How Long After Exercise Should You Eat Protein?
Q: How long after exercise should you eat protein? I’m thinking of lifting again for the first time since high school almost 30 years ago and I fondly remember reading in bodybuilding magazines back then that you have to eat protein as soon as you’re done working out. Is that right? Speaking of old magazines, my father recently passed away and while at his house sorting out his belongings, I stumbled upon his old collection. There were stacks and stacks of smut. I’m talking about copies of Penthouse, Score, Hustler, Barely Legal, Oui, and other adult magazines. Man, that guy was truly some kinda pervert!
A: Your memory doesn’t deceive you. Right alongside the pics of mulleted bodybuilders working out in crop tops and spandex tights or Zubaz training pants within the pages of magazines like Flex and Ironman in the 1980s and 1990s was also the basic training advice that you should eat protein immediately after a workout, which was rooted in the concept of the anabolic window.
Nutrient timing is a strategy that involves eating certain foods at specific times to promote recovery and enhance the effects of exercise so you’re better able to improve performance, change body composition, and increase strength. Classed under that approach is the idea of the “anabolic window”, which refers to a brief period when the body is more receptive to protein than any other time. That time is said to be at least 30 minutes following a workout. Within that timeframe, it’s best to consume protein for maximum growth and recovery while eating further and further outside of that span isn’t as beneficial.
Given what happens to the body during exercise, there is some scientific basis for the anabolic window. See, when you work out, muscles experience damage in response to the stress placed on them.1That’s particularly the case with weightlifting but it also happens to a lesser extent with other activities. In turn, the body stimulates the process of muscle protein synthesis to prevent the continued breakdown of muscle tissue. It’s during this time that the body needs the amino acids from protein to repair and rebuild muscle. Based on this need, it’s imperative that the body is provided with the materials that are necessary for adaptations to occur. Under the construct of the anabolic window, that time is right when training is over, not anytime later. The research says otherwise, however.
The anabolic window suggests that you’re physiologically primed to make the most use of protein in the subsequent moments following exercise and consuming protein beyond then doesn’t do as much good. That appears to be the furthest thing from the truth, as countless studies comparing the intake of protein at different times have found that people have similar results regardless of when they consume protein, may that be immediately after working out or sometime later. The lack of any significant change in things like body composition and strength between disparate protein schedules is because muscle protein synthesis doesn’t in fact reach its height for a momentary period post-exercise but is instead elevated for up to 24 hours afterwards, with the prime time possibly being no more than 4 or 5 hours upon termination of a workout.
Rather than the period being as narrow as the anabolic window contends for when you can optimize gains, it appears to be broad. Thus, the protein timeframe is less of a window and more like a wide open barn door. So basically, you can eat protein after your workout whenever you want.
Eating protein immediately after working out isn’t critical. What is of importance is eating protein at some point later. That said that protein timing doesn’t matter, there is an exception. When you should eat protein immediately after working out is when training fasted because with the absence of recent food intake, fewer amino acids are in circulation to support muscle protein synthesis, which isn’t the case when training in a fed state.2It’s not necessary but it may also be beneficial to eat as soon as possible after exercise if working out for a long period, engaging in very intense activity, doing twice-a-day workouts, or want to stabilize your blood sugar and energy levels. Another circumstance is when you’re trying to gain weight, as prolonging when you eat may lessen your number of feeding opportunities and make it more difficult to consume all the calories you need to eat in a day.
That information now given, allow me a moment to express my condolences for the loss of your father. Based on the fine literature he was a frequent reader of, it sounds like your pops had quite the exquisite taste. As such, society truly has lost a great man of culture with his passing. May he rest in peace.
Now, does anyone else have a fitness or nutrition question of their own that they want to ask?
Glossary: amino acid, bodybuilder, bodybuilding, calories, exercise, fitness, food, muscle, nutrition, results, train, work out, workout
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