Should Protein Be Spread Throughout the Day?

By now, you have probably heard me talking about the importance of protein intake, especially for female athletes over 40. But it is much more nuanced than just hitting your protein numbers. Spreading your protein intake throughout the day will help you trigger protein synthesis and avoid operating in a state of protein breakdown. If You Want to Spread Your Protein Out Throughout the Day, You Should: Work with a coach who understands how much fuel you need to support your training and goals Understand how protein synthesis and protein breakdown work in the body Pay attention to your amount of protein throughout the day and properly fuel for your training Why Balanced Protein Intake Matters When it comes to triggering the process of muscle protein synthesis, ending with a positive muscle protein balance, or being in an anabolic building state, how you spread out your protein throughout the day does really matter.  When there is not enough energy available to your body, the overall net balance of your system is shifted towards protein breakdown and puts you in a negative balance state. As female athletes over 40, we are already more susceptible to struggling with losing muscle mass over time, which is why it is key to align our fueling, nutrition, and training for optimal results. Putting Knowledge Into Action Understanding the science behind this matters, but it is also equally important to know how to navigate all of this information. I want to help you think about your own daily habits and patterns so that you can make the changes in real life, which is not always so easy to do.  The point is not to be perfect or to be stressed out about every single gram of protein. I understand the technical pieces, performance nutrition pieces, and mindset pieces around eating more, fueling differently, and rethinking the way you view your training and nutrition. My goal is to equip you with the knowledge and know-how to implement these systems into your life and build habits and processes around them. Are you ready to rethink the way you view protein intake and include more opportunities in your daily life to get your muscle synthesis going? Share your thoughts with me in the comments on the episode page. In This Episode Learn about positive protein balance, and why it is a foundational understanding you need to have (6:05) The two main phases of building muscle that takes place in a trigger threshold system (11:05) Why you need to understand muscle protein synthesis to comprehend the importance of specific amino acids (14:08) What a skewed distribution of protein can look like, why it is not optimal, and how to do it better (21:50) Practical ways that you can implement your protein knowledge (28:34) Quotes “It is important that we understand, especially as women over 40, that we need to strength training, and we need to eat enough, particularly enough protein so that we keep ourselves in as much of a positive protein state or an anabolic state as possible.” (9:12) “When it comes to the muscle protein synthesis process, we really need to think about getting enough of a very specific and very special amino acid.” (13:40) “Protein distribution here is a close second to total protein in terms of how important it is when it comes to protein energy balance.” (17:39) “This isn't just about vanity muscles yall. Okay, it's like cool to feel strong and badass and lift heavy shit and have muscles and flex your biceps, that's all great. But it's also about the quality of life, independence, longevity, metabolism, metabolic health; this is so so critical.” (21:42) “The best time to make a change, if it wasn't 10 years ago, if it wasn't six months ago, the best time to make change is now.” (33:08) Featured on the Show Apply for Strength Nutrition Unlocked Here International Society of Sports Nutrition Find the full show notes here Follow Steph on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Pinterest I'd really love it if you would take 1 min and leave us a rating and review on iTunes! Podcast production & marketing support by the team at Counterweight Creative Support the Podcast Get 20% off Legion Supplements with code STEPH Get 10% off GORUCK with code FYS10 Follow Steph on Instagram Rate and review on Apple Podcasts Related Episodes FYS 375: Strength Training Changes for Peri-Menopause and Post-Menopause with Dr. Stacy Sims FYS 376: Post-Menopause, Fasting, and Low Carb in Athletic Women with Dr. Stacy Sims FYS 393: 3 Ways to Increase Your Metabolism as an Athlete FYS 394: Within-Day Energy Deficit  FYS 395: How to Calculate Your Daily Protein Needs