Does it matter what type of macros you eat after a muscle protein synthesis response?

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

As per your nutrition lecture, 3g of leucine (20-25g of animal protein) will result in a muscle protein synthesis response, and until the refractory period is over (3-5 hours) more protein won’t increase that response.

Therefore, purely from a muscle building/recovery standpoint, does it really matter what type of macros you consume after a muscle protein synthesis response? Won’t everything else just be used as fuel (or stored) until the refractory period is over?

Thanks,
Nathan.

Side note:
My Mum just started the beginner template. I’ve been helping her run it and have taught her the lifts, she’s enjoying it. After listening to Austin’s lecture on Sarcopenia I’m hoping to get more of my family resistance training in the future.
I just wanted to thank you and the crew at Barbell Medicine for the work you do, your content is great and has had a real positive impact on my life.

2

Hey Nathan,

Thanks for the message and I’m glad to hear your mom is training. Very cool :slight_smile:

As far as this MPS thing:

  1. The refractory period only lasts 2.5-3 hrs, not 3-5 hours. The recommended frequency of eating is every 3-5 hours, however.
  2. It’s not that the MPS response won’t increase if eating protein within the refractory period, it’s that it won’t happen at all.
  3. I’m not sure what you mean, as all fuel not directly being used as muscle-building substrate is used or stored as energy.

-Jordan

3

Cheers for the response, and the corrections on MPS.

Here’s some context:
I’m running Hypertrophy II, and aiming for fat loss- I’ve used the multipliers from “To Be A Beast” as a starting point for my macros.

I’m 176lbs so my protein goal is: 176:*1.25=220g

My plan was to have 4 meals a day, and split my protein evenly, aiming for ~55g in each meal. However, I started to think, as long as I got 20-25g of animal protein in each meal- ensuring a MPS response, would I really need to worry about eating more protein?

During this fat loss stage wouldn’t a MPS response at every meal ensure maximal possible muscle retention, with extra protein not doing anything else for the muscle?

Thanks, for your time,
Nathan.

4

Nathan,

Thanks for your reply. A few things:

  1. Your protein goal can be 1.6-3.1grams of protein per kilogram bodyweight, which includes 1.25g/lb. ;
  2. Your plan sounds fine. If you got 100g of protein from animal derived sources, you’d likely get another ~50g of protein from your carbohydrate and fat sources. That said, I wouldn’t recommend aiming to lower your protein this this amount via focusing on the minimum threshold for an MPS response in most cases, but especially when someone is cutting. Rather, I would aim to get in the recommended protein per day with an aim towards the middle to upper end for those that are cutting.
  3. I do not know where this notion that extra protein doesn’t do anything else for the muscle. Extra anything- fat, carbs, exercise, etc.- don’t do anything for the muscle. That being said, you’re likely to lose some muscle mass unless you’re relatively untrained and/or you have favorable genetics.

-Jordan