Now when it comes to the subject of nutrition for muscle mass development, I believe that many people are aware of the basics like consuming adequate amount of calories, eat plenty of rich protein foods, proper consumption of low glycemic carbohydrates and healthy fats among other things.

That being said, I find that the vast majority of people are unaware of 2 absolutely essential periods for feeding the body with muscle building meals or supplements.

These 2 periods must be capitalized by anyone who is interested in boosting their muscle mass development to greater heights in a relatively short period of time.

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1. Post-Workout Nutrition – Fuelling your body with muscle gaining nutrients is a must especially after an intense iron blasting workout.

I used to play down this highly important timeframe back when I first started lifting weights, and boy, did I sold myself short!

A highly intense weight training session will most definitely put your body in a state of extreme stress and this elevates your muscles ability to absorb much more nutrients than usual.

What should one consume during post-workout? Well, a serving or two of rapid absorbing protein source such as whey (mixed in plain water) would be best, along with a serving of simple sugar like corn sugar.

Whey is commonly known as the king of protein due to its vast amount of BCAA (Branched chain amino acids), an extremely critical component for increasing mass, and further more, this protein source can be quickly absorbed by your muscles thus increasing the rate of protein synthesis within the body.

As for simple sugar, they are required in order to trigger a massive insulin-spike in your body. Is insulin spike necessary in connection to muscle growth?

You bet it is! By increasing your insulin rapidly, every ounce of whey protein that you’ve consumed will be pushed right into your muscle cells at an extremely quick rate, resulting in faster and better gains.

2. Pre-Bedtime Nutrition – The cardinal rule of bodybuilding is that your body must be continually fed with muscle building nutrients every 3 to 4 hours.

Failure to do so will greatly decrease your chances of increasing muscular size and strength, and this is an outright fact.

So how are you going to feed your body with the necessary nutrients every few hours when you’re going to wound up sleeping for 8 hours straight by the end the day?

Well, here’s where pre-bedtime comes into the picture. In order to minimize muscle breakdown during sleep, it is imperative that you prepped your body with slow-release meals that are loaded with essential nutrients for repairing and rebuilding muscle tissues before calling it a night.

Milk and cottage cheese are two excellent slow-released muscle building foods. If you have the budget, get a tub of high quality whey protein.

Although very fast acting, you can actually turn whey into a time-released protein by combining it together with a glass of milk. Don’t go overboard when preparing a pre-bedtime meal, otherwise you might have trouble sleeping and may end gaining additional bodyfat as well.

A glass of milk mixed with whey along with a small bowl of oatmeal, or a piece of whole wheat toast will set you on the right path to a fast muscle development even when you’re fast asleep!

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1. I started eating a big breakfast.

Ironic, I know. Having a big breakfast helps you stay full longer. If you are eating proper foods, a healthy breakfast might look something like,

- 5 Egg whites + 1 egg yolk on two pieces of whole wheat toast.

Or I might have,

- Half a cup of oatmeal with a protein shake and a scoop of peanut butter.

When having a large nutritious breakfast I found myself less likely to crash and binge eat later in the afternoon and evening.

2. Replacing simple carbohydrates with green carbohydrates.

A great green carbohydrate is spinach, not only is it high in vitamins and minerals, it is low in calories. One cup is just seven calories. Having two cups of pasta, the calories and carbohydrates add up quickly, however, having two cups of spinach is virtually nothing. Spinach salad makes for a fantastic lunch. Just chop up a boneless skinless chicken breast and toss it on top of a bed of spinach, add some low fat dressing and your done. A healthy meal that only takes 10 minutes to make.

3. Only protein after 8pm.

Since your body stores excess carbohydrates that it doesn’t use as fat, it’s best to have the bulk of your carbohydrates at breakfast and post workout. Towards the end of the night you want to taper off the carbohydrates and stick to high protein, low carbohydrate foods and drinks.

A high protein snack before bed may include a couple glasses of milk, protein shake, yogurt or cottage cheese.

Cottage cheese is an excellent source of protein, if you can stand the taste. If you can’t, try adding some flavored yogurt to it. Sounds weird doesn’t it? Try it.

With cottage cheese you are getting a casein based protein which is slower digesting than whey protein. Providing on average 16 grams of protein per half cup with a little over 100 calories, it is the perfect pre bed snack.

Often you tend to get hungry at night, that is when binge eating starts. You go for anything you can get your hands on and don’t stop until the bag is empty. If you know you are going to be up for a little longer have some peanut butter or some kind of healthy fat source. Healthy fats are great for you and they are the most filling compared to carbohydrates or protein. Fat is calorie dense, 9 calories per gram. Keep that in mind.

Controlling calories at night time had a major impact on my success as far as losing weight quickly goes.

These three small changes in my diet helped me drop from 205 pounds to a lean 180 pounds in just 2 months.

“Don’t eat a lot before bedtime”
“Don’t eat midnight snacks”
“Don’t eat anything after 7pm”
“Don’t eat any carbs at night”
“Don’t eat any carbs after 3 pm”
and so on…

I too believe that eating lightly at night is usually very solid advice for people seeking increased fat loss, especially for people who are inactive at night. However, some fitness experts today, when they hear “eat less at night,” start screaming, “Diet Voodoo!”…

Opinions on this subject are definitely mixed. Many highly respected experts strongly recommend eating less at night to improve fat loss, while others suggest that it’s only “calories in vs calories out” over 24 hours that matters.

The critics say that it’s ridiculous to cut off food intake at a certain hour or to presume that “carbs turn to fat” at night as if there were some kind of nocturnal carbohydrate gremlins waiting to shuttle calories into fat cells when the moon is full. They suggest that if you eat less in the morning and eat more at night, it all “balances itself out at the end of the day.”

Of course, food does not turn to fat just because it’s eaten after a certain “cutoff hour” and carbs do not necessarily turn to fat at night either (although there are hypotheses about low evening insulin sensitivity having some significance). What we do know for certain is that the law of energy balance is with us at all hours of the day – and that bears some deeper consideration when you realize that we expend the least energy when we are sleeping and many people spend the entire evening watching TV.

I had the privilege of interviewing sports nutritionist and dietician Dan Benardot, PhD, and he gave us a very interesting perspective on this.

Dr. Benardot said that thinking in terms of 24 hour energy balance may be a seriously flawed and outdated concept. He says that the old model of energy balance looks at calories in versus calories out in 24 hour units. However, what really happens is that your body allocates energy minute by minute and hour by hour as your body’s needs dictate, not at some specified 24 hour end point.

I first heard this concept suggested by Dr. Fred Hatfield about 15 years ago. Hatfield explained how and why you should be thinking ahead to the next three hours and adjusting your energy intake accordingly.

Although it’s not really a new idea, Dr. Benardot has recently taken this concept to a much higher level of refinement and he calls the new paradigm, “Within Day Energy Balance.”

The Within Day Energy balance approach not only backs up the practice of eating small meals approximately every three hours, AND the practice of “nutrient timing” (which is why post workout nutrition is such a popular topic today, and rightly so)… it also suggests that we should adjust our energy intake according to our activity.

Let’s make the assumption most people come home from work, then plop on the couch in front of the TV all night. Let’s also assume that the majority of people go to bed late in the evening, usually around 10 pm, 11 pm or midnight. Therefore, nightime is the period during which the least energy is being expended.

If this is true, then it’s logical to suggest that one should not eat huge amounts of calories at night, especially right before bed because that would provide excess fuel at a time when it is not needed. The result is increased likelihood of fat storage.

From the within day energy balance perspective, the advice to eat less at night makes complete sense. Of course it also suggests that if you train at night, then you should eat more at night to support that activity beforehand and to support recovery afterwards.

Those stuck on a 24 hour model of energy expenditure would say timing of energy intake doesn’t matter as long as the total calories for the day are in a deficit. But who ever decided that the body operates on a 24-hour “DAY”?

Try this test (or not!): Eat a 2500 calorie per day diet, with nothing for breakfast, nothing before or after your morning workout, 500 calories for lunch, 750 calories for dinner and 1250 calories before bedtime.

Now compare that to the SAME 2500 calorie diet with 6 small meals of approximately 420 calories per meal and then tweak those meal sizes a bit so that you eat a little more before and after your workout and a little less later at night.

Both are 2500 calories per day. According to “24 hour energy balance” thinking, both diets will produce the same results in performance, health and body composition. But will they?

Does your body really do a calculation at midnight and add up the day’s totals like a business man when he closes out the register at night? It’s a lot more logical that energy is stored in real time and energy is burned in real time, rather than accounted for at the end of each 24 hour period.

24 hour energy balance is just one way to academically sort calories so you can understand it and count it in convenient units of time. This has its uses, as in calculating a daily calorie intake level for menu planning purposes.

Ok, but enough about calories, what about the individual macronutrients? Some people don’t simply suggest eating fewer calories at night, they suggest you take your calorie cut specifically from CARBS rather than from all macronutrients evenly across the board. Is there anything to it?

Well, there’s more than one theory. The most commonly quoted theory has to do with insulin.

The late bodybuilding guru Dan Duchaine was once asked by a competitor,

“I want to get cut up for an upcoming contest. Should I eat at night? I heard I shouldn’t eat carbs after six pm.”

Duchaine answered:

“It’s true that insulin sensitivity is lowest at night. Let’s discuss what is happening in your body that makes it dislike carbs at night. Cortisol, a catabolic hormone, is highest at night. When cortisol is elevated, your muscle cell insulin sensitivity is lowered…”

More recently, David Barr wrote a tip on “lower carbs at night” for T-Muscle Magazine. He said:

“Even when bulking, you don’t want to start scarfing down Pop Tarts before you go to bed. Our muscle insulin sensitivity decreases as the day wears on, meaning that we’re more likely to generate a large insulin response from ingesting carbs. Stated differently, we’re more predisposed to adding fat mass by eating carbs at night because our body doesn’t handle the hormone insulin as well as it does earlier in the day.”

Mind you, Barr is a not a “voodoo” guy; he is a respected scientist who also happens to be well known as a “dogma destroyer” and “myth buster”… and Duchaine, although he had a shady past and some run-ins with the law, was nevertheless highly respected by nearly all in the bodybuilding world for his ahead-of-his-time nutrition wisdom.

As a result of advice like this, word got out in the bodybuilding and fitness community that you should eat fewer carbs at night. Real world results and the “test of time” have suggested that this is an effective strategy. I also don’t know a single nutrition or training expert who doesn’t agree that insulin management and improvement of insulin sensitivity aren’t effective approaches in the management of body fat.

However, it’s only fair to point out that not all scientists agree that cutting carbs at night will have any real world impact on fat loss, outside of any additional calorie deficit created by it. Dr. Benardot, for example, doesn’t think there’s much to it. He says that exercisers and athletes in particular, usually have excellent glycemic control, so the ratio of macronutrients should not be as much of an issue as the total energy balance in relation to energy needs at a particular time and the meal frequency (eating every 3 hours).

Regardless of which side of the “carbs at night” debate you lean towards, if you consider the within day energy balance principle, it makes perfect sense not to eat large, calorie-dense meals late at night before bedtime.

Keep in mind of course, that cutting back on your calories and/or carbs at night makes the most sense in the context of a fat loss program, especially if fat loss has been slow. It’s quite possible that I might give the exact opposite advice to the skinny “ectomorph” who is having a hard time gaining muscular body weight.

Also consider that this doesn’t necessarily mean eating nothing at night; it may simply mean eating smaller meals or emphasizing lean protein and green veggies (or a small protein shake) at night.

Many programs suggest a specific time when you should eat your last meal of the day. However, I’d suggest avoiding an absolute cut off time, such as “no food or no carbs after 6 pm, etc,” because people go to bed at different times, and maintenance of steady blood sugar and an optimal hormonal balance even at night are also important goals.

A more personalized suggestion is to cut off food intake 3 hours before bedtime, if practical and possible. For example, if you eat dinner at 6 pm, but don’t go to bed until 12 midnight, then a small 9 pm meal or a snack makes sense, but keep it light, preferably lean protein, and dont raid the refrigerator at 11:55!

An important rule to remember in all cases, is that whatever is working, keep doing more of it. If you eat your largest meal before bed and lose fat anyway, I would never tell you to change that. Results are what counts. On the other hand, if you’re stuck at a fat loss plateau, this is a technique I’d suggest you give a try.

Night time eating is likely to remain a subject of debate – especially the part about whether carbs should be targeted for removal in evening meals.

However, perhaps even those who are skeptical can consider, that if cutting out carbs at night is effective for fat loss, it may be for the simple reason that it forces you to eat less automatically.

In other words, setting a rule to eat fewer calories or to eat fewer carbs at night may be a very effective way to keep your daily calories in check and to match intake to activity, whereas people who are allowed to eat ad libitum at night when they’re home, glued to the couch and watching TV, etc., may tend to overeat when food is readily available, but the energy is not needed in large amounts.

Me personally? Unless I’m weight training at night, I have always reduced calories and carbs at night when “cutting” for bodybuilding competition. It’s worked so well for me that I devoted a whole section to it in my program, Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM) and I call the techniques “calorie tapering” and “carb tapering.” For more information on how I use these methods to help me reach single digit body fat, you can visit: www.burnthefat.com

I have seen too many people go through the yo-yo dieting and by the time they get to the correct answer for effectively losing fat (which is a healthy and balanced diet), they have screwed up their metabolism so much and it takes a long period of time to regulate it again.

If you are looking to lose body fat permanently, you must boost your metabolism by developing lean muscle tissue. In addition to solid strength training workouts, you must fuel your body with a healthy nutrition plan.

Look at a car as an example. If your car does not have enough fuel (gas) it will not run correctly and eventually stop until you refill it. If you do not provide your body with enough fuel (food) it will also not run efficiently.

In order to lose weight and fat you must expend more calories than you take in. This concept makes sense but the problem lies when people actually under eat and end up slowing down their metabolism. This happens because eventually your body goes into protection mode and holds onto as much fuel as possible.

The key to effective fat loss is to properly fuel your body with the right foods at the right times. Here are some key points to help your nutrition plan become as efficient as possible.

1. Eat 5-6 small meals and snacks per day. This will help regulate your blood sugar, prevent overeating at night, and keep you energized for training sessions and daily activities.

2. Eat about 20 grams of protein with every meal. Protein provides the building blocks for our muscles and also is slower to digest thus keeping you full longer.

3. Eat complex carbohydrates and avoid too much sugar and starch. Carbohydrates provide our bodies with high amounts of energy but stay away from the refined and simple kinds. Whole grain breads and rice are better than white but try to get as much fiber and carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables.

4. Choose smart snacks between meals. Eat a small snack between every meal to help regulate your blood sugar and energy levels. This will keep your meals smaller and ultimately cut down on the amount of calories you eat. With this you are well on your way to losing body fat. Great snack choices include; unsalted natural nuts, Greek yogurt, low fat cottage cheese, low fat chocolate milk, Balance Bars, fruit, and veggies.

5. Consume a post-workout nutrition shake. Drink 8-12 ounces of low fat chocolate milk immediately after you train in order to refuel the body, maintain hydration, and help with recovery. This will also prevent overeating if you wait too long after your training session. This small amount of protein will refuel and recharge without adding a lot of calories. The carbohydrates will provide energy and help transport valuable nutrients.

Eating small meals and snacks containing nutrient dense foods (proteins, healthy fats, and fiber) will help to maintain blood sugar and energy levels, and will ultimately give you enough calories to support healthy fat loss and muscle gain. Fill your day with lean proteins (chicken, turkey, fish), fruits, vegetables, low fat dairy, nuts, whole grains, and plenty of water.

Be sure to avoid the “less is more” principle when it comes to eating because if you are eating healthy foods and timing them correctly, you will be in great shape for losing body fat and developing a great metabolism.

Pioneering scientists, such as Dr. Peter Lemon PhD, have proved what successful gym users have known for years – building a great physique requires a diet rich in high quality protein! Increased protein intake also prevents muscle loss during dieting and is vital for any man or woman looking to add muscle or simply tone up. Research suggests you need up to 1.7-2.5g of high quality protein per kilo of bodyweight per day to build muscle as fast as possible e.g. an 80kg male needs 136-200g per day.
So you know you need to increase your protein, but what is the best source?
Proteins vary in their ability to supply high quality amino acids for muscle building within the body, based on their biological value (or BV). The higher the BV, the more effective the protein source. Whey protein (a refined and isolated protein derived from cow’s milk) is considered by scientists to be the ultimate protein, due to its high concentration of essential, non-essential and branch chain amino acids; and has a higher BV than casein, chicken or egg protein.
Whey’s high BV means that consuming small amounts can have greater muscle building / toning results than eating other proteins. Whey protein is easily digested and absorbed quickly into your muscles where it can supply essential amino acids required for muscle growth and recovery. Its unique absorption and high biological value means it can boost recovery and physique development better than any other protein. Whey protein is usually sold as a powder which you mix with water or milk to create an instant shake. This is why a good whey protein shake is often the most convenient way to ensure you get the protein you need.
Whey or Casein- which is superior?

You may have seen some sports nutrition products containing a ‘new’ slow digesting protein called micellular casein. However, the reality is casein has been around for years and micellular casein is nothing more than skimmed milk protein without the carbohydrates. Canadian scientists found that whey protein was six times more effective at improving exercise performance than casein!
Incorporating whey protein shakes into your routine

“Whey is particularly high in the amino acid glutamine, which is the most abundant amino acid in muscle tissue and may boost muscle growth and prevent muscle wasting.”
Build Muscle and Tone:
If you train hard in the gym, your muscles need amino acids every 2-3 hours to aid recovery and growth. Whey is superior in rapidly supplying hard trained muscle tissue with vital amino acids.
Optimal Workout Nutrition:
Pre-training nutrition can have a dramatic effect on your success in the gym. Whey is considered by many experts to be the ultimate pre and post workout protein because it boosts protein synthesis (making new muscle) and creates the ideal environment for muscle growth.
Support Your Fat Burning:
Calorie restricted diets can lead to hard earned muscle tissue being burnt as fuel, and as a result your metabolism can grind to a halt. Research has found that whey protein can keep you fuller for longer, making it easier to keep to a calorie controlled diet, giving you even better results. Therefore people looking to diet will find whey protein shakes not only low in calories and useful to preserve and build muscle mass or tone, but also excellent in reducing those cravings that often kill most diets.
Boost Recovery:
Whey has positive effects on your body’s protein synthesis, muscle building hormones and immune system; it can significantly improve muscle recovery, and get you back in the gym as soon as possible. Convenient nutrition 24-hours a day: Whether you’re looking to burn excess fat or build muscle, your body needs high quality protein every 2-3 hours – with whey, you have an easy way to consume protein whenever you need to during the day.

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References:
1. Lemon, P.W.R. (1998). Effects of exercise on dietary protein requirements. International Journal of Sport Nutrition, 8, 426-447
2. Lands, L.C., Grey, V.L., & Smountas, A.A. (1999). Effect of supplementation with a cysteine donor on muscular performance. Journal of Applied Physiology, 87, 1381-1385
3. Cribb, P. J., Williams, A. D., Hayes, A., & Carey, ,. F. (2002) The effect of whey isolate and resistance training on strength, body composition, and plasma glutamine. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 34, S1688

Typically a fighters training camp will run 4-6 weeks of brutally intense training. If a fighter shows up in camp in pretty bad shape the training means to get him in great shape can often leave him over trained just barely surviving the training camp. This is do to the high and hard amount of training he will partake in to get his weight down to get in shape. So the fighter starves, runs all these miles and works the bag for many rounds yet no recovery is usually planned. The next line of action is check weight if the fighter is still heavy. Even if a fighter isn’t that bad out of shape, they are still being told that the other fighter is training even harder so they burn themselves even more by picking it back up.

The best solution is to monitor the fighters readiness before training intensely. If the fighter comes to training wore out, why beat a tired horse even more. It’s not weakness the fighter is showing, it’s the fighters body telling the trainer something. The trainer needs to pay close attention to his boxer and at the same time implement recovery modalities after the training to ensure proper training readiness/freshness. The fighter will then show up to the next training session rejuvanated and ready to train hard. You are then building the fighter up and not breaking them down.

Again, Why beat a tired horse? I’ll repeat this again too, naive boxing trainers look at over training as not training hard enough. This has got to stop. We know what happens with this scenario. If the team would monitor training readiness and use recovery techniques such as massage and proper post workout nutrition, they would obviously be building the fighting beast they seek to have ready at fight night. In training we are only as good as we recover. If we don’t recover we don’t progress. It is ridiculous for fighters to show up to the fight fatigued by barely surviving their training camp. Implementing recovery methods will ensure this won’t happen.

Here are some recovery methods that can be successfully applied to the fighters training: foam roller, massage stick, goose bump ball, deep tissue massage, steam room, hot tub, and post workout nutrition. Mineral and epson salt baths work well too. Nutrition on a whole determines how well a fighter can train and recover. If the fighter is bloody starving himself to make weight, that’s the fight itself and it’ll cost the fighter the fight.

By gaging the training intensity of the fighter you allow the fighter to recover better and not peak to early for the fight. It is far better to rest for a day or two and decrease the intensity of the training then to peak before the fight! The fighters who have to take off all the pounds and come to camp out of shape can peak 3 weeks before a fight! This is the reason they can look so flat during the fight. Look deeper and the truth comes out.

I hope this article has shed some light on why applying recovery techniques and modalities in boxing training can determine the success or apparent early downfall of the fighter. The new motto of enlightened, experienced trainers is “Less Is More”. Based on their fighters performances who follow this new slogan, who can disagree?

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Here are the principles below;

Right after you wake:

Fill your plate with high quality protein, slow digesting carbohydrates, and healthy fats.

Every 2.5-3 hours after Breakfast:

Waiting more than 4-5 hours between meals causes you’re your blood sugar to bottom out, leaving you weak, irritable and tired. The solution: frequent meals. Eating ore often helps regulate blood sugar levels, protecting your muscles from being broken down and used as energy.

How to eat:

Eat more protein rich foods because 30% of its calories are burned during digestion, compared with 8% of carbohydrates, and 2% of fats.

High Quality Protein; eggs, egg whites, fish, lean beef, turkey, chicken, low-fat milk, low-fat cheese, and plain-low fat yogurt are a few great examples.

Slow Digesting Carbohydrates; oats, onions, tomatoes, beans, green vegetables, berries, oranges, and apples are a few great examples.

Healthy Fats; olive oils, canola oil, fish oil, flaxseeds, nuts, sunflower seeds, olives, and avocados are a few great examples.

Consideration:

Carbohydrates; the fast-digesting kind-breads, pasta, rice, potatoes, baked goods, and candy-raise blood sugar quickly. This signals your body to stop burning and start storing fat, and forces it to use the excess sugar for energy instead (this is okay though before, during and after you workouts when your body is far more equipped to handle fast digesting sugars). High-sugar carbohydrates aren’t always bad. In fact sometimes they’re the smartest foods you can eat. The secret is timing. When you consume these sugars is very important to your goals.

After you workout: Fast-digesting carbohydrates are more desirable than the slow-digesting type. That’s because an intense workout changes your body’s priorities. As sugar is absorbed into your blood stream, it’s preferentially shuttled to your muscles-instead of being used as fuel-and is stored there for later use. The kicker is that this forces your body to accelerate the rate at which it burns fat for energy.

When to consume simple carbohydrates:

Immediately after you finish exercising, ideally this should be a liquid meal, which speeds up the absorption of protein and carbohydrates to your blood stream. 1 hour after the post-workout shake is ideal for eating a solid meal with fast absorbing carbohydrates. Even better, combine fast and slow-acting carbohydrates with protein by choosing a lean meat and a green vegetable to go along with pasta, rice, or a potato. Once you’ve eaten this meal all the meals here after should be from slow-digesting carbohydrates.

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