A lot of athletes and fitness lovers love to consume a protein shake just before going to bed in the night. This supplies muscles with important amino acids while they sleep, it is said to be good for muscle growth and repair. This has been confirmed by Dutch nutrition experts in this month's Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.



The study was done by sports nutritionist Peter Res, and is a first of it's kind. It's the foremost scientific analysis that's been done on the effect of a night time protein shake on athletes' muscles, and therefore is different from all the other reports that look at the effect of protein or amino acid ingestion before or after training.



The study workers did the experimentation with 16 fairly active – but not weight-trained – males in their twenties. Through the day the men ate ordinarily and trained their legs in the evening under lab circumstances: they did eight sets on a leg-extension device and another eight sets on a leg-press device. Right away after their training time the subjects were supplied with a shake made up of 60 g fast-absorbing carbohydrates and 20 g whey.

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Close to midnight, before going to sleep, the men drank 450 ml fluid. The fluid that the men in the control group drank contained nothing apart from some coloring solutions and flavoring [PLA]. The fluid that the men in the experimental group consumed had 40 g casein, a slow-digesting protein [PRO].



The protein in the shake was mildly radioactive, so that researchers would be able to track the amino acids in the men's bodies.



The men in the PRO group had visibly greater quantities of essential amino acids in their blood throughout their sleep than the men in the PLA group.



The analysts managed to follow the comings and goings of amino acid in the sleepers' bloodstream. The analysts also took tiny samples of leg muscle tissue prior the men went to sleep and when they woke up. This is how they learned that the ingestion of extra casein led to an raise in muscle protein synthesis and more muscle tissue growth.



"Protein consumed promptly before sleep is properly digested and absorbed, therefore executing muscle protein synthesis and bettering whole-body protein stability during post-exercise overnight recuperation", the researchers wrote.

 

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Does Drinking Water Help You Lose Weight?

​Everybody knows that drinking ample amounts of water each day will improve the immune system and will also keep you looking younger, but did you know it can also help in your pursuit of weight loss? This can confuse a lot of people of dehydration with hunger, setting them off to eat more food when actually their body is just asking a glass of water. Drinking plenty of water is a simple way for your stomach feel full or fuller without eating too much.



Drinking water helps you looking good in other ways, too. A new report demonstrated that dehydrated people did less reps and felt exhausted when they were working out, which can translate to hundreds of lower calories burned. And also, achieving a tradition of drinking water regularly through the day helps feel less bloated.



The next time you feel like having a snack, have a glass of water instead to see how hungry you feel after that. And when you're at a restaurant, be sure to drink a glass of water before you start ordering. You can also keep a small container of apples, a healthy sandwich, or a water bottle or a protein bar to help you out for when the hunger kicks in.

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