acids

There are essential and non essential AAs 

You vegan? then Soy is the only thing which has a complete AA profile. But do you want to eat Soy all day? I dont think so (Phytoestrogens)

If you wanna stop poking at the service and really understand stuff, I kindly recommend my link below

[The0Self]

On 4/9/2022 at 9:15 AM, Ampresus said:

@Ryan_047 Welcome to yt lol. At the end of the day it's a platform where everyone competes for your attention, so of course some of his titles and thumbnails will be clickbaity. I personally don't know how they got to 3.4-4.4g/kg protein per day without overusing protein powder or just eating chicken all day. I am struggling to get 160g in everyday, yet here he says that doing twice that is perfectly fine. Regardless he makes the best fitness yt videos as far as I know.

This is from a holistic view so I can't really give you any specific studies, but after a decent amount of research you may come to roughly the same conclusion: for lifters of most bodyweights, less than 80-120g protein per day (complete protein) basically always = shooting yourself in the foot, but there are drastically diminished returns above 120g... though they still increase (very) slightly all the way to about 280g per day.

If you're not lifting, and neither muscle growth nor body composition (fat loss) is a concern, then there's absolutely no need to eat more than 80-120g per day... but muscle growth from barbell training is an extremely healthy thing, so... not a bad concern to have.

More specifically, you get near-maximal muscle growth at about 120g per day (assuming you're training moderately hard and consistently making progress on weight and volume moved), but the nutrient partitioning effect (i.e. less fat gain per unit of muscle growth) increases all the way to 280g. The muscle growth portion starts to cap out at about 120g, and is virtually completely maxed out by about 0.8-0.9g/lb in almost all cases, but you get significantly increased nutrient partitioning (away from fat gain) all the way up to at least 240-280g. Again, that kind of protein overfeeding has essentially no significant additional effect on muscle growth -- it's the nutrient partitioning that continues to benefit with such large amounts.

In most cases, there don't seem to be any serious adverse health effects from overeating protein like this, especially for short periods. Just get minimum 120g if muscle growth is your main concern. But if fat loss is your main concern, still get minimum 120g but it's actually best to eat basically as much protein as possible in that case, lol (up to about 280g).

3 protein feedings (meals) a day is better than 2, 4 is slightly better than 3 (and only if training well), and 5 is no better than 4... for muscle growth and nutrient partitioning, as per scientific studies. So a good guide is simply 4 meals a day with minimum 30g protein each -- as long as you do this, the only "timing" that is significant is simply ensuring that you don't train fasted... "Anabolic windows" are insignificant unless you're training fasted -- which is not optimal except in some rarified highly specialized situations.

Edited April 12, 2022 by The0Self