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Why Is Protein Distribution So Important?
The Muscle PhD
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Why Is Protein Distribution So Important?
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Does the Protein Window of Opportunity Exist?
Can Essential Amino Acids Help You Burn Fat?
What Should Your Macros be in Order to Grow?
What Should my Macros be to get Shredded?
How to Prevent Fat Gain Post Contest
Should You Carbohydrate Cycle?
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Fernando de la Espriella
Nutrition
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Does the Protein Window of Opportunity Exist?
Can Essential Amino Acids Help You Burn Fat?
What Should Your Macros be in Order to Grow?
What Should my Macros be to get Shredded?
How to Prevent Fat Gain Post Contest
Should You Carbohydrate Cycle?
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![Does the Protein Window of Opportunity Exist?](https://img.youtube.com/vi/pkG0wnEruTw<p>You’ve probably heard of someone claiming that they never take pre-workout before going into the weight room. Maybe they claim that their pre-workout drink is their morning coffee, and that’s what gets them going. That someone might even be you! If so, we congratulate you on your mental fortitude. However, studies show that you’re actually not maximizing your gains, especially if you train in a fasted state!</p>
<p>Right now, the big trend is that everything that matters in your bodybuilding lifestyle is your calorie balance and your total protein intake, throwing nutrient timing out of the window. If you’ve been wondering whether you should take your protein before or after a workout, then this article was made for you!</p>
<p>First things first, is there really a protein window? Does your body react better or worse to protein depending on the time of day? And if so, how does it know?</p>
<h3>Studies Don’t Lie</h3>
<p>Previous <a href="https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00333.2003" target="_blank" rel="noopener">studies</a> have shown that when training in a fasted state, your protein synthesis does go up, however your protein breakdown rate actually exceeds your protein synthesis. What does that mean? In essence, you’re not gaining muscle, since you’re in a negative balance. In fact, you could be losing muscle. <a href="https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/en/publications/resistance-exercise-enhances-myofibrillar-protein-synthesis-with-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Studies</a> have also shown that when you lift weights, your body's machinery that drives growth actually becomes more sensitive to protein, being able to respond better when introduced to it. During this particular study, they found that when rested, individuals who took up to 20g of proteins had their protein synthesis increase, however, there was no difference in protein synthesis when the subjects consumed 40g.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean you should only eat 20g of protein a day! Because once they took the same individuals, had them perform resistance training and then consume 20 or 40g of protein, their protein synthesis saw an <a href="https://research.birmingham.ac.uk/en/publications/resistance-exercise-enhances-myofibrillar-protein-synthesis-with-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increase between 20 and 40g</a>. That’s because your muscles become more sensitive, and more of your protein intake can contribute to muscle growth! So, exercising actually extends your protein synthesis window!</p>
<p>However, your next question would probably be…</p>
<h3>How Long Till the Window Closes?</h3>
<p><a href="https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpregu.00636.2007" target="_blank" style="font-family: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-family ), Sans-serif; font-weight: var( --e-global-typography-text-font-weight ); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" rel="noopener">Research</a> has shown that when individuals are not trained at all, their protein synthesis can last anywhere between 30 to 72 hours. That’s one reason why, during your early bodybuilding stages, you found it so easy to grow! However, <a href="https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpregu.00636.2007" target="_blank" rel="noopener">studies </a>suggest that trained individuals’ protein synthesis rates go back down to baseline after only 12 hours, and only last anywhere from 4-8 hours after they workout.</p>
<p>However, in our “How do you Read Research Studies?” video, we explained how sometimes studies can be a bit out of touch with the bodybuilding industry. Because once you take a look at who researchers consider as “trained”, you’d find that they’ve only been training for 12-16 weeks. Even people who’ve been lifting weights for a few months wouldn’t be considered trained in the bodybuilding world.</p>
<p>So, if you’re an advanced bodybuilder, probably training for years or even over a decade, that means you might not even be stimulating protein synthesis at an elevated rate for more than 4 hours after you train.</p>
<h3>When Should You Take Your Protein?</h3>
<p>Assuming you’re adequately trained, are there studies that support protein having a timing effect? Definitely. <a href="https://journals.lww.com/co-clinicalnutrition/Abstract/2008/01000/Effect_of_whey_protein_isolate_on_strength,_body.9.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Studies</a> that looked at muscle and fat mass compared taking protein before or after your workout, versus delaying it to early in the morning or later in the day. They showed that bodybuilders who took protein before and after their workouts made way more gains in muscle, and lost more fat while getting stronger.</p>
<p>However, a similar <a href="https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/19/2/article-p172.xml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study </a>was conducted without a high quality protein (collagen, in this case), and it showed that the athletes did not make any different gains than usual. So it’s important to take into account having a quality protein before and after your workouts in order to grow.</p>
<h3>Age</h3>
<p>If your 20s are behind you then we recommend that you absolutely time your protein intake! Studies show that as you get older, and you don’t have any protein after your workouts, you’ll probably not grow at all. The older you get, the more timing becomes important. If you’re a master bodybuilder that’s been training for a long time, you should listen to your body and time your proteins.</p>
<h3>Our Recommendations</h3>
<p>We recommend having a preworkout with an immediate or fast digesting protein source, and after training you should take advantage of that protein synthesis window by taking your quality proteins. We hope this article helped alleviate your concerns on protein timing! We’ll see you next time you have any questions.</p>/0.jpg "Does the Protein Window of Opportunity Exist?")
, are just what your body needs to get started on your goals.</p><h3>What Are Essential Amino Acids?</h3><p>Despite what a lot of people will go the distance to tell you, macronutrients aren’t everything. If you’re trying to lose weight, the quality of your protein plays a major role. Your body needs certain kinds of high quality protein in order to deliver essential amino acids to your body, whether that be through diet, or supplements. While we typically get 20 amino acids from our daily diet, 9 of these acids can’t be produced internally, these are referred to as “Essential Amino Acids.”</p><p>One measure of assessing protein quality is how well a protein source can deliver essential amino acids to your body. Any protein source that cannot deliver all of the EAAs is considered an “incomplete protein.” Conversely, complete proteins are proteins that contain all the essential amino acids. This includes: Meat, Eggs, Dairy Products.</p><p>Now that we’ve got a firm foundation, how does that actually help you burn fat?</p><h3>Protein Synthesis</h3><p>While you might know that your diet plays an integral part in your muscle gain and fat loss, you may not know just how much influence your diet can have on your training. If your diet is low on EAAs, no matter how hard you workout or how long you spend at the gym, you’re going to lose muscle. Essential amino acids heavily influence your body composition, as they are the amino acids responsible for triggering protein synthesis, or short term muscle building.</p><p>Short term muscle building is an energetically demanding process that forces your body to drain energy in a cell. Simply, because your body needs so much energy to build your muscle, you actually end up burning more calories at rest while recovering from hard workouts. Not only does this help with fat loss by itself, but it can also increase the mitochondria in your cells, thus enhancing fat burning even more.</p><h3>Not All Proteins Are Created Equal </h3><p>Complete proteins can make or break your diet. Complete proteins are proteins that give all the essential amino acids, such as: Meat, Eggs, and Dairy Products. On the other hand, incomplete proteins cannot deliver all the essential amino acids, such as: Beans, Legumes, Tofu, Soy, or Vegetables. These incomplete proteins are lacking in one or more of the essential amino acids. Except for soy, it actually has all the essential amino acids, but is low on a lot of them.</p><h3>The Better Essential Amino Acid for Protein Synthesis </h3><p>We’ve mentioned that our body needs 9 essential amino acids that it can’t produce on its own, however, which one should you focus on while building muscle? Leucine is considered a quality amino acid, and can aid in protein synthesis. In fact, we often consider leucine to be the “key” to triggering protein synthesis. You’ll need about 2-3 grams of leucine to maximize protein synthesis.</p><p>Here’s a guideline for when you’re looking for leucine:</p>/0.jpg "Can Essential Amino Acids Help You Burn Fat?")
![What Should my Macros be to get Shredded?](https://img.youtube.com/vi/oJizAFs6vtc<p>So you’re ready to get shredded, perhaps you’re looking to get into a contest and are wondering what your macro split should be in order to look your best on stage. You might’ve heard that your bodybuilding lifestyle is essentially 70% dieting, 20% resting and only 10% exercising, and you’re hoping to customize your macros to help you get the best shred of your life.</p>
<p>Yet, you’ve probably also looked at a lot of these online diets and guides that aren’t really personalized to your body, or they don’t help you build a strong foundation - not to mention that they’re all over the place. Well, after you’re done with this article, you’ll know the key components to your macronutrients and how you can steer them towards helping you get shredded.</p>
<h3>Protect at All Cost</h3>
<p>There are two things you need to protect during your shredding process. Obviously, you’re looking to protect your <a href="https://themusclephd.com/a-brief-guide-to-cutting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hard earned muscle</a>. You wouldn’t want to accidentally chisel away a huge chunk by mistake while sculpting your body. And second of all, and perhaps the most important, you’re looking to protect your metabolism at all costs.</p>
<p>A lot of people follow these online diets, or they follow their local gym coach’s advice about reducing their calories while shredding, or that the only thing that matters is your calories. We find this to be completely false.</p>
<h3>Macronutrients</h3>
<p>Do macronutrients play an integral role in doing all of the above? Absolutely. <a href="https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/112990/1/Energy%20Balance%20Body%20Composition%20and%20Appetite%20Regulation.%20Pathways%20to%20Obesity_Symplectic%20Elements%20.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Numerous studies</a> have shown that caloric restrictions aren’t the deciding factor when it comes to burning fat. Weight loss is a slightly different story, but losing fat while gaining muscle? Now we have to get into the <a href="https://themusclephd.com/calories-and-energy-balance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nitty gritty</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/133/2/411/4687883" target="_blank" rel="noopener">studies </a>have shown that when the ratio of protein to carbohydrates is higher, as in you upped your protein relative to your carbs, then you lose a higher percentage of fat as well as maintaining muscle at a higher degree. This shows that despite common belief, carbohydrates are actually what you should be manipulating along with lowering your calories!</p>
<p>We recommend starting by lowering your carbs on a cut, perhaps by doing a <a href="https://themusclephd.com/carb-cycling/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">carb cycle</a>, and seeing the difference it makes. If you’re looking to lower your carbs in a cyclic fashion, say for example your daily intake is at 300. While leaving your protein and fats intact, lower your intake by a maximum of 100g of carbs, then 50g, then have a high carb day.</p>
<p>We recommend for example:</p>
<p>Two low days (200g of carbs each), during your next day take 250g of carbs, and the next day you take 300g, and finally go back to 200. Eventually though, that’s going to stop working because you’ll need to lower your carbohydrates a lot more.</p>
<h3>Ketogenic Diet</h3>
<p>Here’s the exciting thing though… If you find yourself at a point where you’re lowering your carbs so much that you’re starting to feel that brain fog all the time, you might actually consider going on a <a href="https://themusclephd.com/videos/what-is-a-ketogenic-diet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ketogenic diet</a>! A lot of athletes look at the ketosis state as the end-all-be-all state of burning fat, since you’ll be guiding your body to use its fat as a fuel source.</p>
<h3>Protein Quality</h3>
<p>During your cut, you should always focus on the ratio of your protein relative to your body weight. That’s the key to customizing your diet to your own body. At minimum, we recommend that you never let your protein intake fall below 1g of protein/lb of body weight. This is to protect your muscles at all cost.</p>
<p>Say, however, that your carbs are at rock bottom and you’ve made sure that you have optimal fat intake, but you’re starting to notice a little bit of muscle loss. This would probably be a good time to take a look at the <a href="https://themusclephd.com/plant-vs-animal-protein/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quality of your protein</a>. In order to optimize your protein intake, we recommend branched amino acids. <a href="https://themusclephd.com/bcaas-pump-or-dump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Branched-Chain Amino Acids</a> are different because they’re difficult to break down in your liver, meaning that it’s possible to get 100% of the benefit to reach the muscle! And your body considers BCAAs as a quality protein, all the better for your cut. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0026049505003471" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Studies</a> have shown that when you overreach during an exercise, having high amounts of branched amino acids can protect you from developing overtraining.</p>
<h3>Feeling Full?</h3>
<p>If you have that guilty pang in your consciousness when you’re actually NOT feeling hungry during your day, stop that. You should always feel satiated before your workouts, and it’s not all about how many calories you consume either. In fact, the quality of your macronutrients when dieting matters, and it matters a lot. You could be consuming fiber rich meals in your diet - that would help keep you fuller for more. Keep in mind that the bulk of your meals also helps a ton to stay satiated.</p>
<p>Say, for example, that you’ve just got your whey protein shake and you eat some Pop Tarts before going to the weight room. You’re probably gonna get hungry extremely quickly. However, if you sat for lunch and had a huge bowl of salad, steak, and broccoli, even if on paper you’ve consumed the same amount of calories, you’ll be far more satiated.</p>
<p>We hope you’re able to customize your macronutrients in order to start cutting and get shredded the correct way! We’ll see you next time you have any questions.</p>/0.jpg "What Should my Macros be to get Shredded?")
