Pre-Sleep Protein Ingestion to Improve the Skeletal Muscle Adaptive Response to Exercise Training

Abstract

Protein ingestion following resistance-type exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis rates, and enhances the skeletal muscle adaptive response to prolonged resistance-type exercise training. As the adaptive response to a single bout of resistance exercise extends well beyond the first couple of hours of post-exercise recovery, recent studies have begun to investigate the impact of the timing and distribution of protein ingestion during more prolonged recovery periods. Recent work has shown that overnight muscle protein synthesis rates are restricted by the level of amino acid availability. Protein ingested prior to sleep is effectively digested and absorbed, and thereby stimulates muscle protein synthesis rates during overnight recovery. When applied during a prolonged period of resistance-type exercise training, protein supplementation prior to sleep can further augment gains in muscle mass and strength. Recent studies investigating the impact of pre-sleep protein ingestion suggest that at least 40 g of protein is required to display a robust increase in muscle protein synthesis rates throughout overnight sleep. Furthermore, prior exercise allows more of the pre-sleep protein-derived amino acids to be utilized for de novo muscle protein synthesis during sleep. In short, pre-sleep protein ingestion represents an effective dietary strategy to improve overnight muscle protein synthesis, thereby improving the skeletal muscle adaptive response to exercise training.

Acute and sustained effects of a periodized carbohydrate intake using the sleep‐low model in endurance‐trained males

“…The food items used for each training block were oat bars (PurePower, Denmark), dried fruit (System Frugt A/S, Denmark), fruit bars (The Whole Company Food A/S, Denmark), fruit juice (PURE, Harboe, Denmark), and protein water (Arla MOVE, Arla, Denmark). Before sleep, all participants ingested 20 g of PRO, 1.3 g of CHO, and 2.1 g of FAT from a commercially available powder (Arla MOVE, Arla) to facilitate protein synthesis and recovery overnight …”

“…Before sleep, all participants ingested 20 g of PRO, 1.3 g of CHO, and 2.1 g of FAT from a commercially available powder (Arla MOVE, Arla) to facilitate protein synthesis and recovery overnight. 28 To detect whether total food intake differed between groups, all participants recorded individual food and fluid intake for 4 days before and during the intervention (Madlog, Denmark). Of these 4 days, 1 day was a weekend day to ensure inclusion of a day independent of a training block.…”

“…Based on these findings, we decided to add a crosssectional investigation of the influence of aerobic training state on protein expression of the proteins in Figure 5. Therefore, we compared all thirteen pre-values from the present study with a reference group, including seven recreationally active men (VO 2 -max = 49.8 ± 4.6 mL·kg −1 ·min −1 , range 41.1-55.1 mL·kg −1 ·min −1 ) from a previous study performed in our laboratory with similar age, sex, and BMI (median (range) age of 27 (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35) year; BMI of 24 (23-29) kg·m −2 ). 23 V O 2 -max was significantly different between groups (unpaired t test, P < .001).…”

Pre-Sleep Casein Protein Ingestion Does Not Impact Next-Day Appetite, Energy Intake and Metabolism in Older Individuals

“…Recently, it was shown that pre-sleep protein ingestion in older individuals is successfully digested, absorbed and incorporated in de novo protein synthesis during the overnight period [15]. Thus, the overnight period, which under normal circumstances is linked to postabsorptive muscle catabolism, could be used to maximise muscle anabolism with important implications in sarcopenia [16,17]. In addition to the potential for overnight muscle anabolism, pre-sleep protein ingestion has been reported to increase next morning resting metabolic rate (RMR) and fat oxidation, potentially conferring beneficial changes in body composition over time [18].At present, the effect of pre-sleep protein ingestion on next morning appetite and metabolic health parameters in older individuals is unclear.…”

Nutrition tactics to improve post-exercise recovery

“…For example, early work by Bergstrom and Hultman demonstrated that an intravenous glucose infusion reduced muscle glycogen breakdown by ~20% during 60 min of cycling [5]. While many subsequent studies have observed a lower rate of muscle glycogen utilization when carbohydrate was ingested during prolonged exercise [9,[41][42][43][44][45][46], others have failed to confirm these findings [47][48][49][50][51]. For example, Coyle et al observed an increase in time to fatigue when subjects ingested carbohydrate during exercise compared to a placebo, despite no differences in muscle glycogen utilization between the treatments [47].…”