Waiting to eat..

[MakingItCount1]

Just joined up, happy to be here. Hope everyone is well.

I just read an article that said its best to wait an hour after you work out to eat. This conflicts with many things I have previously read that say to eat within one hour, or even 30 mins, after working out.

Does anyone have more info on this, or has heard of this also?

I looked for the article again but for the life or me can't find it. I believe the rationale was something like cortisol levels are spiked after a workout, and if you take in carbs or even protein while the cortisol levels are spiked it will lead to fat gain. Something like that. It was written by a supposed "nutrition expert" although everyone seems to be one nowadays.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

[OldFartTom]

Without having read the article, it sounds like a failure of common sense. It didn't have a clickbait title did it? "Why eating is killing your gains" or " 1 weird trick personal trainers hate" or something.

Edit: Welcome to the forums!

[MakingItCount1]

Without having read the article, it sounds like a failure of common sense. It didn't have a clickbait title did it? "Why eating is killing your gains" or " 1 weird trick personal trainers hate" or something.

Edit: Welcome to the forums!

Thanks for the welcome. I found the article but cannot link it yet since dont have enough posts. I can try to copy paste maybe.

[MakingItCount1]

After a workout session in the gym, you should absolutely do NOTHING! NO protein shake, NO food, NOTHING. Here’s WHY…

How many times have you read or heard, “As soon as the weight hits the floor you’ve got a 30 minute anabolic window to chug down a protein shake?

This has been taught through word of mouth, fitness magazines, and yes even bodybuilders.

We have been told repeatedly that we need to get a protein shake (or some other form of protein) in order to keep our muscle gains after a workout.

Supposedly the anabolic window is a period of time after your training when your body is primed to accept nutrients better and shuttle it towards muscle.

The problem with this is that your body needs to go through the catabolic process in order to recover properly.

Two things happen within the body that everyone needs to consider:

Cortisol
Triglycerides
GH
Today I’m going to show you why you may be making a HUGE mistake when trying to optimize your muscle gains through the touted, “anabolic window” of opportunity by consuming a shake within 30 minutes.

Fact #1 Cortisol, The Magical Hormone


Cortisol has been one of the most misunderstood hormones in the body.

In general cortisol is a catabolic hormone or more commonly called, “The Stress Hormone” and is elevated when doing any type of popular strength, or weight training.

These catabolic processes are critical to activating the maximum anabolic state.

When given the chance to work properly it can become what I consider to be a “magical hormone.”

In the absence of insulin, cortisol helps mobilize body fat, it allows catecholamines to be more effective at mobilizing fat and intramuscular glycogen stores.

You want cortisol to be able to do its job post workout. Studies have shown that your results in the gym strongly correlate with how high your cortisol levels are during training than any other training, more strongly correlated than testosterone and growth hormone.

There is a lot of evidence that cortisol being a catabolic trigger, is hormetic. Your body needs this slight damaging process so that when it recovers, there is a bigger effect.

You need to have the hormetic effect of training set in for at least an hour, and just let the body naturally recover and perform the necessary healthy processes to better prepare you for the next days training.

Plus, as an added benefit this gives your body time to clear triglycerides from the blood that were released during training, allowing you to lose more body fat while still becoming bigger and stronger.

[MrCarrot]

My belief with this kind of thing is that even if there is a difference, it's going to be so negligible you would never notice. I don't believe for a moment someone eating 20 minutes after their workout is going to negate their gains and get fat, versus someone eating an hour later getting stronger and ripped.

[OldFartTom]

Interesting article.
I'm with Mr Carrot on this one, I think this is a smaller consideration to be addressed only after the bigger factors have been completely optimized.

Maybe for someone who is a pro bodybuilder or an Olympic team coach or something this is another variable to manipulate, but a mere mortal like me has bigger fish to fry.

[Eternalstuden79]

This guy starts of buy saying that Cortisol is misunderstood.

Buy the end of this article it still is.

Like the others have said, this is small stuff compared to a good lifting program. If you want to add muscle, eat an excess and lift, use progressive overload and lift.

Life is really that simple.

All this stuff about when to eat is negligible, as people can bulk on one meal a day, on keto, etc etc.

Artificially trying to raise, flatten hormone levels can work but takes way more effort than going to the gum and lifting IMHO.

It sounds like you are quite new to lifting, enjoy the gains you'll see over the next few months :-)

[ectoBgone]

In general, just do not waste your time with "fly by science" articles, especially when they begin to make out some minor detail to be a "HUGE mistake". This article looks like it was written by an 18 year old who just read something new 5 minutes ago and is thoroughly convinced and going to tell the world about it.

The way these kinds of assertions usually work is someone takes one aspect of physiology under a microscope and then extrapolates from there what happen must happen to the entire system under similar circumstances, but without actually having good data on those hypotheses. Things that seem to make sense on a micro-biological level often do not pan out when studied from a complete, systemic response. In this particular case the author tries to use big words to sound convincing, without actually explaining what's going on. Regardless of whether there are minor elements of truth tucked away here or there, the article is worthless IMO.

[MakingItCount1]

Thanks for the responses guys. I am not totally new to lifting, I have been kind of on and off throughout my life, but never really stuck to a serious program consistently. Now that I am 40 I am really buckling down as I know that it will help me as I get older with things like maintaining a healthy sex drive, lessening muscle loss, and keeping fat off.

I just got out of a serious relationship of over 4 years, and have been totally heartbroken and ravaged. She was younger (32) and I know one of the things she was concerned about was my health and appearance as I got older. (Not that I think its bad or anything). I am super focused right now on taking care of my health, and really trying to become a better me. I dont want to end up old and alone and scared I am going to

So to sum it up, the difference in whether I wait to eat for an hour or just eat right after is minimal and won't really matter anyway?

Thanks again.

[ElrondHubbard]

In general, just do not waste your time with "fly by science" articles, especially when they begin to make out some minor detail to be a "HUGE mistake". This article looks like it was written by an 18 year old who just read something new 5 minutes ago and is thoroughly convinced and going to tell the world about it.

The way these kinds of assertions usually work is someone takes one aspect of physiology under a microscope and then extrapolates from there what happen must happen to the entire system under similar circumstances, but without actually having good data on those hypotheses. Things that seem to make sense on a micro-biological level often do not pan out when studied from a complete, systemic response. In this particular case the author tries to use big words to sound convincing, without actually explaining what's going on. Regardless of whether there are minor elements of truth tucked away here or there, the article is worthless IMO.

I had the same impression.

There are so many variables at play, so many of which either amplify or suppress one another, that to take any isolated hypothesis and to try to construct an inviolable rule around it is an exercise in futility -- which seems to be the only exercise some of these authors get.

Anytime I read the words "magical hormone" in an article, I'm going to burn it in fire.

[ElrondHubbard]

Thanks for the responses guys. I am not totally new to lifting, I have been kind of on and off throughout my life, but never really stuck to a serious program consistently. Now that I am 40 I am really buckling down as I know that it will help me as I get older with things like maintaining a healthy sex drive, lessening muscle loss, and keeping fat off.

I just got out of a serious relationship of over 4 years, and have been totally heartbroken and ravaged. She was younger (32) and I know one of the things she was concerned about was my health and appearance as I got older. (Not that I think its bad or anything). I am super focused right now on taking care of my health, and really trying to become a better me. I dont want to end up old and alone and scared I am going to

So to sum it up, the difference in whether I wait to eat for an hour or just eat right after is minimal and won't really matter anyway?

Thanks again.

Been there done that. Dude, you're in a good position in the romance market: You have a pulse. Stay healthy, and the women will be beating a path to your door. Healthy older men are a precious commodity to healthy older women!

[Cass40]

I have never heard that. I have heard of cortisol and how stress makes you gain weight but never in that context.

[MakingItCount1]

Dude...life is funny. I met the true love of my life and soulmate at age 42. It honestly took me that long, and that many mistakes, to really figure out who I am and what I want out of life and a partner. The ones that came before (including a much younger wife who had the same issues as your EX...which is kinda ironic since the guy she is with now is an out of shape slob that looks older than me, even though he’s 10 years younger...but I digress) were all just steps on a ladder to get to real happiness.

My advice: be the best version of you that you can be and don’t settle for any less than you deserve.

You won’t die old and alone, you just have to find her. Aggressively look...but don’t settle for the first person you find, or you’ll be either unhappy or in the same position 10 years down the line (and even older, ha ha).

Good luck with your lifting (and that other stuff ).

Thanks brother. Appreciate the inspiration!

[MakingItCount1]

Been there done that. Dude, you're in a good position in the romance market: You have a pulse. Stay healthy, and the women will be beating a path to your door. Healthy older men are a precious commodity to healthy older women!

Right on, ty!

[MakingItCount1]

I have never heard that. I have heard of cortisol and how stress makes you gain weight but never in that context.

Thats what I found interesting as well. I had only ever heard of cortisol as bad, and referred to negatively. This was the first time I've read anything remotely positive about it. Found that very interesting.

[OldFartTom]

... I had only ever heard of cortisol as bad, and referred to negatively....

There's a load of BS out there. It's a principal hormone of the corticosteroid systems of the body (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corticosteroid). There's a whole family of drugs based on synthetic cortisol like compounds to treat arthritis, immune conditions, inflammation, some cases of severe asthma and a heap of other things too. Most famous is prednisone/prednisolone with its amazing benefit to patients - (shortly followed by its very significant side effects! absolutely need experienced doc to manage this one!)

Cortisol suppresses inflammation and helps healing, it might be an initial trigger for hypertrophy.

Chronic excess cortisol is deeply bad, but isn't anything at chronic excess a bad thing? (by definition). If anyone says Cortisol=bad (or cortisol=good) just ignore their BS, it's hugely complicated topic and detailed discussion is probably best left to a specialist doc (like endocrinologist or rheumatologist etc) certainly not some unqualified idiot like me