Hi

i have been reading that some body builders would put on there
alarm clocks to get up in the middle of the night to eat...
to prevent the catabolisation of muscle.

is this a effective method in reducing muscle loss.?

Hi

i have been reading that some body builders would put on there
alarm clocks to get up in the middle of the night to eat...
to prevent the catabolisation of muscle.

is this a effective method in reducing muscle loss.?
I'd say yes.

The negative side-effect being that waking up in the middle of the night detriments your sleep. Sleep being an important factor of muscle growth as well.

i rarely get 8-9 hours uninterupted sleep.
i normally sleep for four hours then i have to wake up to say my prayers
which takes about 5-10 mins ..then i go straight back to sleep for another
4-5 hours.
would you say cottage cheese or protein shake is better?

thanks

Bodybuilders on gear who are trying to maintain 250+ pounds of pure muscle....I'd say definitely need to eat in the middle of the night.

Purposely waking up and interrupting REM sleep just to eat is not a good idea for most folk.

Muscle and health don't always go hand in hand. If you are already up and hungry or bulking, by all means have a snack, but if you are forcing yourself to get up, I wouldn't do it.... it could become a rollercoaster that you might have a hard time getting off ;)

In some circles, you hear about how your body doesn't have any food at night, so you're catabolic, and how your body spends the whole night devouring itself for fuel. It sounds downright horrific and seems like good reason to wake up for a shake. However, I dispute those statements based on one simple fact: it's perfectly natural and biologically ingrained to just sleep. If sleep was such a terrible time, and the body truly was devouring itself during this awful 8 hour fast, then you wouldn't be programmed to sleep that long.

Humans have evolved to naturally do what is best for survival. If we were meant to eat in middle of the night, there would be a mechanism in place to wake us up to do so. Due to the very fact there's not, I'm going to say when it's time to sleep...you're meant to just sleep. If you want to drink a shake, by all means. But if you don't wake up to do so, I think you're OK.

i would think that a casein based protein drink before bed would be your best bet.

some folks also like to eat a little bit of peanut butter and some cottage cheese. something about the proteins absorbing slowly and feeding the muscles through the night.

user, i wouldnt even worry about things like this unless my name ends with Cutler or Coleman with 5 weeks left before the olympia....Just drink a glass of milk (maybe couple of egg whites) and call it a night....I buy pasteurized egg whites, so I normally add 1/2 cup of egg whites, 1/2 cup of milk, and 1/2 of whey....Protein from the best of all worlds

If you're awake during the night and you're not currently in a cutting phase, it's likely beneficial to have something to eat, especially a mixture of complex carbohydrates and protein. Otherwise, you're better off having a hefty prior to bed meal and enjoying uninterrupted rest.

In some circles, you hear about how your body doesn't have any food at night, so you're catabolic, and how your body spends the whole night devouring itself for fuel. It sounds downright horrific and seems like good reason to wake up for a shake. However, I dispute those statements based on one simple fact: it's perfectly natural and biologically ingrained to just sleep. If sleep was such a terrible time, and the body truly was devouring itself during this awful 8 hour fast, then you wouldn't be programmed to sleep that long.

Humans have evolved to naturally do what is best for survival. If we were meant to eat in middle of the night, there would be a mechanism in place to wake us up to do so. Due to the very fact there's not, I'm going to say when it's time to sleep...you're meant to just sleep. If you want to drink a shake, by all means. But if you don't wake up to do so, I think you're OK.
Actually, it's well known that we do not "naturally" sleep in one long burst. It's only been in the past 150 years or so that we've adapted to this schedule as a result of cheap, widespread artificial light sources.

The following is taken from the Wikipedia article on sleep:

"Recent research suggests that sleep patterns vary significantly across human cultures. The most striking differences are between societies that have plentiful artificial light and ones that do not. Cultures without artificial light have more broken-up sleep patterns. This is called segmented sleep, which led to expressions such as 'first sleep,' 'watch,' and 'second sleep' which appear in literature from all over the world.

Some cultures have fragmented sleep patterns in which people sleep at all times of the day, and for shorter periods at night. For example, many Mediterranean and Latin American cultures have a siesta, in which people sleep for a period in the afternoon. In many nomadic or hunter-gatherer societies people sleep off and on throughout the day or night depending on what is happening.

Since plentiful artificial light became available in some cultures in the mid-19th century, sleep patterns have changed significantly in these cultures. These people sleep in a concentrated burst at night, and sleep later in the morning."

Also check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmented_sleep

i rarely get 8-9 hours uninterupted sleep.
i normally sleep for four hours then i have to wake up to say my prayers
which takes about 5-10 mins ..then i go straight back to sleep for another
4-5 hours.
would you say cottage cheese or protein shake is better?

thanks
If you wake up anyway, you might as well take something to eat. Cottage cheese or a protein shake depends on what you prefer, I think both would have the same effect as far as feeding your muscles with protein. Personally, I would prefer cottage cheese, because I feel that a shake would possibly make you wake up once more a few hours later to go to the bathroom :)

Waking up in the night to eat is a level of obsession that is unnecessary for someone who is just beginning down the path of fitness. If you were at a weight gain plateau a few years down the line then it may be a strategy to employ but such a thing is unlikely. As it stands though, eating at night does more strongly pertain to 240lb+ body builders who are using all methods to keep muscle mass on, including steroids. Don't bother waking up for it, but eat if you're already awake.

:tu:MANY THANKS for the replys. as i suspected it would probably be beneficial as i wake up any way. also as im trying to increase lean muscle mass over the next year ill try some cottage cheese and almonds and see how i go in my quest