MPS Refractory Period Questions

Hello Doctors Feigenbaum and Baraki!

As always, thank you both for all that you do, and for the unparalleled amounts of invaluable information you provide.

I know you’ve received many questions on the MPS refractory period in the past, but there are a couple I had that I couldn’t seem to find elsewhere.

  1. Eating within the 3-5 hour period has been discouraged because it interrupts MPS and could have consequences with respect to insulin sensitivity. Does eating between say a serving of protein at 12 pm and one at 3pm blunt both MPS responses? Just the one at 12? At 3?

  2. If you had to consume calories between meals (i.e. to have a glass of wine or ice cream with a friend/significant other because social life gainzZz), would you extend your fasting period an additional 3 hours from the end of that consumption? Or just proceed as normal?

Thank you so much!

Sooghs,

Thanks for the post. I think there is some misunderstanding here of the MPS refractory period and how it should influence dietary habits. To answer your questions:

  1. It is advised one should eat approximately every 3-5 hours, i.e. this is not discouraged. A meal at noon and 3 pm is fine.

  2. I wouldn’t do anything differently. Carry on.

Thanks so much for the response Jordan!

I think I may have worded my first question awkwardly. I meant to ask if eating between a meal at 12pm and a meal 3pm blunts the MPS response of either of those two meals. If so, which one?

Currently, I’m eating 4 meals a day spaced 3-5 hours apart, and do my best to avoid taking in calories between any of those meals.

If you eat a meal between noon and 3pm it’ll effect the meal at 3pm.

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Noted!

Really appreciate the responses Doc! Hope you’re well.

Jordan, I have wondered if there are some key source materials you could cite for these types of conversations? I looked back at some of the nutrition videos and while lots of times you will link journals, studies, etc there is nothing that I can find for source on this material?

If for some reason I get hungry before 3 hours have passed since my last protein rich meal and between now and the next meal there’s no 3 hours, should I just go for some carbs and something low in protein? I guess MPS is not triggered and this will not influence the effects from next protein rich meal.
I know this doesn’t matter if it happens just once, but lately it happens quite frequently. So I’m wondering what’s best to do in these situations.

Right, sometimes I do an active dive into the literature for a topic and other times I’m presenting based on a collection of studies that I’ve read. There is plenty of data out there on this stuff and I encourage you to seek it out.

I would ignore the hunger and wait, if possible. Try eating bigger meals if you have the resources to work with.

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Thank you for the answer.

I’ll try to ignore the hunger, but I don’t know if my colleagues will appreciate it. I get really grumpy when I’m hungry.:o

I am increasing the size of my main meals. It does help. Sometimes I just supplement with a whey shake.
Does it matter if I just get to 3 good sized meals a day? (if supplemented with whey to reach adequate daily protein intake) I have a desk-job. So not too much physical activity besides training.

3 meals a day is totally fine.

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