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Clockwork nutrition: precision eating will help you pack on pure muscle

Men's Fitness, August, 2004 by Sean Hyson

There really is a secret formula to building more muscle faster than ever before. And the side effects don't include acne, baldness, or shrunken testicles. It's called "nutrient timing;' and it's a revolutionary new system of exercise nutrition based on the latest research in biochemistry. The key: It focuses not just on what you eat but when you eat it, which may be the most important factor in building the body you want.

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In their book Nutrient Timing, authors John Ivy, Ph.D., a professor and chairman of the department of kinesiology at the University of Texas, and Robert Portman, Ph.D., president and director of research at PacificHealth Laboratories, Inc., a leading nutrition-technology company, note that hard training and healthy eating are not enough to optimize muscle growth. Instead, their research reveals that if you time your eating schedule around your workouts, you can build muscle, gain strength, minimize muscle soreness, and bust through lifting plateaus without changing your exercise program or total caloric intake.

The following summaries from some of Nutrient Timings key chapters can help you learn how to apply this system to your current workout. And you thought biochemistry was just for geeks.

THE SYSTEM

Your muscles operate on a 24-hour cycle, during which they produce energy, recover from your last workout, and grow. Coordinating when and what you eat with each of these phases will maximize their erect. Simply combine the guidelines for each phase below with a healthy diet (see page 134 for our seven-day muscle-building meal plan), then stand back and marvel at the results. For each phase, you'll find a recommendation for a ready-made supplement mix, which meets that phase's unique nutritional requirements. You can also eat solid food, but a beverage may provide improved delivery because of its quick digestability. (To find out how to make your own nutritious shakes, see "Ingredients Sold Separately" on page 124.)

1. Energy Phase

This is the period that occurs during your workout. Since weight workouts require your muscles to repeatedly generate high levels of force, they need high rates of energy--so it makes sense to eat during your workout.

A steady supply of nutrients will provide energy that will allow for strong muscle contractions and help set the stage for a fast recovery afterward.

When: Ten minutes before and every 15 to 20 minutes during your workout.

What: Drink 20 grams of carbs and five grams of protein mixed with 12 ounces of water before your workout, and then again during your workout, consuming equal portions every 15 to 20 minutes.

Ready-made mix: Endurox (14 servings: $30 @ enduroxr4.com)

2. Anabolic Phase

This is the most important phase in the system, when your muscles are most sensitive to your food intake. It's the 45-minute window immediately following the end of your workout, when your muscles are breaking down as a result of training hard. Skimping on the right food now would be disastrous--you will have torn down muscle that won't grow back bigger. But eating the right nutrients will switch on your body's response to insulin, the hormone that causes a huge surge in post-workout muscle-building activity.

When: Within 45 minutes after finishing a workout.

What: Drink 45 grams of carbohydrates and 15 grams of protein mixed with 12 ounces of water, for a total of 240 calories.

Ready-made mix: Countdown (14 servings: $23 @ GNC)

3. Growth Phase

The final phase is the 18- to 20-hour period after the Anabolic Phase, during which your body makes most of its gains in muscle mass and strength. It contains two important time segments. The first, the Rapid Segment, is the period of high muscle-building activity occurring in the four hours after the Anabolic Phase (assuming you consumed the right ratio of nutrients in the Anabolic Phase). The second is the Sustained Segment, in which muscle growth continues but at a slower rate. This phase lasts for several hours, and it's greatly influenced by your overall diet.

When: To maximize the Rapid Segment, eat within the first four hours after the Anabolic Phase. The Sustained Segment starts about five hours after your exercise session and lasts until your next workout, so eat frequently.

What: Rapid Segment: Drink 20 grams of carbs and five grams of protein mixed with 10 ounces of water. Sustained Segment: Eat protein-rich meals or snacks every two to three hours.

Ready-made mix: Nitro-Tech from MuseleTech (31 servings: $40 @ muscletech.com)

Ingredients Sold Separately

You'll know exactly how many grams of protein and carbs you're getting if you mix your own muscle-building supplement drinks. You can buy protein and carbohydrate mixtures separately and combine them as needed. For protein, choose the whey variety. It's the highest-quality protein, containing all the essential amino acids, and it's absorbed by your body the fastest. It works best for all three phases in the Nutrient Timing system, although casein protein is also a good option for the Sustained Segment of the Growth Phase. (Casein is digested more slowly, so the protein is delivered in smaller amounts but at a constant rate.) For carbohydrates, choose maltodextrin--a complex carbohydrate that is absorbed quickly into the bloodstream for fast energy and also stimulates a sharp rise in insulin to decrease protein breakdown. (Common table sugar--also known as sucrose--works as well.) Simply mix the appropriate amounts of protein and carbohydrate with the recommended amount of water (depending on the phase you're in), and you'll have an instant muscle meal. Protein Factory (proteinfactory.com) has nine different flavors of whey protein, as well as maltodextrin, sold by the pound. So there's one for you, no matter what your unique taste.

Clockwork nutrition: precision eating will help you pack on pure muscle

Men's Fitness, August, 2004 by Sean Hyson

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