SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Not sure what would happen to your sprints if you have whey before HITing it... While more and more scientists and "evidence-based" trainers and fitness gurus, alike, keep repeating that "protein timing" - as heavily and feverishly as it is often debated on Facebook and elsewhere on the interwebs - is significantly less important than some gymrats still tend to believe ( Schoenfeld 2013 ). The question "When do I take my whey shake?" is still a topic worth discussing. In particular, if an interesting new study - a systematic review, to be precise - seems to suggest that protein timing does, at least in protein supplementation studies, matter... and what's most exciting, it seems to matter for the one outcome of physical exercise and dietary discipline many gymrats consider the #1 on their priority list: improvements in  body composition ... or, as many call it, "getting ripped and jacked" ;-) Learn more about building muscle and stre...

They may have been published in "Obesity" and observed in people w/ weight problems, but the results of these three recent papers are still relevant for lean, metabolically healthy people, too. Even if you are already way beyond the stage, where "weight loss" is your main interest, I am pretty sure you will appreciate this selection of recent studies from obesity research all around the world. After all, some of the research may actually help you achieve your new goal which should be to lose body fat while keeping or even building lean mass. In today's research review I am going to discuss three papers that have recently been published in the International Journal of Obesity (after being available online since late 2017, btw). To generalize one could say that the papers deal with the effects of nutrient timing and your microbiome on the efficacy of your fat loss efforts. Review older articles about the gut - health  axis.at the SuppVersity Bugs Dicta...

Everyone will know somebody who managed to build an impressive physique with meal-timing. The question you cannot answer, however, is whether that's due to the timing or rather his/her mindful eating habits, healthy food choices and overall controlled energy intake. Originally, people thought about dieting quite mechanistically. With health and fitness becoming more important than religion to many people, this has changed significantly and we've seen various trends ranging from the low-fat fad in the 1980s to the anti-fructose movement of the early 2000s and the ketogenic revival 10 years later. Eventually, the transient nature of all these trends did yet confirm one thing: the macronutrient of your diets may influence if and how much fat/muscle weight you lose or gain, but it's only one out of several parameters that determine the way(s) in which your diet will affect your health and body composition. Another factor that has been recognized to do just that is nutrien...

"Hon, are you crazy? Don't check your Facebook or WhatsApp now, get the protein shake in, immediately" - After reading about the latest (unfortunately partly yet unpublished) research some trainers may actually say just that to their female clients if they don't gulp down their protein shakes immediately after their workout ;-) There's no question that the prevalent notion that "if you don't get those 30+ grams of whey protein in, within the first 30 minutes after your workouts, you've wasted your time in the gym" is absolutely bogus, the last months have seen the publication/announcement of a handful of studies that support the notion that nutrient timing does, after all, still matter for gains and recovery. As a SuppVersity  reader, you will know both: That the majority of hitherto published research "refute the commonly held belief that the timing of protein intake in and around a training session is critical to muscular adaptations...

Don't be a fool. Simply eating no carbs in the PM is not going to yield the same results. It's all about timing it correctly with your workouts... workouts? Yes, bad  news: you got to get off the couch, bro; workout daily: one light, one HIIT day. I've written about the adaptational response to "training low", i.e. doing endurance training on a low carbohydrate diet previously. In January, this year, for example, I have reported the results of a study from the French National Institute of Sport  that showed that strategically cutting carbs in the PM and thus "sleeping low" will trigger game-changing Performance gains in only 3 weeks ( read the article ). Now, the scientists go one better: In their latest study, Laurie-Anne Marquet and colleagues investigated the effect on an even shorter timescale - a timescale that is short enough to consider "sleeping low" as a possible  pre-competition strategy... well, assuming that it would work its ...