Best time to eat after a workout?

(Jake Russell Andrich) #1

So I was wondering when the most optimal time to eat would be, what makes sense to me is fasting for x amount of hours then workout then eating but with my current schedule eat, sleep, work, workout repeat so between my workout and my feed window it’s about 12 hours am I doing any harm doing this? & btw my goals are to build muscle on this diet my feed window is about an hour whatever it take me to get me calories and protien in thanks!

(Allie) #2

When you’re hungry.

(Jake Russell Andrich) #3

If I ate when I was hungry I’d be eating every 2 hours and that would defeat the purpose I’m looking for optimal times in relation to muscle growth

(Vladaar Malane) #4

Then you’re probably not eating enough fat. It seems like a macros issue if your always hungry.

I don’t eat breakfast, just have black coffee and I go workout in the morning. I don’t eat till lunch No problems.

Btw I think optimal times are very overrated. If you were an Olympian and every second of your 100 yard dash counted perhaps you would be following a science of when to do this or that. We are average joe smoes though so will eating at exactly 30 minutes before or after matter in anyway that we can significantly notice? Nah.

@Jakipz

#5

For myself, an ectomorph who has a hard time gaining muscle, I find the most results from eating before and after a workout (no more than 2 hours on either side). Before a workout, food gives me energy and a post workout meal produces the insulin response needed to push amino acids and glucose into the muscle.

(Vladaar Malane) #6

@Pixie

I had to look up ectomorph. LoL. Interesting that someone with a body type defined as easily maintaining a low fat physique is on keto. Cool beans though. Maybe the OP @Jakipz is in your same category. However, when I responded I “assume” which could be my mistake that anyone posting on keto forums tends to be having issues losing weight or lost weight and needs to keep it off.

Anyway, maybe your answer is what he was looking for.

(KetoQ) #7

Hi Jake –

Some of the “prevailing wisdom” is to eat an hour after a weight training session. However, there are questions as to how quickly the protein and nutrition are actually absorbed into the system and if they have that much of a muscle building effect.

You may very well be feeding your muscle growth from what you ate the day previously.

I have some similar problems with my weight training and fasting windows. So I have been doing some weight training fasted, and staying fasted post workout for up to 36 hours. I’ve been doing this for two weeks, and has not had a noticeable effect on my strength, unless I work out two days in a row, and then I can feel the energy level go down a notch. But I am feeling the muscle gains.

I think for muscle gains, you need to eat healthy and consistently while training, but that an extended fast post training is not necessarily going to hold you back. In fact, it may be an advantage in terms of stressing your body in another way that the body can’t easily adapt to.

Read some of the work by Dr. Jason Fung on fasting and training. That might be able to give you some better insights.

Good luck,
Q

(Roy D Rushing Jr ) #8

Never made any difference for me. I’m usually hungry after a workout, but that’s more because I’ve likely postponed a meal until after it to avoid getting cramps.

#9

I have pcos, which you can have and be thin.

(Doug) #10

Right on, KetoQ. :slightly_smiling_face: If somebody is brand-new to working out, then they may put on muscle relatively fast - over 20 lbs/9 kg in a year in some cases. It slows down after that, however, and I think that 15 lbs. muscle gain in a year is more than almost all people who are used to working out can gain.

Even if we take 15 lbs/7 kg as our starting figure, that means only 0.66 ounces or 18.6 grams of muscle growth per day. I’d say there is going to be plenty of protein around for that.

Quality workouts and increased growth hormone from fasting - I think this is more the deal.

(Jake Russell Andrich) #11

Caffeine increases your cortisone levels so I try and stay away it’s extremely bad for muscle growth, I’m not trying to lose weight currently I’m trying to gain weight actually but also reap the benefits of your body being in a fasted state for most of the day and training fasted, I know I’m getting my body the calories and protein it needs to build muscle I’m just worried about the time windows… (since I cant eat till 12 hours after my workout)

(Jake Russell Andrich) #12

I would prefer to eat my 1 big meal after I work out but it’s not possible with my current schedule, and eating before a workout would take me out of the fasted state so I wouldnt get the benefits of training fasted I was just curious if me waiting 12 hours to eat after I train would result in me not getting optimal muscle growth

(Vladaar Malane) #13

Interesting, I’ve never heard a negative thing about caffeine and muscle growth and I’ve grown plenty of muscle in my days. I think you maybe over analyzing because literally just about anything could be pointed as bad for muscle growth if you wanted to make a correlation. The best thing I did that caused me to blow up with muscles in my mid 20’s was I lifted consistently and I lifted very heavy weights for low repetitions. It wasn’t vitamins, goat gland, or anything else per say that affected it as much as getting in there day after day and putting work in.

For instance check out

This article says that cortisol tends to level out in people that drink coffee regularly as opposed to only having it once in a while.

Here is a article that says cortisol isn’t liked by body builders, but isn’t as big a deal as they think.

Actually this would be a good topic for Show me the Science forum. LoL.

Caffeine bad for muscle growth? - linked from different post
(KetoQ) #14

Jake –

I think you might find this video of interest with regard to post workout nutrient timing: