Hi Fernando,

Thank you for the kind words.

The Protein prior to sleep section was written when the balance of evidence was less clear. I will update this section soon.

Taking pre-sleep protein can improves muscle mass gains. But from that study you don’t know if it’s because it’s because you’re ingesting additional protein, because of a timing effect, or that both contribute. But taking more dedicated studies on protein distribution/timing into account, there seem to be little evidence for the concept.

So in short:
– hitting your daily protein target is by far the most important. Protein distribution may have a small benefit, but I don’t expect much benefit from.

Now, as someone who practices intermittent fasting (skipping dinner), I found the Protein distribution and Protein prior to sleep sections confusing and potentially contradicting.

In the protein distribution section you argue that protein distribution has no clear benefit. You go into this in more detail in your other article, ‘Protein intake distribution: Beneficial, Detrimental, or Inconsequential for Muscle Anabolism?’

However, in the Protein prior to sleep section, you claim that “Protein supplementation (27.5 g) prior to sleep during a 12-week resistance training program improves muscle mass and strength gains (Snijders, 2015).” Well… yeah, because it’s protein. But does it provide a greater increase in muscle mass/strength gains compared to the same amount of protein ingested at a different time of day? The two studies quoted don’t seem to support that conclusion since their control groups didn’t receive protein in replacement of the shake.

So, what are your thoughts on protein prior to sleep? Is it especially important compared to protein ingestion at other times of day?

Thank you for the kind words!

Creatine is a pretty simple supplement. 3g/d saturates your muscles within a month and then maintains max levels.
I don’t really know a detailed discussion of the biochemistry of muscle protein synthesis from the top of my head, sorry.

Hi Miles,

Based on currently available evidence, there is likely little difference between all your protein in a single meal or distributing it over multiple meals.

Also, I just read your publication about no upper limit of protein intake. Does that mean taking a higher amount of protein at one time to get a higher MPS rate and letting the synthesis last for longer will be a more optimized way to consume protein?

Thank you for these two enlightening articles of yours about the prolonged anabolism in case of a unique daily protein intake. (Sorry for my late reply: I’ve happened to re-read your main article “by accident”. Too bad there doesn’t seem to be automatic e-mail notifications of replies, I almost missed yours!…)

Nice to see you come back to the article after several years.

I will slowly start updating it, so hopefully I see you in the comments again in the future!