I’m doing the breakfast only diet now and loving it. But it’s harder to convince myself to lift weights knowing i won’t be able to eat afterwards. I’ve always thought that the “anabolic window” idea was bullshit. But it is still deeply ingrained in me to eat within a few hours after lifting.
Has Cole ever done an in depth video about this? So i can be 100% sure my workouts aren’t wasted.
i remember the first time i read this as a 16 year old. I knew it was bullshit because i used to do my work outs before i went to bed and didnt eat breakfast the next day and still got substantial gains.
Exercise stimulates autophagy in the body, which you also get from fasting. If you eat after a workout it actually reduces the autophagy (health benefits) from exercise AND breaks your fast, which is a double downvote.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER IS A LYING POS.
I find it hard to believe that the body can break down proteins, fats, and carbohydrates into a fully usable form within such a short window after a post workout meal. Digestion takes several hours at best, from what I recall. However, I’m no expert.
There’s some truth to the post workout thingie.
Muscle protein synthesis can be activated about every 5-6 hours by consuming sufficient protein and having exercised beforehand. It takes up to 8 hours to fully digest protein, during which aminoacids are absorbed and you are anabolic.
If you eat only once a day you are anabolic 8/24 hours at best. Just eating twice can increase that to 16/24. Further increasing meal frequency doesn’t do much, maybe it can go to 18/20 at best if you don’t wake up in the middle of the night to eat, but it’s also not good to be constantly anabolic, you need to give your digestion a rest during the night and allow for some catabolism of degenerate tissues and cells.
So basically if you eat, allow 5-6 hours for the food to digest, workout, then ideally you would consume a meal afterwards not because of some magical post workout window, but because it’s simply convenient in terms of general optimal anabolism. Also because exercise makes you hungry lol.
I’ve also read somewhere that the actual anabolic window is 24 hours after exercise.
Maybe eat two meals at the very least on workout days.