If you want more muscle, have a casein 30 minutes before bed!

What we know about protein intake

The three main factors affecting muscle protein balance and proteosynthesis are as follows:

• The amount of protein
• Protein quality
• Protein timing

Science has more or less mastered the first two perfectly.

In terms of quantity, the best research suggests that the optimal dose of protein for strength athletes is roughly 1.6 g per kilo of weight each day.

In terms of quality, research suggests that casein is the best quality concentrated milk protein, followed by whey concentrate and isolate. Their individual digestible essential amino acid scores (DIASS) are 141, 133 and 125. (By comparison, pea protein has a score of 73.)

As for the third category, timing, scientists still can't get their watches in order. Instinctively, we have always tried to spread our protein intake evenly throughout the day. A recent Japanese study on the subject presents new facts.

Scientists have found that unevenly distributed protein at breakfast and lunch, but especially at breakfast, has an adverse effect on muscle protosynthesis, independent of total daily protein intake.

Specifically, the group of participants receiving a protein-rich breakfast gained a whopping 40% more muscle than the group receiving a lower protein breakfast, despite the fact that both groups were consuming the same total daily amount of protein.

Even people who consume a roughly even amount of protein during the day become deficient in this respect overnight. Even if they have their last meal at, say, relatively late 8 pm, they are then without protein for 8, 10, or even 12 hours.

The classic advice is to have some protein before bed. How important is this practice for proteosynthesis? That's what a recently published meta-analysis looked at and found that protein before bed is something as essential to athletes as brushing their teeth and putting on their pajamas.

Casein 30 minutes before bedtime

If you're not sure what a meta-analysis is, it's a statistical summary of multiple studies on the same topic. So the result is more meaningful than just one study.

This particular one summarizes 9 articles on the effect of eating protein at night on proteosynthesis. Here is the result directly in the words of the researchers.:

Consuming 20-40 g of casein about 30 minutes before sleep stimulates whole-body nocturnal protein synthesis, both in young and older men (whether or not they exercised before doing so).

Further, such protein intake may improve muscle adaptation (fiber diameter, strength, and volume) over 10-12 weeks of weight training. This time it applies to young men, but not to older men.

The researchers even cite a larger study conducted between 1990 and 2002. This found "higher leg muscle volume and greater knee extensor strength in those who consumed higher amounts of protein (20-30 g) in the evening, compared with those who consumed their protein in the afternoon."

It should also be noted, though it won't come as a huge surprise, that protein before bed hasn't done much for endurance athletes.

How to deal with this information

Putting on protein before bed is probably advice you've been given a few times during your career. However, most of us just gave up on it at some point. Maybe we don't think it's important or we think that a protein drink before bed will cause us to have to get up to go to the bathroom during the night.

If you don't think it's important, this article should convince you otherwise - it definitely is. If you're afraid of getting up, don't mix your protein into litres of liquid. Two scoops of good quality protein that isn't crammed with thickeners can easily be mixed into a smaller amount of liquid, which won't send you to the toilet at night.

Or you can have a protein-rich meal. It may not be as effective as a concentrated protein drink, but it's definitely better than nothing.

Source: www.t-nation.com - Do This 30 Minutes Before Bed For More Muscle
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