So I have been reading and listening about the MPS refractory period and how it relates to meal timings. Thanks for this wealth of information. My question is if I have a snack say 2 TBSP peanut butter 8 oz of milk and some dark chocolate, that equals 20 mg protein but is it not enough leucine to trigger MPS?
I guess what I want to know is this pre workout snack going to hinder my post workout meal’s MPS response. Say I eat this and then workout and then have a whey shake the time between will be 2 hours. Did my lower leucine snack stimulate MPS and require me to wait the full 3-4 hours?
Is this suboptimal protein snack even beneficial for muscle growth or am I better off with just a carb rich snack?
Also previously I had been doing intermittent fasting and only eating lunch and dinner. Does adding say cottage cheese for breakfast even though it is low in calorie yet high in protein (and leucine) help to stimulate MPS or do I need other calories at the same time after fasting all night?
I would not worry about this at all, but rather focus on getting enough protein per day split up into 3-5 meals a day. There’s no utility in spending time worry about this
-Jordan
As far as the technical questions:
Your first meal probably would stimulate MPS given the milk and EAA content.
If you’re working out, you’re making yourself more anabolically sensitive so I’m not sure you’d have any isssue with the post workout meal. However, you don’t need to eat directly after working out either. We would recommend eating every 3-5 hours.
MPS is driven by EAA content, not total calories-so it doesn’t matter.
Again, this is all a distraction from engaging in behaviors that actually move the needle forward IMO.
if say post that workout where I had the peanut butter milk snack etc. I waited the 3-5 hours for dinner and had cheese as my main protein ie mozzarella or feta in say 50gram portion. Is this sufficient since cheese has mostly casein and is slow digesting or should I be adding a whey shake to this to maximize MPS.
some days I do OMAD if I haven’t lifted the previous day and am not in full recovery mode. Then I workout fasted and eat that same cheese heavy protein meal. On these days my macros won’t reach enough protein levels should I add that shake to the meal as well since I will go to bed before 3 hours has past to eat again.
I was reading that cottage cheese is so slow digesting that it didn’t allow MPs to go back to baseline for 7 hours. In that case as a breakfast is it better to just hit a whey shake so I can eat lunch 3-5 hours later.
thanks and yes I do realize I am getting super micro on this I just am a bit confused on the whey vs casein and does it matter etc. don’t want to do some to sabotage mps for no reason.
The response above suggests you missed this important part of my reply:
“I would not worry about this at all, but rather focus on getting enough protein per day split up into 3-5 meals a day. There’s no utility in spending time worry about this.”
To answer your questions:
if say post that workout where I had the peanut butter milk snack etc. I waited the 3-5 hours for dinner and had cheese as my main protein ie mozzarella or feta in say 50gram portion. Is this sufficient since cheese has mostly casein and is slow digesting or should I be adding a whey shake to this to maximize MPS.
Would not recommend peanut butter and milk post workout or cheese as your main protein source. There’s only 13g of protein in that cheese, so probably not enough.
I don’t know what OMAD is. I would not recommend training fasted. I would recommend eating the target amount of protein daily.
You didn’t read that in any reputable place. It doesn’t matter.
To reiterate, I would not worry about this at all. Rather, I would focus on getting 1.6-3.1 grams of protein per kg bodyweight per day. That’s it.
Ha. Thanks I do realize the bigger picture is more important. I did mean 50 grams protein of cheese ie a half pound. I guess my question was would it make sense to add protein to that portion if I hadn’t met my macros that day or is anything past 50 grams of protein wasted in under 3 hours.
It’s not a bother at all, but rather I don’t want to insinuate this is a big deal.
I would not recommend eating 8oz of cheese to get your protein if you’re willing to consume other animal products, as the saturated fat intake is quite high.
Ha. I guess I’m still going then My problem is eating too much meat I don’t feel so good. That amount of cheese on the other hand I feel great. I guess I am wondering if that’s enough protein per sitting if I hadn’t met my 160 grams for the day and can’t eat again before I sleep or should I drop a shake into the dinner.
I hear you on that (less cheese) but that still doesn’t answer whether or not I should get more than 50g protein in a given meal if I hadn’t met my 150 grams for the day. Regardless of my dinner content I think it’s hard to get more than 50 grams protein in real food in a sitting. In that case should I hit a shake with dinner or forget it. Or does waiting 1 hour and hitting it right before sleep make more sense. I know it’s not optimal to start to eat 2 hours before bed but two kids etc…
