protein shakes at night

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I’ve decided i’m going to try the whole nightfeed, protein shake at night, and I read Berardi’s article on it. He talks about having half before bed, then half 4 hours later. My question is, is it okay to just leave a premmixed protein drink sit like that for four hours? Most whey powders say to consume immediately. What’s the deal?

2

I have been doing it for the past week and a half and it has become habit. I find it has really helped with recovery as well. I mix up 2 scoops of whey right before bed and leave it in the fridge and get up 4 hours later and drink it. It hasn;t been a problem.
:slight_smile: groove

3

I also started protein shakes at night as well. I mix 60grams of Milk-Protein Isolates in 8oz of water + a few icecubes. (It melts down to 10 oz or so) I noticed the difference in my physique almost immedeately. I just drink 16 oz of water before I go to bed at 10pm which assures that I will wake aroung 1am to pee… I drink half then. I usually wake around 3am for some reason. I just reach over and finish the other half. Then up at 5:30am for my first meal of the day…

4

As long as you keep it cold (bedside cooler w/ice or fridge), it should be fine.

5

Thanks for the replies! I thought I would continue the same thought though, and ask, how long could a protein shake, properly stored, stay potent?

For example, I started bringing a pre-mixed shake in a thermos, in the fridge, to work, to have later in the day. It sits forabout 6-8 hrs. Is that too long?

And if its a P+F shake for anti-catabolic purposes before bed, how much is too much carb? Right now I’m using GNC ProPerformance because its one of the few that don’t have artificial sweeteners. It has 12g carbs per 40g serving, and fructose is the sweetener. Is that too much?

Thanks for all the help. I’m trying to be the best T-Man I can be…

6

Mayfield… Why not cut out all the added crap and buy on some CFM Whey or Milk-Protein Isolates from the ProteinFactory? Biotest low carb Grow rocks as well, and tastes great.

7

Why do you have to keep it cold? I often make a shaked with water and protein or even milk and protein and put it in my bag and drink it when im at uni, sometimes over 10 hours later. By then it most definetly is not cold. Am I doing something wrong. The only reasons to keep it cold that i can think of are, if the temp somehow affected protein quality, or if the heat led to bacteria growth and therefor disease (which i cant see happening). One reason for not having it cold is that when i drink cold stuff in the middle of the night it wakes me up more, and i thought the idea was to drink it and go straight back to sleep.

8

it should be ok to leave the shake for a while after mixing (gets warm) because we keep the actual powder at room temp. Is it not bad to store the powder in the fridge for example?

9

My comment was made based off the following paragraph from last week’s “STOP the Catabolic Insanity” by David Barr. It says:

“Store the drinks in some sort of thermal container with ice and a lid on top. That way, you can give your drink a few shakes when you wake up to make sure none of the proteins have coagulated.”

I honestly don’t know how big of an issue ‘protein coagulation’ is, but if a cold drink is prevents you from getting back to sleep immediately, it’s definately not worth it!

10

thanks

11

Something I do to slow the digestion of the Whey (it absorbs very quickly) is too either mix it with milk, or take a big ol wad of natural peanut butter with it. Yummy!

12

i have not done the night feeding partly because if i wake up i can’t go back to sleep easily. also i have no problem leaving my protein out for a couple of hours. it’s not like it’s getting cooked. make sure that it is mixed or blended well. laters pk

13

What were the changes in your physique? (sp)

14

I know the question about physique wasn’t for me, but I’m a hardgainer, and I’ve put on 4 pounds in a week, while keeping the same routine. And one thing that’s kind of funny is that I usually have trouble falling back to sleep too, but since i started the shakes at night, I have fallen back to sleep easily. I read in a book that the BCAA’s actually deepen sleep because of o2/co2 levels in the blood.

But back to my question: Berardi recommends avoiding excess carbs in the shake so you’re buring fat overnight. He also recommends cottage cheese,which has some carbs in it. So what would be an defined as ‘too much?’ Can anybody give me an Idea?