Meal timing
Nutrient timing
Meal frequency
People want to know what to eat and when, and whether it even matters at all.
Does it matter when or how often I eat?
The overarching truth here is that the important thing is HOW MUCH food you have eaten by the time you fall into your bed at night. This really is about energy balance. Consume more than you burn, and you’ll gain. Flip that, and you’ll lose (weight, not the battle). Because of this, I tell people who are just beginning to focus on their fitness, or who are trying to lose a lot of body fat, to only worry about calories for now. If eating breakfast makes them want to puke, then skip it. If they like to eat late in the evening, then no problem, just make sure to allow room in their overall daily calories for that.
Yet, the fact remains that there is something to nutrient timing. There are some things that, depending on how you handle them, can help or hinder.
A Lot Depends on Your Goals
Fitness people have this weird tendency to take whatever their “thing” is and apply it as the master key to everything. That rarely works. If you’re at a point where you’re ready to start looking at some meal-timing strategies, it’s important to first take a hard look at what your goal is. Meal timing is going to look different for someone who is trying to drop 50 pounds of fat than it will for someone trying to gain 20 pounds of muscle.
FAT LOSS: Sharon is trying to drop body fat and finds that she is most hungry around 9am and 1pm. Digestion takes place in the stomach, and absorption takes place in the small intestine. The process of moving the foods you eat from the stomach to the intestine is different for each food. Protein and fiber, for instance, take a long time, and therefore make a person feel full for longer periods of time. Foods like carbohydrates and liquids move through this process relatively quickly, so they do not satisfy hunger for as long. Therefore, one strategy Sharon can implement when it comes to meal timing is to focus on high-protein and high-fiber foods at the times of day she finds herself most hungry.
MUSCLE GAIN: Rick doesn’t have much size or strength. He also doesn’t struggle much with hunger, but instead feels like he can never eat enough to increase size, even though he’s wrecking himself in the gym. For this guy, protein is a huge deal. Think of your workout as the contract to build a new house. You now have a reason to work, but, if you don’t have any materials with which to build said house, you won’t get very far. Exercise gives your body a reason to adapt, but without the amino acids found in protein, it doesn’t have what it needs to rebuild. Rick is tearing down his muscles with those grueling workouts, and so he needs significantly more protein than Sharon does to reach his goal of adding muscle. Rick needs to have protein before bed so that his body has what it needs to keep making repairs as he sleeps, and he needs some when he gets up so the process can continue optimally.
We’ll get into some of their strategies shortly, but for now, know that timing meals isn’t the same across the board. It varies depending on the goal, and to some degree, it can even depend on the individual.
Pre and Post Workout
Never is meal timing more important than before and after your workout.
Your workouts break down muscle and use glycogen stores (glycogen is a store of carbohydrates in your liver and muscles that is used for energy), so it is important to have protein (for muscle repair) and carbs (to replenish glycogen) standing by. Without them, your workouts are like fighting a lightsaber duel with no access to the Force; you may make some progress and get some lucky strikes, but you won’t maximize your potential.
CARBS: Since they digest quickly, having carbs post-workout is great for replenishing glycogen stores and helping with protein-synthesis, while having them before the workout provides extra energy, making for better workouts and more progress in the gym. Have about 25–50 grams of carbs 45 minutes before your workout, regardless of your goals. For weight gain, have 200 grams of carbs within an hour after your workout. For weight loss, keep it sensible, but let this be the time of day when you have the most carbs, since your body will be most primed to use them.
PROTEIN: It is a great idea to have some protein before a workout because it is digested much more slowly. Having a protein shake immediately after your workout is something you should definitely do, but having it before the workout is great because it’s slow digestion will ensure that it is available when your body needs it most. Again, you need this to give your body the raw materials it depends on to repair your muscles. Have about 20 grams of protein 45 minutes before your workout, and 30–50 grams within an hour after, regardless of your goals.
Try not to waste time after your workout. Certain enzymes (proteins related to digestion and metabolism) jump to action when you exercise. While they are active, your body is more likely to turn your food into carbs stored in your muscles and liver than it is to store it as body fat. Some studies have shown that this “window” can last as long as two hours, but try to get the protein and carbs in within the first 30–60 minutes after the workout to be safe. If you’re having a meal very shortly after your workout, make sure it’s high protein and high-carb. If you have a long commute, go for a snack that has both. A protein shake or protein bar are good options, as are beef jerky and a piece of fruit (my personal favorites).
SUMMARY
Have 20 grams of protein and 25–50 grams of carbs about 45 min before your workout, and have another 30–50 grams of protein and your day’s largest serving of carbs within the hour after your workout.
NOTE: In this next category we are discussing meal frequency as in someone eating six small meals a day because bodybuilder cousin Jimmy said so, when they’d really prefer to eat three square meals a day. We are not yet discussing fasting for extended periods of time.
Do I need to eat every few hours to optimize my metabolism?
No.
But seriously, what does matter is how much you eat overall each day. The metabolism always gets attention in all the wrong ways, but we don’t talk about it where it matters most. Believe it or not, severely reducing your calories is not a good idea for weight loss. That’s because regularly eating too little actually can slow your metabolism.
FAT LOSS: Your body burns a certain number of calories each day regardless of what you do. This is known as your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE). It’s higher for more active people and lower for less active people, but it exists for everyone. In order to lose weight, you must eat below your TDEE, yet, any time you’re in a calorie deficit, your metabolism is slowing down to try and match it. It wants to try and keep the energy you take in (food) balanced with the amount you expend (through activity and just being alive). The more you restrict your calories, the more your metabolism slows down. This is why you should eat in a mild deficit — not an extreme one — while attempting to lose body fat.
Sharon has decided she wants to lose weight, and she knows how much protein and carbs she should consume before and after her workout. But, Sharon has no idea how many calories she is currently eating, nor how many calories she burns each day. (Insider look: Sharon eats an average of 2800 calories a day, and she only burns about 1800.) She reads a post by some wingnut in Montana that tells her she needs to eat 1000 calories each day in order to maximize her weight loss potential. So, Sharon starts counting her calories and clocks in at 1000 calories each day. Without her realizing, Sharon’s metabolism panics from being suddenly thrust into freefall, and starts trying to drastically reduce the energy her body uses each day. She loses some weight, but stalls once her metabolism finally slows enough to keep her alive on such few calories. What do you think Sharon will do once she doesn’t lose any weight for two weeks? Well since her understanding is that fewer calories equals greater weight loss, she’ll drop down to 800 calories, of course! The metabolism assumes Sharon must be stranded on a deserted island and that her food source is running low and begins to slow even further. Sharon reads another post about not letting her fitness control her life, so she decides to stop counting calories and winds back up at the 2800 calories she ate before, but to make sure it’s from mostly whole foods. Her metabolism assumes she must have been rescued from the island and begins storing much more food than it previously had as body fat just in case Sharon decides to get on a boat again.
MUSCLE GAIN: I will briefly add here that Rick, who is trying to build muscle, would be wise to eat more often for the simple reason that he needs more food for his goal, and it is easier to do that periodically over a long stretch of time than in three square meals.
What’s happened to Sharon has nothing to do with whether Sharon ate three 333 calories meals or six 166 calories ones each day. It has everything to do with how she drastically and suddenly cut her calories.
You should be eating at least your TDEE worth of calories without gaining weight before you begin a weight loss routine. If you are eating less that your TDEE now and aren’t losing weight, it’s probably because you have used a method similar to Sharon’s and have wrecked your metabolism. Don’t be discouraged! Just slowly add (can’t believe I’m saying this?) about 100 calories each week until you reach your TDEE so that your metabolism speeds back up, get a good bit of protein and fat, and, if you’re already working out and you’re able, add some resistance training to your routine. This will get the metabolism back to health relatively quickly, and then you can continue your weight loss journey.
Do I need protein every few hours?
As with overall calories, the most import thing about protein intake is daily amount, not timing. You should be consuming somewhere in the range of 1 gram per pound of bodyweight, especially if you’re lifting weights.
But the question remains, how is it best to take in that protein? 3 meals with 60 grams each? About 20 grams every few hours? Another way?
Your body is constantly breaking down stuff and building it back. This includes your muscles. When you exercise, you provide a reason for your muscles to work, and they break down, just as driving breaks down tires and brake pads. When you don’t eat, you rob your body of the materials it uses to rebuild, causing the breakdown rate to hasten past the repair rate, slowing down muscle growth. When you eat protein regularly you give your body what it needs, and rebuild rates exceed breakdown rates. This is where muscle growth happens.
Several studies regarding how much protein the body can absorb, how high protein synthesis (the rebuild phase) rates rise, and how long it lasts have been conducted. When you put it all together, it’s been shown that eating about 30 grams of protein every 3–4 hours is probably the best way to go about maximizing your muscle gain.
Remember, this method isn’t necessary, and don’t quit the gym if your schedule makes timing protein like this difficult. Focus on getting enough overall protein intake each day first, and then if you can, implement this protein timing strategy to speed things along a lit
Is it bad to eat after 8pm?
Chances are, if you’ve ever expressed to people that you were getting serious about your fitness and health, you’ve heard something like, “Well, don’t eat after 8pm! Your body will store it all as fat and you might as well go ahead and quit!” That’s not true. But, as much as I’d like to shoot this whole late eating thing down completely, I can’t.
The most important thing, as always, is the total amount of calories you have from the time you wake to the time you crash. One reason why late-night eating is discouraged is because that’s rarely the time a person will reach for a stick of celery or some chicken breast. It’s the part of the day when we’ve worked hard and want to relax a bit before getting to bed and starting it all over, and ice cream and Doritos make that time a bit sweeter. Here are a few reasons to rethink eating late on a regular basis:
The research is fuzzy. Some studies seem to indicate that it doesn’t matter when you eat, just how much, while others conclude that eating late can contribute to weight gain and even affect your metabolism. The truth is, there just isn’t enough research on it yet.
As mentioned above, late evenings are when we are most likely to go for the foods that should be “sometimes” and “occasional” foods, and to not concern ourselves all that much with the portion sizes or calorie goals.
Depending on what you eat, late meals may affect your sleep negatively.
I have personally never really cared what I ate before bed. I’m a night person, and I get home late. I have dinner past 9pm pretty much every day, and I’ve never noted any excess fat storage, sleep issues, or slowing of my metabolism.
The bottom line? This is subjective. It’s individual. If you are trying to lose weight, improve metabolism, sleep better, etc, and you are a regular late-night eater, cut it out for two weeks and see how your body responds. If something improves, you’ve changed a variable that worked. If not, it may not matter for you all that much. Remember, this is an experiment. You’re learning what works for you. Take the stuff that works, leave the rest on the shelf for someone who wants it.
What about skipping breakfast?
Some people would tell you that skipping breakfast is about as good for your health as a nuclear bomb.
After that last one, I’m anxious to shoot down a myth. The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter. Skipping breakfast does not mean that you will gain weight, go into the dreaded “starvation mode” where your body is primed for fat storage, or slow your metabolism.
However, I will give two types of people, however, who would benefit from eating “the most important meal of the day”:
Sharon becomes extremely hungry when she skips a meal, and winds up binging on lots of snacks. Even this doesn’t matter all that much because she skipped breakfast and likely has room for some extra calories, but Sharon wants to eat healthier foods, which is harder to do when she’s fighting cravings because she’s overly hungry. For Sharon, I recommend eating 20–30 grams of protein when she first wakes to help stave off hunger.
Rick is lifting weights or otherwise engaging in resistance training. The goal is to allow his muscles to recover as quickly as possible, and after having slept for 6 or more hours, his body has run out of protein with which to continue rebuilding. It is definitely a good idea to get that process rolling again as quickly as possible by having some protein as soon as he wakes up. For Rick, I recommend eating a protein bar in the morning while he gets ready for work.
If you like to eat breakfast, eat it, and if not, then don’t. Protein when you first get up is a good idea, but is not necessary.
Wrapping Up
I recently saw an article titled “Meal Timing is Everything.” That title tells me that the author is either trying to pull you in with a shocking title, or is horribly misinformed. I did not read that article. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve learned that there are most definitely some considerations to be made regarding meal timing and your fitness plan, but it is a far cry from “everything.” Focus on the basics that will give you the most results, work things like this in where you can, and breathe easy.
Sources
https://rpgfit.wordpress.com/2017/01/14/how-to-speed-up-your-metabolism-for-easier-weight-loss-article/
https://examine.com/nutrition/do-i-need-to-eat-six-times-a-day-to-keep-my-metabolism-high/
https://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-nutrient-timing
https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1550-2783-10-53
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23459753/
https://www.muscleforlife.com/skipping-breakfast/
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-skipping-breakfast-bad#section5
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