Critical eating time...4-6 hours immediately post workout, or all the time?

[txhawkeyes]

I have been going hard for 36 months straight now. Lifting every other day, or 3 times a week....whichever I can get. Couple vacations in there...but its wearing me down.

We all know that eating a ton of solid food in the time period about an hour post workout and continuing for ... I suppose 3-6 hours following that is crucial.

When you get down to the science of the muscles repairing themselves and getting bigger and stronger, can I eat normal...which is about every 3 hours every darned day...and then cram in as much food as possible post workout in those hours? I am really concentrating on hitting solid food post workout, but with a family, kids, etc, I don't hit food as hard on days when I don't train.

Question is, am I totally missing it doing this...? I know you have to eat all the time, but if I just concentrate hard on eating post, am I really missing the boat the rest of the time? That goes to, how long does the muscle stay in repair state after training in the gym?


All the best to you all. Thanks.

[BC123Jm]

depends on what your goals are and your drug protocol. i dont do any special pre and post workout meal.
i just eat every 3 hours from the time i wake up and stick my training in between whatever two meals i want.

[Ryan Bracewell]

Too many people focus on the bullshit "anabolic window". Yes you need to eat protein sometime after yours workout but 1 hour or 2 hours later isn't that big of a difference if your nutrition earlier in the day is good and you take some kind of carbs or aminos intra workout. When you workout it takes 2-5 days for that muscle group to completely repair, and obviously it's not repairing from that one magical meal within 60 minutes of your workout. Your day to day consistent diet will do more for your gains than anything else you can do.

[txhawkeyes]

Ryan,

Please help me with this. You hit on exactly what I want to know. I assumed that if my muscles are sore, they are probably still going through some repair. If they are sore the second day for example with DOMS, then am I still feeding that repair? And if so, I obviously need to keep feeding them tons of solid food while sore? Correct? So that would mean that eating tons the day(s) after lifting would be the way to go in general..

Is a muscle still rebuilding and repairing for a couple days after you train? Or does it do the repair in 4-6 hours? Obviously need to feed it while repairing...


Thanks. I was definitely hoping someone would jump on this for me.


I will be 48 this year. It's wearing on me and I need a break. It wears after

going three years everyday every three hours thinking I need to eat. I just

wanted to see if I could make it a little easier on myself and less stressful.

[Ryan Bracewell]

People always try to make it more difficult but in reality you just need to eat. If your constantly sore then you could have an issue with not getting the right amount of macro nutrients or given your age possibly low test levels. In general I would guess trained muscles can repair within 48 hours but your CNS may need longer for full recovery.

Also, I'm hoping that when you say your eating every 3 hours this does not include at night when you should be sleeping. I only say this because I know some people that do get up in middle of the night specifically to eat, and IMO that is overkill

[joe d]

I have been going hard for 36 months straight now. Lifting every other day, or 3 times a week....whichever I can get. Couple vacations in there...but its wearing me down.

We all know that eating a ton of solid food in the time period about an hour post workout and continuing for ... I suppose 3-6 hours following that is crucial.

When you get down to the science of the muscles repairing themselves and getting bigger and stronger, can I eat normal...which is about every 3 hours every darned day...and then cram in as much food as possible post workout in those hours? I am really concentrating on hitting solid food post workout, but with a family, kids, etc, I don't hit food as hard on days when I don't train.

Question is, am I totally missing it doing this...? I know you have to eat all the time, but if I just concentrate hard on eating post, am I really missing the boat the rest of the time? That goes to, how long does the muscle stay in repair state after training in the gym?


All the best to you all. Thanks.

eating for growth isnt really a time scheduled thing. keeping nutrients available is whats needed. making yourself able to use more nutrients is what you want through the drugs/hormones and the digestion rate your body has on the foods you eat. so if you still have half a stomach of food waiting to be used after your w/o eating more isnt going to do much unless you are spiking your insulin. if you want to get the most out of post w/o eat so your hungry by the end then destroy a high protein and carb meal that digest easily if you eat enough for a surge of insulin you will get hungry again soon after.

[joe d]

Ryan,

Please help me with this. You hit on exactly what I want to know. I assumed that if my muscles are sore, they are probably still going through some repair. If they are sore the second day for example with DOMS, then am I still feeding that repair? And if so, I obviously need to keep feeding them tons of solid food while sore? Correct? So that would mean that eating tons the day(s) after lifting would be the way to go in general..

Is a muscle still rebuilding and repairing for a couple days after you train? Or does it do the repair in 4-6 hours? Obviously need to feed it while repairing...


Thanks. I was definitely hoping someone would jump on this for me.


I will be 48 this year. It's wearing on me and I need a break. It wears after

going three years everyday every three hours thinking I need to eat. I just

wanted to see if I could make it a little easier on myself and less stressful.

eating tons of food isnt always the answer. if your not recovering well you may need to look more into lessening the workload or adding other components to the recovery. obviously food is a big part but with what your describing your probably beating the shit out of yourself internally and just adding more food could easily compound the problem. not saying this is the case either. i just see it as a possibility with the information provided.

[txhawkeyes]

People always try to make it more difficult but in reality you just need to eat. If your constantly sore then you could have an issue with not getting the right amount of macro nutrients or given your age possibly low test levels. In general I would guess trained muscles can repair within 48 hours but your CNS may need longer for full recovery.

Also, I'm hoping that when you say your eating every 3 hours this does not include at night when you should be sleeping. I only say this because I know some people that do get up in middle of the night specifically to eat, and IMO that is overkill

That's what I was looking for....the quote on 48 hour recovery above.

I didn't give you my whole story...my concern is that I am tired of the pressure I put myself under to eat every three hours. I can live with hitting food hard at post, and then for 48 hours after training. I am sick of worrying about it all the time. At least in my own mind, I can focus on the post meals, and then possibly the next few meals the following day after I get up. At least that would allow me to relax a little more after 24 hour or so.

That's all I needed, thanks.

PS...love the advice for those who insist on disrupting sleep every three hours thinking that getting up to eat in the middle of the night would help.

[FL3X MAGNUM]

I've been sticking to IF dieting the past 6 weeks and have decided that as long as I hit my macros for the day it doesn't really matter much when I eat, within my 8 hour allowance. I've gone in completely fasted and then pigged out on two big ass meals after my workout and called it good. I've eaten steadily up to my gym time, then had one bigger meal afterwards to hit my macros and called it good.
There was a study I read once stating that your body can go 24 hours or more on no food without deteriorating the muscles.
The whole "I have to eat all the time" mentality is hard to break.

[txhawkeyes]

I've been sticking to IF dieting the past 6 weeks and have decided that as long as I hit my macros for the day it doesn't really matter much when I eat, within my 8 hour allowance. I've gone in completely fasted and then pigged out on two big ass meals after my workout and called it good. I've eaten steadily up to my gym time, then had one bigger meal afterwards to hit my macros and called it good.
There was a study I read once stating that your body can go 24 hours or more on no food without deteriorating the muscles.
The whole "I have to eat all the time" mentality is hard to break.

Good for you IF folks. Whatever works. I have NOT fasted for the last 36 months, and have managed somehow...guess its luck, to go from 162 to 209 last week. I bet if I would have done IF I could be at 250 or more by now, huh !?!?!?

I have no desire to look like a person who built muscle and then didn't eat for a month. I have seen countless pictures of people who swear by IF, and they all look like college kids in the gym who drink sweet tea all day and can't understand why they cannot bulk up....oh...but they have great abs. Ask Sally Anne, Abs on a skinny guy are like tits on a fat woman.

Sorry dude, nothing personal...but reading IF in this thread about made me want to strangle all you folks who are falling for it. I think they are starting an I F major at Universities.....seems like every guy who "swears" by it is low 20's.


I bet Dave, Jay Cutler, all those huge bodybuilders got big with IF. I will have to jump on the wagon.