On my training days I train from 6-8.30, and by the time I get home (9pm) I want to eat another meal as I usually only have a small meal before training (have to leave work at 4.30 to get there), but I have to be in bed by 10.30 to get a decent night's sleep as I work early. What sort of food would be best?

1 cup pineapple, 1 cup papaya, a kiwi, a half-mango, a banana, some honey for flavor, and a cup of lowfat cottage cheese. The pineapple and papaya help digest protein and lower inflammation; the kiwi and mango also help break down proteins. The cottage cheese provides 32g of whey protein. You can make this into a smoothie by removing the cottage cheese and adding whey powder, 10oz of fat free milk, and some ice.

I cook vast quantities of food so that I always have some leftovers in the fridge that I can reheat quickly when my schedule is like yours. I also use shakes for a meal on the go, especially breakfast. That allows me to sleep a little longer because 5 hours a night isn't enough anymore.

Protien for sure and some veggies or whole grains depending on you. i can't eat many carbs before bed or i have trouble sleeping. chicken and steak can go from frig to plate in like 15 minutes or less. canned beans and veggies take 3 minutes in the microwave.

regular any company 30g protien bar under 300 calories, no bannanas too high ph. Mix that with a low calorie protien mix, that is whey/soy with aminos. Take AAKG nictric oxide post workout with half a pill of asprin. after an hour or so eat an apple. Its quick and easy.

If your going for a bulk stick to heavy meated pizzas and burgers, if you want a clean bulk stick to chicken and sythetics like protien bars and light calorie 28-32g protien shakes.

take vitamins post workout, your metabolism is high and you will metabolize the nutrients alot more efficiently as well as the vascular system being in full gorge the protien vitamins aminos ect.. will travel farther and faster

The cottage cheese provides 32g of whey protein.

-Sorry to split hairs, but cottage cheese is not whey protein. It's casien.

I have a protein shake made with fruit juice and unflavored whey protein right after training. After the hour drive home I have a small high quality meal light on carbs mostly good fat and protein.

Actually this has kinda been covered:

http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=26118&highlight=post+shake

Eat whoever you just beat up.

I usually have a protein shake, some yogurt, some fruit.

PL

-Sorry to split hairs, but cottage cheese is not whey protein. It's casien.

I have a protein shake made with fruit juice and unflavored whey protein right after training. After the hour drive home I have a small high quality meal light on carbs mostly good fat and protein.


Casien is a very slow burning protien, during my bulking i would eat about 4oz on 0% fat cottage cheese before bed time. Going to sleep with a good amount of casien will greatly battle catabolic damage during sleep and aid in hgh release and tissue rebuilding during your 3rd stage sleep cycle.

I usually get done running at 12:00am. I really shouldn't be eating anything then, right? More so becasue I'll be sleeping in like 2 hours.

I usually get done running at 12:00am. I really shouldn't be eating anything then, right? More so becasue I'll be sleeping in like 2 hours.


Running is very catabolic, anything over 130-140 bpm doing cardio will use muscle tissue before food for protien. This will occur up to 4-6 hour post workout if you spent at least 45 minutes on the cardio. Taking casien post workout or pre bed time will give you the slower digestion you need to give that release of protien over your "SLAR" phase(coneheads joke people). Casien or "cottage cheeseyness" before bed does a few things but here is what is most important.

Casien is an extremely easily absorbed protien
Cellular break down of casien is extremely difficult

what that means is that casien is easily absorb into your body and blood stream even when your metabolic rate is low IE when you are sleeping. When you do sleep you release hgh and grow new tissues. In fact the only time you do grow tissue or muscle is when you asleep. Casien before bed will absorb while your MBR is low and burn slow throughout the night because of the break down of the protien is pretty tuff. Its a buff protien. This gives you a long range of time you body will use the protien from casien to repair tissue in your legs from running. If you have absolutely no protien food in your system before bed it would pull from other muscles to get the protien source.

Thanks for the recommendations. How much cottage cheese should I eat? I weigh a bit under 60kg if that helps. Also would one of those natural yoghurt products do the same thing (I believe it has cassein in it) or is cottage cheese the most effective?

*ETA* I just ran 20 mins down the road (it's 10pm) to get some cottage cheese, and am now eating it, so don't think I'm not listening!

Tuna.

Thanks for the recommendations. How much cottage cheese should I eat? I weigh a bit under 60kg if that helps. Also would one of those natural yoghurt products do the same thing (I believe it has cassein in it) or is cottage cheese the most effective?

*ETA* I just ran 20 mins down the road (it's 10pm) to get some cottage cheese, and am now eating it, so don't think I'm not listening!
I would do a search of this forum. You're receiving some good and some bad advice here. Your question has been covered at length in other threads with much better advice and much more explanation than you're receiving here.

How deep of a sleep does one need to be in to experience more than negligible growth? Lately I've been sleeping very lightly, like I wake up every hour and fall asleep within 5 seconds, and it really sucks. But I am still growing and gaining weight. I am positive it isn't significant fat.

How deep of a sleep does one need to be in to experience more than negligible growth? Lately I've been sleeping very lightly, like I wake up every hour and fall asleep within 5 seconds, and it really sucks. But I am still growing and gaining weight. I am positive it isn't significant fat.
Your muscles grow regardless of whether you're asleep or not. It's necessary to rest them, to avoid further tearing them down, but sleep is only indirectly tied to growth. I believe there might be some hormonal aspects of sleep that can benefit muscle growth, but I doubt it's that significant.

The sleep is important in terms of your CNS, general health, and training intensity. So lack of sleep can certainly effect your growth, but it's an indirect effect.

At least that's my undersatnding.