So I have found myself over the past month or so to be eating more food and more often. I have been told this is related to my fitness level cause I have been working harder and my body is burning more energy. I understand I need to eat more calories per day now, but wanted to see if their were other items along with this I should have.

A friend of mine suggested having a protein shake in the morning which would help me out. But this left me with a couple questions before I start doing this.

1. What is the gain from this (just per calories, muscle, or something?)
2. If I stop riding for a week will having this extra protein each day cause problems?
3. Is it really worth doing this? Like is it healthy or just a waist of time?

If your legs hurt when you start riding, and continue to hurt while you ride, you need more protein. Otherwise, probably not. Everyone's legs hurt a couple days after a hard ride, protein or not.

Protein requirements in endurance athletes are mostly dependent on hours per week of exercise, because it gets burned right along with the carbos. If you are riding 150 miles per week or so, I'd say it's a real good idea, but after exercise is the most important time, rather than in the morning.

Eating more protein than necessary for building or repairing muscle is just calories. However, it can have other benefits as it reduces appetite and thus can assist with weight loss.

Hammer Nutrition suggests taking your protein shake just before bed - they claim that having protein just before bed (without carbs) helps to stimulate your body's production of Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which helps with recovery.

Most weightlifters do the same thing, because your body does most of its muscle synthesis at night while you're asleep.

On days when I've worked out hard, I have a shake just before going to bed. Typically, it contains 20-25 grams of whey protein in a glass of water, with 5-10 grams of glutamine (which seems to help with recovery and muscle soreness).

I use https://www.theconsumerlink.com/Accelerade. Just after a ride.

it isn't just hammer nutrition. That's pretty much what you do to gain muscle mass.

a protien shake in the morning is pretty useless. Your body is building while you sleep, not while you are going through your workday.

also remember that your body can only use somewhere around 40 grams of protien at a time. Extra protien is just worked out through your kidneys or stored as fat or something like that, so don't go too crazy there.

The real benefit of the protien shakes and powders is that the protiens are already broken down into a form your body can use directly so you don't have to break down the meat in your digestive tract. It can be used faster, basically.

but the point is you can also eat lean meats and fish to get your required protien. You can also eat combinations of non meats like bread and cheese or beans and rice to get all 8 essential amino acids. That's what our veggie brothers and sisters do. It's a good thing protien is so easy to get into your diet. Otherwise human beings would never have made it this long.

I do understand that their is pain involved and I dont attribute that to lose in protein even know I need more. I get pretty banged up during the week cause I play indoor soccer Sunday and Thursdays and its a little rough in are division.

Besides that I definitely do ride 150+ miles a week, and I know I do not eat enough protein during a day. Its not because I am not eating the right things its more I cant consume enough food to keep me going. This probably attributes to my lower performance on recent rides with my legs going quicker then in the past.

For weight loss thats about the last thing I want right now ha. I lost about 25 pounds just from biking and adding a extra day of soccer per week. I am a little more bonny then I would like right now ha. That said I am still losing a little weight but not as quickly when I should be gaining weight at this point. so the protein and added cals per day will definitely help. I am eating around 2500 per day as I look at it were I should be way more with my activity levels.

Just to give some numbers and I have been told these really dont mean much cause its your weight related to ur height. I am 5,11 and currently weight 167.3 which from what the doctors said is around average for me height. I should be heavier I believe but I need more muscel mass. My body fat levels I would believe to be low, cause I look at myself and I dont have much fat on me as I can tell. I would be interested to see exactly how much I have though.

In all the end goal of this is really to get as much out of daily protien and cals to keep me in good working order. I dont want to have huge muscels like body builders but I want the muscels I uses for biking to be well developed and get as much out of each ride.

Yes, right about all that. Been there. Here's what I do during the height of my summer schedule: 15g whey protein about 1/2 hour before breakfast and lunch. 15g 1 hour before riding. 15g along with some carbs (sugar or maltodextrin) immediately after riding. Another 15g right before bed. I'm a vegetarian, so don't get a lot of protein from normal diet. This is probably more than enough, but I find the 15g before breakfast and lunch allows me to eat a little less without getting hungry later.

The scoops that usually come in protein powders are a little big - 25g-30g usually. I think it's better to take a little less at any one time and spread it out more during the day.

If low protein intake is responsible for your reduced performance, this program will fix it. If not, then that's not the problem!

I actually bought a bag of whey protein because I wasn't getting enough. Then I changed my diet, and I think I get plenty of protein at this point. I consumed around 157grams yesterday. I keep meaning to make protein shakes, but end up either making regular shakes with fat free Farmers cheese, light tofu added in, or making delicious desert with fat free vanilla yogurt, fat free farmers cheese, and strawberries.

I have some what of a protien diet you could say already. I have at least 1 meat or chicken product each day normally at lunch. I eat fairly healthy you could say, not a huge snack person so its normally fruits or veggies when I am not having a huge meal.

This should be good cause I can drink it in the morning and after rides since it is not time entensive to create. That said I dont think I am lacking that much protien per day, but I will give it a try and see cause I could be wrong. I know this question might very, but based on peoples past uses how often do you normally see results after? Mainly want to know this so I can see if I am just tired or something else is off.

So I went to GNC and picked up some Whey Protein, they had their brand of sale for $13.00 and had 32 servings in each.

I looked at the numbers on the back, and it seems like I should have more then 20grams of protein after a ride right? Or is 20 a good amount to have cause that's 1 scoop of this stuff. A piece of chicken has like 30grams from what I read on a couple sites.

GNC is whey over-priced...you can find it for a lot less online, or at CostCo.

I think 20 is a good number. I wouldn't use more. More important to have small amounts spread out. Body can't use too much all at one time.