Shake During the Night?

Diet and Nutrition
1

Who here goes to the extreme of waking up in middle of night and downing a shake to prevent catabolism during 8 hours or so of sleep? I am convinced with my retardedly fast metabolism that after a nights sleep im smaller and weaker.

And in an article on heer i think writen by Dave Barr it pretty much says if you don’t your selling yourself short in terms of what you could be gaining. I feel like im taking 2 steps forward and 0.5 steps back when i goto sleep and yea i have cassein shake right before I hit the sack…

2

I wake up around 9am, my fiance wakes up at 6am, and always wakes me up. So, I have a whey shake + Leucine handy and go right back to bed.

I wouldn’t wake up on purpose for a shake.

3

I wouldn’t either. I love sleep and I don’t see the point of disrupting your sleep cycle. I think resting is just as important as nutrition.

4

I used to, back when I was a skinny little runt and needed to build. Not willing to do that anymore.

5

I did for a bit; but then it got to be a PITA.

toss some extra BCAA’s in your last shake and maybe some melatonin to get the better level sleep and your body shouldn’t self destruct.

6

I think 30 minutes of sleep is more important for most people.

7

[quote]pzehtoeur wrote:
I wouldn’t either. I love sleep and I don’t see the point of disrupting your sleep cycle. I think resting is just as important as nutrition. [/quote]

Same. As JF mentioned, though, it may be a good idea to have a shake handy and keep it nearby in the event you wake up to piss or something.

While I don’t agree with disrupting sleep on purpose just for a few extra grams of protein, I’m not opposed to taking advantage of a situation, either.

8

my first thought is just add more casien or some bcaa’s into your pre-bed shake.

another option is to keep a shake in the fridge at night. if you happen to wake up in the middle of the night to pee, then drink it. but i think an uninterrupted night’s sleep is more important.

9

[quote]anonym wrote:
pzehtoeur wrote:
I wouldn’t either. I love sleep and I don’t see the point of disrupting your sleep cycle. I think resting is just as important as nutrition.

Same. As JF mentioned, though, it may be a good idea to have a shake handy and keep it nearby in the event you wake up to piss or something.

While I don’t agree with disrupting sleep on purpose just for a few extra grams of protein, I’m not opposed to taking advantage of a situation, either.[/quote]

beat me to it.

10

[quote]iamthewolf wrote:
anonym wrote:
pzehtoeur wrote:
I wouldn’t either. I love sleep and I don’t see the point of disrupting your sleep cycle. I think resting is just as important as nutrition.

Same. As JF mentioned, though, it may be a good idea to have a shake handy and keep it nearby in the event you wake up to piss or something.

While I don’t agree with disrupting sleep on purpose just for a few extra grams of protein, I’m not opposed to taking advantage of a situation, either.

beat me to it.[/quote]

Great minds, my friend.

11

I keep a small cooler next to my bed with a couple of ice packs and a shake. If I happen to wake up sometime during the night I’ll drink it otherwise I just drink it when I wake up in the morning.

12

If you really need to eat in the middle in the night then your diet during the day is seriously lacking.

Eat more during the day. Sleep at night. Not complicated

13

no need to keep a shake cool at night, unless you use milk or something

15

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
anab0lic wrote:
and yea i have cassein shake right before I hit the sack…

Well there’s part of your problem. Add some oil to the shake. Otherwise most of the casein will just be used for energy, not as building blocks for muscle.

BBB[/quote]

GREAT Advice! I personally do a serving of MCT oil and a serving of Flax oil with my casein shake…
Another thing I will do when bulking is
Cottage cheese
Casein protein
Flax Oil
MCT Oil
5g Leucine
I used to wake up full when I did this lol works very well.

I also keep a premixed serving of BCAAs by my bed in case I wake up in the middle of the night…

16

what about if u wake to pee at the same time every night, i mean would u guys have a shake?

17

There are obvious benefits to doing it. The main question is, are you a very heavy sleeper, and how dedicated to gaining muscle are you. If you look at it this way, time spent in a year being either in an anabolic state or a catabolic state. No matter what you put in your pre-bedtime shake, in 4 hours you are going to be catabolic. Especially because sleeping triggers repairs, so you will be burning through proteins faster than awake, after all you are in that repair stage.

So if you sleep 8 hours a night, you are catabolic for 4 hours every night. Multiply that by 365 and over the course of a year you are in a catabolic state 1,460 hours, just from your sleep. Thats 60 days my friend. It’s pretty simple, if you can do it, obviously getting 60 days worth of anabolic vs catabolic state is going to produce results. If however, you just can’t do it for whatever reason, it’s not like you can’t make gains without doing it. Barr is correct, it is optimal to do this, it is not required however. Also once you get into a routine doing this, you can do it almost in your sleep, especially if you keep one close by. Alarm goes off, you hit the button, grab shake, pound, go back to sleep. Should take you 2-5 minutes. This is not going to effect your nights sleep once you accustom yourself to it.

V

18

[quote]crod266 wrote:
what about if u wake to pee at the same time every night, i mean would u guys have a shake?[/quote]

Absolutely I prefer BCAAs+oil because its a lot less liquid to chug down in the few minutes but a shake works too… Just have it ready before bed so you dont completely wake up… Sleep is very important for GH and Testosterone release so it should not be overlooked.

20

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
egnatiosj wrote:
crod266 wrote:
what about if u wake to pee at the same time every night, i mean would u guys have a shake?

Absolutely I prefer BCAAs+oil because its a lot less liquid to chug down in the few minutes but a shake works too… Just have it ready before bed so you dont completely wake up… Sleep is very important for GH and Testosterone release so it should not be overlooked.

I try to stay away from co-ingesting BCAAs and oil, simply because the insulin release, combined with high levels of triglycerides is not (IMO) a good idea for lean gains.

BCAA with casein and oil, OK, because the casein acts to slow the rate at which the BCAAs can enter the blood stream, so they work in tandem with the casein to build muscle. Plus the oil is also absorbed slowly in this case, over hours.

BBB[/quote]

I didn’t know BCAA’s gave one an insulin spike? I thought only Carbs, and specifically, short chain carbs in adequate amounts gave one an insulin spike. I think taking BCAA’s and oil would be perfectly fine, allthough adding some caesin certainly isn’t going to hurt anything. The reality is that Metabolic Drive complete is pretty much ideal for bedtime and mid-night shakes. I mean you can add some leucine or other additives, but it’s pretty well going to give you what you need. I generally add some frozen berries to my shakes, adds some low GI carbs, but also a shit-ton of antioxidants and other polyphenols or whatever that plant stuff is called.

V