Why you should eat protein before bed? Anyone who eats something just before going to bed is said to struggle with a heavy stomach and faster weight gain afterward. However, that is not entirely true. Scientists have discovered a healthy snack that can even give you advantages and that you can treat yourself to with a clear conscience.
The scientists focused on high-protein snacks concentrated and found what they were looking for. It’s the cottage cheese. Consuming around 30 grams of protein half an hour before bedtime has a positive effect on metabolism, muscle quality, and general health.
If you don’t like cottage cheese, you can also try it sweet. However, other products are also possible. Cottage cheese or white meat such as chicken and turkey also provides you with these slow-digesting proteins.
Protein And Muscle Building
Proteins are one of the most important nutrients when it comes to building muscle. They help to repair muscle cells after a stimulus and subsequently build new cells. In order to achieve better training results, you should eat a good amount of protein with every meal. It also makes sense to consume protein before going to bed. Because if you use them correctly, they will help you gain muscle mass and strength.
However, in addition to proteins, the other two macronutrients, carbohydrates, and fats, must also be consumed in the right proportions. In addition to nutrition, intensive and regular strength training is of course also essential. Only then can you optimize your training results.
Protein Before Bed For More Muscle
In order for you to be able to make your muscles grow, two things are essential: a stimulus and the right raw materials. You achieve the stimulus with regular training of your muscles. Proteins are the raw material. These two things encourage your body to build muscle. Amino acids are the protein building blocks and subsequently the raw materials from which a muscle is built. If the body is not given any amino acids, it logically cannot build muscle either.
So if you eat too little protein, the so-called protein synthesis decreases at night. Eating protein-rich foods before bed can help the body gain strength and muscle faster. They provide it with the amino acids your body needs to repair your muscle cells at night while you sleep. This allows your body to continue its cell processes and subsequently build new tissue. On average, most people spend about a third of the day sleeping. Because of this, consuming protein before bed can definitely make a difference in meeting training goals.
Does Muscle Building Work While You Sleep?
In fact, in some lifestyle shows and magazines, the misinformation they contain has managed to lead many people to believe that anything eaten before bed will go straight to fat. To make it clear and clear: This is by no means correct!
A study from the “Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise” magazine, among other things, has shown that the protein we consume before bed is quite the opposite. These are not directly converted into fat. Rather, researchers were able to determine a visible increase in muscle protein synthesis in selected subjects who ate a protein-rich meal late in the evening. So that means quite simply.
What Kind Of Protein Should You Eat In The Evening?
The required amount of protein varies depending on gender, age, training status, and training goal. In order to stimulate your protein synthesis in the best possible way, foods with a lot of leucine are extremely helpful. These include tempeh, spirulina powder, brown rice protein powder, eggs, and peanuts. You can easily mix the brown rice protein powder and the spirulina powder into a protein shake with fruit and drink it before going to bed.
You should also rely on protein-rich foods whose amino acids have the property of slow digestion. This guarantees a constant flow of amino acids from which your organism can take the necessary building material without having to use the body’s own structures. Dairy products with a high proportion of casein are ideal for this. These are, for example, low-fat quark, and cottage cheese.
But that’s not all. If you combine your selected protein-rich meal with healthy fats, you can extend the half-life of the protein again. Fats, such as peanut butter, walnut oil, linseed oil, or avocados, are ideal for a combination with casein-rich protein sources as a bedtime snack.
Eating protein-rich foods before bed can therefore be very helpful in boosting your training results naturally. More important, however, are generally regular meals throughout your day, a healthy and balanced diet, and regular exercise.