Muscle protein synthesis response - specifics

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello.

I’ve watched Jordan’s 2 nutrition lectures on YouTube as well as the Vimeo one and have some follow ups on MPS response.

  1. I understand that consuming more protein before the 3-5 hour fasting window (following MPS) has passed will cause the protein to be burned as fuel. But:1) will consuming any food before the 3-5 hour window is over actually STOP MPS?
  1. is there a “feeding window” that I can continue to eat protein that won’t affect MPS? (Eg say a dinner happens over the course of an hour).
  1. Jordan describes MPS as being triggered by a leucine threshold being met. Traditionally, MPS is presented as being triggered by training. (With the corresponding idea that there’s an ideal MPS window following training). Is that not true?
  2. If I’m taking 4 scoops of whey protein a day, should I space them 3-5 hours apart to get a min of 4 MPS responses a day? (Usually I take 2 scoops at a time).
  3. Is there any limit to number of whey protein scoops I should take a day in order to meet my ~200g (I weigh a lean 220) threshold?

Thanks so much for any help! I’m so happy to have found the Barbell Medicine content! Can’t wait for books to come out!

All the best,
Chris

2

Not really. MPS rates fall back to baseline about 90-120 min after feeding regardless of additional protein intake and then it takes another 90 min or so to generate another MPS response. This is only from a protein standpoint as far as I can tell.

I wouldn’t manage nutrition intake based on feeding windows at all. If it takes you an hour to eat, that’s cool.

There’s no ideal post workout window -save for the ~48 hour increase in MPS rates. Rather, I would just eat every 3-5 hours.

I would space all protein intake out 3-5 hours. I don’t think there’s any upper limit to whey intake, but I’m curious why you have to supplement so much protein rather than eating other protein containing foods?

3

Generally I don’t eat much throughout the day and consume the most at dinner. (That’s mostly a function of not having high-quality food-based protein sources available throughout the day as well as being busy).
That usually means well in excess of 100g protein from eg chicken just for dinner. But as I’m learning more from your content, it seems triggering MPS more often is a better approach.

I’ll probably need to start doing meal prep to address this.

Thanks so much for responding! Can’t wait to attend one of your seminars. Please come to the east coast!

4

We’ll definitely be back again next year, but we were just in NYC :slight_smile:

I don’t think I could make a strong case for eating 5x per day over 3x per day, but when you start dropping down to 1 or 2 meals per day the difference becomes more clear.