Nutrient timing considerations

When it comes to losing or gaining weight, total daily / weekly calorie intake will always be king and the major determining factor in your success with the direction you want to go in, there is no debate about that.

Proper nutrient timing is something that should be closely considered however if you are interested in having a sustained energy release throughout the day, optimising performance / strength, functioning well cognitively, having good digestion, stabilising blood sugars, sleeping well and optimising your recovery.

— Aiming to space meals evenly around 2-4 hours apart will help with giving you a sustained energy release over the day and help with stabilising blood sugars. It will also help with digestion and optimising muscle protein synthesis (provided you have at least 4 separate meals with a protein feeding of minimum 20 grams, with 2-4 hour intervals in between them).

— Having a solid meal containing sufficient protein to spike MPS accompanied with appropriate amounts of carbohydrates and fats in alignment with your goals around 45-120 minutes before working out will help to fuel your session and help you to maximise strength / performance. Just make sure to have this meal in good time as suggested above, so that you can utilise it well to fuel the session and avoid digestive distress during training.

— Equally, a solid post workout meal of similar structure around 45-120 minutes post training will help with spiking blood sugars, replenishing glycogen stores and kick starting the growth and repair process. Make sure to wait until the heart rate returns to normal post training before eating, so that you have fully transitioned from fight or flight mode into rest and digest mode and are in a better position to digest, uptake and absorb nutrients. The body will utilise food MUCH better in a parasympathetic state than it will in a sympathetic state immediately post training. Luckily, the ‘anabolic post workout window’ is a myth bro LOL.

— Having your final meal of the day around 90 minutes before bed is going to be a good call in order to prevent digestive processes from disrupting sleep quality. Now the times you eat food at WILL NOT make any difference to weight loss or weight gain once your total daily calorie target is met, however poor sleep will significantly hinder our ability to lose fat / gain lean body mass and make for a less responsive body to work with, so it is in our intent to do everything we can to set up well for sleep.  

These are just some benefits that paying closer attention to nutrient timing can offer us. There is more to this game than just hitting calorie and macronutrient targets if you truly want to function, perform and feel at your best.

#TeamInfluence