Stop worry about slamming those protein shakes after your workout

[pelagius]

This is just for lifting (I have no idea about for endurance athletes). It's pretty common practice for lifters to time protein intake around workouts (the so-called anabolic window around workouts). mainly leads to pre and post workout protein intake. Unfortunately, it doesn't look the empirical evidence supports the practice. There a could be a benefit, but it's small. Here is a reasonable meta-study (of like 15 protein timing experiments):

The effect of protein timing on muscle strength and hypertrophy: a meta-analysis.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24299050

First, no evidence that it increases strength (notice how the overall is insignificant):



Second, these experiments did show an increase in muscle size (hypertrophy):



However, there is a problem. Many of the experiment didn't control for the fact that treatment group (doin protein timing) also increased overall protein intake. If you control for overall protein intake the effect is no longer significant:



High protein intake helps with muscle hypertrophy for lifters (we know this from other studies), but the timing of the protein around workouts doesn't appear to be very important.

[TripletDaddy]

Ha! Take that, bro science!

[pelagius]

Ha! Take that, bro science!

[TripletDaddy]

P, does this mean no more worrying about protein shake or something similar before bed, as well?

[bluegoose]

Interesting. I had the same question as DDD. Also wondering what the current recommendation is for daily protein intake. Last I read it was .8-1.5 g/kg body weight.

[jay santos]

Interesting. I had the same question as DDD. Also wondering what the current recommendation is for daily protein intake. Last I read it was .8-1.5 g/kg body weight.

I'm gonna be pissed if I've been walking around with keto breath for no reason.

[Commando]

P, does this mean no more worrying about protein shake or something similar before bed, as well?

I think this study only relates to protein intake right after a workout as a means to increase assimilation. Apparently all this business about the aminos and what not is insignificant. The protein before bed is supposed to allow your body to metabolize body fat while you sleep, not lean muscle, since it allegedly won't feed off of lean muscle while protein is being assimilated. That's what I heard, anyway.

[Moliere]

Most advice I've read for endurance athletes is to consume protein within 30 minutes after a workout. I've been doing this mostly because if I don't I feel like crap the test of the day. Maybe I've just trained my body to expect the protein buzz after a 3+ hour ride

[cougjunkie]

I don't take any protein shakes, aminos or any other supps and I am confident I can throw around more weight than anyone on this board. So yeah P-lag is right.

[YOhio]

I don't take any protein shakes, aminos or any other supps and I am confident I can throw around more weight than anyone on this board. So yeah P-lag is right.

Fat boy strength is real.

[cougjunkie]

Fat boy strength is real.

so is super secret inside info on group me.

[pelagius]

P, does this mean no more worrying about protein shake or something similar before bed, as well?

I don't know. I've never really looked at the evidence for or against that. I do agree with you that these overall results should make you more skeptical of the effectiveness of before bed protein because these results are most consistent with the "total protein intake matters" not timing. If I see a good meta-study of that issue I will do a write-up.

One thing to keep in mind is that the literature or articles that people tend to cite on fitness sites to support these kind of things often have really poor experimental design. In fact, I think average experimental design in this literature is generally poor.

[pelagius]

Interesting. I had the same question as DDD. Also wondering what the current recommendation is for daily protein intake. Last I read it was .8-1.5 g/kg body weight.

Well, these studies do support the idea that boosting total protein intake generally increases muscle hypertrophy (probably by elevating protein synthesis throughout the day). That said, I think there is evidence that 1.8g/kg is the upper limit of what might be beneficial.

[pelagius]

Interesting. I had the same question as DDD. Also wondering what the current recommendation is for daily protein intake. Last I read it was .8-1.5 g/kg body weight.

Here is a reasonable little summary article:

http://bayesianbodybuilding.com/the-...-bodybuilders/