The Absolute Best Bedtime Diet to Boost Muscle Growth and Recovery

For bodybuilders and athletes, the two most important meals for maximum muscle growth and recovery are right after a workout and right before bed. Many articles discuss proper post-workout nutrition; However, in the theme of before bed, the theme becomes a bit more blurred. This is an important decision as the night triggers muscle repair and growth in the body. When you sleep, your body spends its time repairing itself from previous workouts and getting stronger and bigger for future ones.

Problems arise when the body does not have enough nutrients at night to properly repair and rebuild the muscles in the body. If you are getting the optimal amount of sleep (8 to 10 hours), the body goes into a fasting state. As the body realizes that it does not have enough nutrients for muscle recovery, it will slow down these processes so that it can sustain itself. The key is to delay this from happening for as long as possible.

The perfect bedtime meal should solve two problems. The first is that you need to prevent the body from going into a fasted state for as long as possible in order for the body to optimally recover muscle. The second is that it must be formulated correctly in terms of nutrients so that you do not gain excess body fat with it. As you can see, the first and second problems get tricky, as too many calories will cause fat gain, and too few will not lead to optimal recovery.

So what is the absolute best bedtime diet? The best thing you can eat before going to bed is the following. Have a cup of 2% milk mixed with half a scoop of casein protein, then eat an apple. Casein protein is a slow digesting protein that will deliver a steady supply of nutrients to the body throughout the night. Milk is important as it will also slow digestion. Also, the fat in milk is important because it will be used primarily to repair cells in the body. The apple will provide simple and complex carbohydrates that will supply the body with nutrients early and late at night. Also, the insulin response to this meal will be relatively low due to the mix and mix of calories from multiple carbohydrate, protein, and fat sources. Now, the amount of this meal may need to be adjusted, as larger individuals may require more calories for optimal recovery; however, for most people, the casein protein shake and apple should do the trick. Also keep in mind that for days when your workouts were more intense, you may need to eat more of this same food, so that your body has all the calories it needs.