How much protein you eat in a day beats when you eat it

One of the oldest arguments in the gym is whether the shake goes before or after training. The experts' answer is anticlimactic: it does not really matter, so long as you are getting your protein in. Benefits show up either side of the session.

What happened to the anabolic window?

The period when the body supposedly uses protein most effectively for muscle — the metabolic window — was once considered very brief. Some put it at 30 minutes after exercise, others at two hours. That notion has largely been debunked over the past few years.

The current understanding is that the metabolic window can extend up to and past 24 hours. Studies are also finding the body continues to synthesise muscle for several hours after exercise. Getting protein in immediately before or after training simply is not as urgent as it was once thought to be.

There is a practical downside to forcing it, too. Chugging too much protein in one sitting can upset your stomach, and it can leave you too full to finish the session.

So what should you focus on?

Simple: if you are not getting enough high-quality protein to begin with, timing will not matter anyway. Research has found how much protein you eat in a day is a better predictor of muscle strength and size than when you take it.

The targets split by goal. The dietary guideline of about 0.36g per pound of bodyweight is the bare minimum to survive and is plainly insufficient for anyone wanting to gain muscle. Those building muscle should be around 0.8 to 1g per pound.

For a 180-pound man that works out at roughly 145g a day. It sounds like a lot until you break it up — three meals of 40g plus two snacks or shakes of 20g gets you there. One sports dietitian's advice is to raise protein a little at breakfast and in snacks, so you do not have to consume an entire steer in one meal.

How to place it anyway

Timing not being decisive does not mean placement is irrelevant. The practical recommendations look like this.

• Take 20 to 30g after a workout depending on activity level, and keep topping up through the day.
• Split the daily total rather than eating it in one sitting — roughly every three hours.
• "Parenthesise" the workout: part of a high-protein shake or bar about an hour before, the rest afterwards.
• Include carbohydrate in the shake — a banana or other fruit is enough — and use cow's or soy milk rather than oat milk.

Do not neglect carbohydrate

Looking only at protein is its own mistake. If a third of the plate is protein, the rest should be vegetables and grains. Carbohydrate is the fuel the body uses when it is active, and minimising it risks using some of your muscle to fuel training instead.

Carbohydrate is also needed to replace stored glycogen and can reduce the amount of muscle damage. Studies have found that supplementing with carbohydrate alongside protein after training helps recovery more than protein alone.

How this relates to your strength score

When the Big 3 stall, supplement timing is usually the first thing people adjust — and by the evidence above, that is the wrong order. Check total daily protein and total calories first, then volume and intensity, and only then timing.

A relative strength score is corrected for bodyweight, so your protein target moves with your bodyweight too: change weight and the gram target needs recalculating. That matters most during a cut — see calorie density dieting for lifters.