From what I understand, you get the most muscle-building benefits if you eat within 30 minutes or so of working out. If you eat multiple times a day or OMAD, I'd imagine it doesn't really matter too much.
But what about if you're on a fasting program, like 48/72 hour fasts? If you workout in the middle of a fast, sure you'll probably maintain muscle, but is it impossible to gain?
On a related note, I know that when you eat carbs/fat, any excess is stored as fat for later use. What about protein? If I eat 3 days worth of protein and then do a 3-day fast, does my body really get enough protein over the 3 days, or does the window basically close after the first several hours when my body is done digesting?
Sorry if this is an overly autistic question Jow Forums.
Thanks for the replies. To give a possibly trivial example, let's say you workout every day in the morning, and eat OMAD in the evening (with adequate protein, good macros etc). Surely you'd still be able to build muscle like that, right? What I'm getting at is, even though that 30 minute window may be the IDEAL time to get your protein in, how far can you drift away from that and still have gains?
And again, really the only reason I'm concerned about this is because I'm on a fasting program where I usually do 48s/72s.
I looked up that window: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_window I know it's just Wikipedia but it appears there's not a scientific consensus. "Currently there is not sufficient scientific evidence to support the metabolic window theory."
Working out puts your muscles into anabolic mode for up to 72 hours if you're DYEL, 24-48 intermediate, and >24 hours if advanced lifter. You need protein for muscle to be built, an absolute fact, if you don't eat all within the window you won't gain any muscle. In my experience it does help maintain more than not lifting at all during longer fast. Depends on your routine, but I do fullbody so lately I've been doing 72's, eating and if I feel good lift. If I still feel weak I wait till the next day to lift so I can still get some of that anabolic window in with food in my system. Doing this I've still been able to slightly add progressive overload to my lifts but slower. Snake man does 36~ hour fast and works out everyday
I forget where I heard it also, but it's shown that eating within 4-6 hours after lifting is sufficient for the anabolic window maximum effect, it doesn't need to be 30
Oliver Young
>anabolic window
Jackson Myers
don't eat milk and meat together, jews were right on this one
Brayden Long
Thanks again. It definitely seems like gains and fasting are counterintuitive, and it's probably folly to do both lifting and fasting and expect to gain anything. Unless one is DYEL and/or obese.
Since I like to workout MWF, I'm thinking of doing 3 meals a week also on MWF, right after my lifts. That way every week I'd be doing two 48s and a 72, yet still getting the max benefit from lifting.
Is this a meme? If I ate a bunch of eggs before working out I would definitely throw up.
Jayden Miller
True, but recent evidence shows that If you are doing IF it is a good idea to get your protein within about 1 hour after your workout.
Kayden Watson
why
Anthony Roberts
Why would it be more important when doing IF than other eating frequencies?
Christopher Price
>he fell for the anabolic window meme
Josiah Clark
Iron absorption is halved by high calcium levels in food according this study from '92. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1600930/ Though, I'm sure this isn't an actual problem for Jow Forumsizens who eat a lot of meat. Hitting the RDA even when you're consuming dairy isn't hard. Also note that for this to happen there needs to be a lot of calcium as there's a threshold effect.
Eli Hill
Then there's shit like this that suggest calcium has nothing to do with it and you'll be fine long-term as the inhibition is only temporary and your body adapts to the increased calcium intake. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21462112 Anyway, there's no need to worry. Do with this information what you will.
John Powell
I mean, technically the anabolic window does exist. If we just stretch it far enough. If we stretch the duration of the anabolic window from say 1-2 hours (or whatever people currently think it is) to like 1 week. Then there's no denying that if protein is not consumed within the anabolic window that muscle repair will occur. Thus proving there is a window, or in this time frame more like an open border.
Hudson Turner
I have been doing OMAD for my entire lifting career and i am proud of my gains. However i am definitely not as strong or big as i could be. But my small appetite just doesn't allow for much change.
You need simple carbs post workout, protein as long as it's close enough to the workout doesn't matter. But carbs, you need carbs.
William Edwards
Genuinely curious, what is the physiological reason for that?
Eli Ross
Replenishing glycogen. If you don't get those carbs and just drink a shake, glycogen will be synthesized from protein, which could've gone towards rebuilding muscle. Just eat a banana.
Caleb Rodriguez
>From what I understand, you get the most muscle-building benefits if you eat within 30 minutes or so of working out. I want you to go google how long it takes for food to get digested. Then look at yourself in the mirror and question your intelligence.
Retarded bro science.
Jeremiah Hall
You shouldn't workout on a fast unless you're just starting your fast. Working out tears your muscle fibers and they don't grow back unless you're properly nourished. You'll make negative progress if you tear your fibres down and don't have any food in your body to replenish them. You should schedule your fasts so they don't coincide with your workouts, maybe workout fewer times per week but include more in each workout so you have a few extra days free to fast.
t. Broscientist who barely knows what he's talking about.
Asher Scott
Um, but you 100% don't need to use glycogen for energy.
Owen Lewis
Nothing you eat today has any impact on any of your lifts on that same day. It takes 6 to 10 hours for food to be absorbed into the body.
What you ate yesterday is important to your lifts today.
The only thing important to your lifts on the day you lift is water. And semen in your case OP.
Adam Foster
based pic
Jaxson Hernandez
Completely fucking false. You need to workout, tear fibers, and signal your body to build them up larger than before (hypertrophy). In order for this to happen you need to be digesting protein at the time which your body is building new larger muscle. Whatever protein you ate the day before does not fucking matter at all, post body.
k user, please look up the research on HGH release after a workout. To hormonemaxx stave off food for about half an hour after your workout, but not much more.
Luis Flores
how so?
Josiah Cook
because you don't eat a bunch eggs before a workout , just a light meal , do you want the blood in your muscles on in your intestines ?
Jace Roberts
Biochem student here
I know a lot of people are looking for what's optimal and basically want to min/max their diet and training, but there isn't really a clear consensus on what that optimization looks like. It's also likely to differ from person to person based on their individual goals, habits, and physiology.
Here's a quick, basic rundown of the important information, take what conclusions you want from it: >proteins from food are broken down into constituent amino acids and peptides >these are what are absorbed by your small intestine and transported in your blood stream >all cells, not just muscle cells, utilize these amino acids for protein synthesis >Hormones, neurotransmitters, connective tissue, are all made through protein synthesis >Cells will pull the amino acids they need out of the reserves in the blood >These reserves usually only become seriously depleted in cases of malnutrition >Having elevated amino acid concentration in the blood allows for quicker, more efficient transport of amino acids into cells >Keeping concentration high will optimize protein synthesis, but levels are unlikely to fluctuate greatly on a day to day basis if a high protein diet is maintained
Based, thanks for the info. So if you eat 3 days worth of protein, do you think your reserves / blood concentration of AAs will be high enough for a subsequent 3 day fast, allowing you to still build muscle after lifting during the fast? Obviously, not as ideal as eating right after you lift, but still.
Henry Russell
Brotons ni kimatteru aho
Hudson Myers
And don't activate almonds, nuts are anti nutrients.
Nolan Jones
NOT THE WHITES WITH THE CONSISTENCY OF SPERM, faggot! Only the yolks.
Blake Taylor
Nah. Raw carnivore is the way.
Logan Fisher
Good fellow.
Elijah Adams
A 3 day fast seems like a long time to me. The thing you want to keep in mind is that metabolism basically takes the path of least resistance. As your blood glucose levels are depleted, your body will switch to using ketones, but eventually your blood triglyceride levels will start to dip as well. Now, body fat is stored energy and a source of triglycerides, but if you also have relatively high amino acid levels, your cells will start to ferment those amino acids.
Nicholas Gonzalez
"The Most" is like a variance of less than a whole percentage point. Don't nother with muh """optimization""" and just focus on eating clean, eating well, and lifting hard.
Isaac White
I do understand, it's not so much about "optimization" but more about feasibility. Some people out there would say that after the "window" is closed it's impossible to build muscle. Obviously I dont subscribe to that, but as points out there is SOME window if you take the example to its extreme. The ideal seems to be within 30 minutes, but how far does it stretch out before any gains are negligible?
If you're eating OMAD or more frequently then yeah I don't really think it matters. It's the more extended fasts that I'm really curious about in this case.
Jordan Carter
This. Protein before the workout, carbs afterwards.
Mason Miller
Doing any serious lifting fasted makes me feel like death. So I think your broscience intuitions are probably correct.
