What’s up guys?
Sean Nalewanyj, SeanNal.com, BodyTransformationTruth.com.
And in this video we’re talking about protein timing.
So, in other words, does it really matter how you specifically space your protein intake
out during the day, whether it’s a larger amount of protein in fewer meals or a smaller
amount of protein over a larger number of meals?
Does protein timing matter when it comes to building muscle?
And is it something that you really need to be worrying about?
Now, the simple overall answer for most people who are watching this is not really.
But it does ultimately come down to the individual, and it does depend on your specific goals
and then just how serious you are about squeezing out the absolute maximum percentage of your
hypertrophy potential in the shortest period of time.
So, let me explain what I mean by that.
The data on the subject is pretty mixed.
I’ll link some resources in the description box below if that interests you.
But technically speaking, someone who spaces their protein intake out into more frequent
feedings, so let’s say four to five individual doses of protein, that person should theoretically
build muscle slightly more effectively than someone who is condensing all of their daily
protein down into a smaller number of feeding.
So, let’s say two to three larger meals.
Just in the same way that there is a limit on how high protein synthesis can be elevated
over a given week or a given day, there’s also a limit on how much it can be elevated
by after a single meal.
So, eating 120 grams of protein in two servings of 60 grams, that isn’t going to elevate
protein synthesis to quite the same degree as eating those same 120 grams of protein
in, say, four servings of 30 grams.
However, and this is a big however, even though spacing your protein out more evenly over
a larger number of feedings is technically superior.
The difference will probably still be very minor in the overall picture as long as the
total amount of protein for the day as a whole remains the same.
I can’t put an exact number on it because there’s no absolute answer here.
But if six meals a day gave you a 100 percent of your possible potential muscle growth,
maybe four feedings would still give you, you know, 97 percent and two feedings would
still give you 94 percent.
I'm just throwing numbers around here to make my point.
I don’t know what the actual numbers would be.
But in any case the difference is probably small enough to where, for the average trainee,
worrying about protein timing is likely just going to cause you additional unnecessary
stress and it’s going to make your diet more complicated than it needs to be without
really giving you anything significant in return.
Structuring your program with the goal of maximizing long-term dietary adherence is
very important like I’ve talked about many times before.
And if you really enjoy eating just two to three times a day rather than five to six
times a day and if you find frequent meals to be a big inconvenience then even if eating
more frequently did help you squeeze out a few percent of extra results, you’ll probably
be worse off in the long term regardless because you’ll have a much greater chance of getting
burned out and maybe even quitting.
Not to mention that your overall life will just be less enjoyable in general.
So, my overall recommendation on protein timing would be this; if you are an advanced trainee
who is trying to fully maximize your genetic potential, so maybe you compete, maybe you
make a living from your physique or maybe you’re just really passionate about bodybuilding
and it’s your main life focus, then protein timing is something you can optimize for by
spacing your intake out more evenly over somewhere between four to six meals.
If the possible inconvenience of doing that is worth it to you and you’re aware that
it’s likely only going to give you a small extra boost at best.
For example, if you can identify say three different areas of your program that could
each improve your results by 3 percent each, then go ahead and do all of those things.
And maybe it will add up to 10 percent improvement in your results in the overall picture which
in that situation would be worth it.
Now, for everyone else who doesn’t fit that description, so maybe you’re still a beginner
just trying to get the fundamentals down or it’s just not worth it to you to potentially
increase your gains by a few percent by rearranging your whole daily meal structure, in that case,
and again, this probably describes the majority of people watching this including myself,
just focus on hitting your overall protein needs for the day as a whole spaced into at
least two meals.
And if muscle growth is your primary goal then I would say to aim for three meals a
day ideally.
Two will still be effective.
There are plenty of people out there who build, you know, great physics using intermittent
fasting for example.
But if muscle growth is your primary aim and you can get in three-protein feedings, then
I would say to go ahead and do that.
And of course, if you just prefer having four or more protein feedings per day then that’s
the ideal situation and you can just continue.
And then lastly in terms of protein timing when it comes to pre and post workout nutrition,
again, not something I would overly stressed out about the importance of highly specific
pre and post-workout nutrient timing has been way overblown in the past.
And I’ll link a good meta-analysis that was done on this by Alan Aragon and Brad Schoenfeld
in the description box below if you want to check that out.
But all I would say on this is to just try to get in a basic serving of protein within
a couple hours of your workout ideally, followed by another serving within a couple hours of
finishing your work out.
Waiting a little bit longer is fine.
But just generally try to bracket your workout with some protein before and some protein
after.
It doesn’t matter what type.
It can be in solid or liquid form.
And this is something that the majority of people will just naturally do anyway without
really thinking about it based on hunger alone.
So again, it’s not something that I would get too worked up about.
But the bottom line here is that total protein intake for the day as a whole is far more
important than your specific protein timing.
And unless you’re an advanced trainee trying to gain every ounce of muscle possible, it’s
not something that I would worry about beyond just spacing it into two or three individual
feedings and then on workout days, having those feedings within reasonable proximity
to your training session.
So, thanks for watching guys.
If you found this advice helpful, and you want to get all the tools you need to gain
muscle and lose fat effectively, the workouts, the meal plans, the supplement guides along
with one-on-one coaching then you can download my body transformation blueprint by clicking
here or by heading over to BodyTransformationTruth.com using the link in the description box.
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You can also check out my official blog over at SeanNal.com for all of my latest updates.
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The links for that are also in the description box.
Thanks again for watching guys and I will see you in the next video.