Protein drink before bed...Yes or No? [Forum Archive]

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Protein drink before bed...Yes or No?

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Posted by: dippa66

I have been having a protein drink before going to bed, but not sure if it is of any use, anyone have any ideas on the pros and cons of this?

Posted by: Arra

If it's whey protein, whey digests pretty darn quickly, so it's not great for bed (though taking in fats with it would help quite a bit).

If it's casein protein, it slowly gives your muscles the amino acids they need for about 7-8 hours.

Egg protein is somewhere in between the two, and unsure about Soy, probably the same as egg.

It's up to you whether any are needed

Posted by: theCaptn'

Raw eggs have slower absorbtion than casein . . the trade off is low bioavailability.

What About Other Proteins?
So far all I’ve focused on is whey and casein as these are the proteins that have been predominantly studied. Unfortunately, there is far less data on the speed of digestion of other proteins. Soy has been examined and appears to be a fast protein; note from my article Milk: The New Sports Drink? A Review that milk was found to be superior to soy protein for gains in lean body mass with training. This is thought to be due to the rapid digestion and amino acid profile of soy.
Beyond that not a tremendous amount of data exists. One researcher collected what is available and I’ve reproduced his data (originally printed in The Protein Book) in the table below
ProteinAbsorption Rate (g/hour)Raw Egg Protein *1.4Cooked Egg Protein *2.9Pea Protein3.5Milk Protein3.5Soy Protein Isolate3.9Casein Isolate6.1Whey Isolate8-10Tenderloin Pork Steak *10.0
* Measurements marked with an asterisk should be considered as the roughest estimates as the studies used indirect measurements of protein digestion.
Clearly there is a large variety for protein digestion rates although, as noted, some of the above values should be taken as very rough estimates.
I’d note again that this has some implication for the idea that you must eat protein every three hours. With the exception of whey, where 40 grams of protein would take roughly 4 hours for complete absorption), all proteins listed would still be digesting for far longer than the magic 3 hour period.
Once again, this is getting a bit too long so I’m going to save the final bit of this discussion for Part 3, which I’ll post on Monday. In that article I’ll look at the current fascination in the sports nutrition industry with protein hydrolysates along with a few minor topics.

Posted by: JMRQ

I need to pick up a jar of Casein protein for nights...

Posted by: Mh000

Good info TY !

Posted by: unclem

^^^^i have a protein shake with a handful of bcaas before bed and i set my alarm and wake up and drink just whey protein and a hard boiled egg. i always make my meals in a 3 day set so i only cook e3days. now that i got a great diet because i hired someone because i dont know to much about dieting, bulk diet yes but cuting diet not that much.

Posted by: N_I_C_K

What exactly is casein protein? Can you buy a "casein isolate" or do you get it in certain foods?

Posted by: Arra

Originally Posted by N_I_C_K

What exactly is casein protein? Can you buy a "casein isolate" or do you get it in certain foods?

Casein is milk protein. Micellar Casein seems to be the choice of many as far as powders go, though there's calcium caseinate, and a few other choices out there.

Posted by: N_I_C_K

Originally Posted by Arra

Casein is milk protein. Micellar Casein seems to be the choice of many as far as powders go, though there's calcium caseinate, and a few other choices out there.

Don't think I've got the money to spent on another powder at the moment. So should I just drink milk before I go to bed?