Protein: It's best in the morning, studies show

Growing up for me, it was very common to not have any protein for breakfast during the week. I'm not saying my mom was lazy or anything, she definitely wasn't and she also had 4 kids. Our breakfasts were normally oatmeal or cereal and we had a ton of options for either one. Now that I am ever-so-slightly older than I was when I depended on my mom for sustenance and especially since I got into the game of building muscle, I've started to become more concerned about the amount of protein I am getting in my day and now, I am more concerned about when I get it as well.

We all hear stories about how breakfast is the most important meal of the day and a lot of us are also living in a world where it is the meal that we pay the least amount of attention to and just go for what is easy, rather than what is good for health and at least for me and millions of other people like me, for muscle growth.

For most westerners, the idea of eggs and bacon is associated with breakfast. Somewhere along the lines someone decided that because this is fried in a pan that it is somehow bad for you. I don't know if that is true or not and I also don't really care because it also happens to be the easiest. There are a ton of other proteins you could be getting for breakfast as well and it doesn't even have to be meat and eggs if you don't want it to be. Recent research shows that simply a protein shake would be sufficient as well if you are one of those people that totally skips breakfast and just heads to the coffee, which is something I have been guilty of at many points in my life. In fact, I am doing it right now!

The research was done initially on mice in Japan but it was determined, without any significant outliers that the mice who were given identical diets but during different times of day, had very different muscle results. The mice that were given higher levels of protein in the morning always developed more muscle mass than the mice that were given the same amount of protein at other times of day.

It has something to do with a complicated procedure that is called the "circadian rhythm" and it basically just means that your body processes certain nutrients differently throughout the day.

Obviously the mice weren't forced to hit the gym and lift, but the results showed that the mice that received a protein rich breakfast as opposed to dinner had a 17% higher level of muscle growth in their legs.

In a second test done on human women, the results were the same. The women who reversed their breakfast and dinner protein intakes experienced greater muscle growth than the ones who ate like most of us traditionally do. I have no idea why they just used women who were over 60, but that was the situation in his study.

It's important to keep in mind that unlike the nonsense that comes out of the supplement world, this was a carefully controlled scientific study that didn't have a particular product to sell anyone and you can read the really boring sciency writeup HERE if you want to.

So the bottom line is that if you are lifting for gains you really should consider switching up your protein game and focus on getting a lot more protein for breakfast than you are likely getting. For most people with real jobs this can be easily solved with a sugar-free whey protein powder turned into a shake with milk or water. This simple trick could be what is holding you back on your muscle gains and especially with whey powder, it is a very easy one to adjust!