Anabolic window post work out

[myosin]

One thing I often ask first after any "health" question is, "What are your specific goals?"

 

[1bigun11]

The term anabolic “window” seems to imply that it “opens” for an hour or so for anabolism and growth after your workout, then closes shut and if you didn’t take advantage of that window while it was open you are fucked.

I understand that it “feels good” to eat while you still have a pump. And if that’s what they mean by the term “anabolic window” I guess okay….?

 

[Kluso]

The research points to eating a high protein meal that has a good amount of Luecine to turn on protein synthesis. Eating a high amount of protein at any time will turn on protein synthesis. But within an hour postworkout has shown better results. However I don’t believe these studies take into account total protein intake per the whole day. It’s only proving that if you are eating one protein meal it should be within an hour postworkout, really. Regardless, I still drink a whey protein shake postworkout with some carbs to replenish glycogen stores before I go to work. I agree with @beefnewton and @1bigun11 it’s more about total protein per day than when you eat it postworkout, as being the more important factor. 1gm per lb of *lean mass* per day at min.

To the OP, agree that doing cardio after your workout could have been a factor. Are you doing the cardio to lose bodyfat or for heart health? If you are trying to add size which is what it sounds like I would either skip the cardio all together or do 10-15min of HIT cardio postworkout. It’s the best cardio for heart health. Caveat being you are drinking an intra workout drink consisting of aminos, carbs and salt. Sipping between sets. And finishing before cardio. I really like Field Rations by 1stDetachment Nutrition.

Or do your cardio on non workout days. Or if you workout in morning do cardio in evening or vise versa. Being new to lifting you will get a recomping affect just from lifting and no cardio. Now, if you’re more than 30lbs overweight you should get rid of that bodyfat first. Eat in a deficit, keep protien high and eat your limited carb meals around your workout. You still want to lift weights to build muscle but the cardio timing won’t be as important and you want to do more steady state cardio. Although diet is the most important.

 

[Kluso]

One thing I often ask first after any "health" question is, "What are your specific goals?"

Bingo!

 

[Glycomann]

Right now my goals might be to run away and live in the woods.

 

[myosin]

Right now my goals might be to run away and live in the woods.

AMEN!

 

[tommyguns2]

Agree as far as total number... Poliquin was really big on getting whey in asap after exercise largely I believe to get the leucine in to "turn on" mTOR

Poliquin, perhaps the most arrogant human being I ever met. Not saying I don't agree with him on many things, but he just oozed hubris. A true a-hole of a human being when he was alive.

If everything else in your diet is perfect, and you're trying to tweak that last little bit of improved performance and gain, I think there can be something about doing a little "more" in the post workout anabolic window. But I've got so much else to fix in my diet before the anabolic window is going to be much of an effect.

 

[MR. BMJ]

I look at the whole day's intake more than anything. That 0.001% added benefit (if any) will not really help the 99.999% of the people who are not dialed in. A lot of the studies that support leucine/EEA/BCAA's also did not report whole day intake of protein. It seems to help those more who have lower protein intakes, whereas those who have adequate intakes of protein did not benefit much from it.

A lot of this started with John Meadows. I loved John, but he also did his fair share of exaggerating when it came to this topic. He got hammered over at Intense Muscle for it, as he was acting like a shill for the product he was pushing over at T-net that he was getting for free. He was pushing their product that had hydrolyzed caseinate (PeptoPro) in it, while also saying nothing else was comparable, including EEA's. After he had his falling out, he had Dante (and eventually his own company, who he got his raws from Dante) replace the hydrolyzed caseinate with EAA's, and then he was praising it was just as good. It's over on ProM. John also had to cut weight and muscle to slim down to make his competitions, which meant he had to lower also his protein (and calories) intake to move his weight down. He used EAA's around training to compensate for it. If he did not have to cut so much weight (muscle as well), he would have been fine and got better results using more protein. He also had digestive issues as he had part of his colon removed. This is 100% not a knock on John, I loved that guy, he was the best to watch YT vids and interviews with, and he was as good of a human being as you could ever meet. I did not agree with his stance on this issue though, and how he moved the goal fence.

Here is a good paper on the topic:

https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/31/3/article-p292.xml?fbclid=IwAR3Xxx5sfmcSLN9WpTG4FTH1pNhmyOYN5z9K7c4ns5Eq4XX9Kw2yiFm8Ooc

Practical Implications​

Given the current evidence, the majority of the literature fails to support BCAA supplements as ergogenic aids in the context of strength and hypertrophy. Importantly, longitudinal studies largely fail to support the efficacy of BCAA supplementation provided sufficient daily protein is ingested. However, given preliminary evidence, more research is needed on the topic in older individuals. Leucine, in particular, may be efficacious in helping older individuals reach leucine threshold levels. The greater need for leucine and lower propensity for adequate calorie intake (Giezenaar et al., 2016) in this population raises the possibility that supplementing with leucine may be warranted in cases where it is not possible to consume sufficient high-quality daily protein, particularly in cases where higher per meal protein needs cannot be met. Provided that total protein intake requirements are met, there are no apparent benefits from consuming additional BCAA as building muscle requires a full complement of EAA. Therefore, individuals seeking to optimize strength-related performance and body composition should focus on ensuring that they consume adequate daily protein (≥1.6 g·kg−1·day−1) replete in all nine EAA (Morton et al., 2017). Consuming high-protein meals that contain all EAA will maximally stimulate MPS. Thus, the ingestion of additional BCAA through supplementation would be superfluous for anabolism. Individuals should also be aware that BCAA yield an average of 4.65 kcal/g (May & Hill, 1990); thus, adding them to every serving of drinking water comes with additional calories, albeit arguably negligible. Perhaps more importantly, there is a clear and seemingly unnecessary monetary cost of the supplement.

In conclusion, the proposed benefits of BCAA used in the marketing of supplements appear to be at odds with the overall state of the current literature, which does not support the efficacy of supplementation on muscle strength and hypertrophy. Further research is warranted in older individuals to determine whether BCAA supplementation may confer specific benefits in this population.

IMO, if you can't get down protein around workouts (pre and post), but can suck down EAA's as an alternative, then go for it.

I see some guys who add them in on top of the calories they were taking, which adds some protein and calories......yep, adding extra calories from what you were eating prior, will tend to have one gain weight. If you are eating 2200kcal and add in 2-500kcal of an intra shake on top of that.....that 2-500 calories will make a difference.

That all being said, if you do well with them, keep doing what is working.

 

[uniquetouch]

I’m 5 months post distal bicep tendon reattachment surgery so unfortunately I can’t work out like I want but just getting back into it again. I go 5 times a week now. Cardio for 20-30 mins walking 4.5mph at 15 deg incline after working out. Once I get home I’ve been eating a whole can of tuna with very little mayo bc I hate it but need something with it and 2 scoops of Costco whey protein which is another 50 grams of protein. With that and the tuna it’s 92 grams of protein. My diet the last two weeks has been 5 egg whites and 30 gram protein premix drink apple between 10-12pm while I’m working. Some almonds too. Then gym around 4pm and then around 7pm I eat about 2-3 cups of steamed broccoli and 1 chicken breast. Around 830pm I drink a cup of bone broth. I feel good and have been dropping some fat finally and clothes fitting better. On none working days I eat everything the same except I go to the gym around 11am-1pm and have that extra meal of tuna and protein drink for lunch. Do you guys recommend anything else?

 

[tommyguns2]

If that diet is working for you, I don't see any reason to change things. But 92 grams of protein post workout seems like quite a bit. Not saying it hurts, but I question how much protein your body is able to utilize, especially without using AAS. My guess is some of that protein is ending up in the toilet bowl. Again, not a problem, but may be a bit overkill.

 

[beefnewton]

Don't any of you care about the environment?

Eating Too Much Protein Makes Pee a Problem Pollutant in the U.S.

Protein-packed diets add excess nitrogen to the environment through urine, rivaling pollution from agricultural fertilizers

www.scientificamerican.com

 

[uniquetouch]

The reason I was doing the 92 was just to try and get 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight in each day. So it would be better to spread that out? Sounds like a good idea especially if I drink it when I start getting hungry again before bed