Page 88 - The Skinny On Your Diet Plan

Your body (post exercise) is in a higher state of muscle breakdown

and it is also in a state of building up (synthesis) at the same time. The goal

is to have more built up than what was broken down. Which leaves you with
a positive (net) gain. The window of opportunity to benefit the most from

this is called the anabolic window. Feed your body, you gain. If you don’t
feed in time you run the risk of a net loss. You can look at this anabolic

window like a fading tan. A tan doesn’t just turn off—it fades. By the end of
the second hour after exercise the window begins to shrink, and each

passing moment the benefit of the post-exercise meal is less and less

effective. Go! Go! Go! Anabolic window is closing!

There are many studies that show your post-exercise meal can boost
your anabolic response to exercise, but there aren’t as many that suggest the

pre-exercise meal will do the same. Though there are some studies that have

found that pre-exercise meals can boost your anabolic response, in these
same studies the post-exercise meal had a much lower anabolic response as

a result. I’d much rather not exercise on a full stomach though. So, in the
case of preferring a post-exercise meal instead, you can and should consume

a BCAA drink during your workout for optimal benefit.

For endurance types or people exercising for 90 minutes or longer a
carbohydrate drink will help your performance and save your muscle from

excessive breakdown.

Here’s the bottom line with nutrient timing.

Lots of really smart and hardworking people are getting lost in the

finer points of nutrient timing, while consistently missing out on sleep, or
vegetables, or other — more important — health and lifestyle factors. And

that’s a shame. While it’s still wise to bookend your training with protein

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