At what point does the body stop absorbing food nutrients?

[Chris09]

Ok, I have heard lots of stuff about getting lots of protein after a work out. When you work out it is good to get nutrition in you to rebuild. I understand that everyone is going to be different, but at what point is it too late?

How long does it take for the protein to go from my mouth to my muscles? When you work out, your body rebuilds with nutrition from your food. At what point is it finished? If I eat a ton of protein 5 minutes after working out, will it go to rebuilding muscle from that work out? What if I get the protein 1 hr, 2 hr, or 5 hrs later?

Lets say for example, someone works out lifting really hard at 5 am and then piles on the protein all day eating a lot ensuring the body is getting what it needs to rebuild. At what point will the body stop using the stuff you are eating to rebuild and just start storing it as fat?

Let say I eat 3 big meals through the day, one first thing in the morning, then one at lunch and the other at dinner. Then late that night, I go running. Will I be burning the food off that I ate on all three meals? Will breakfast and lunch already have gone into storage and I will only be burning off dinner?

How exactly does all this work? Thanks

[sooner_ed]

In my opinion, your body will not store fat until after you go to sleep. Until then, you continue to burn what you have eaten.
Three hours max after your workout your body will continue to use the nutrients. Immediately after your workout is optimal for your pwo shake. Then about an hour later, a protein and carb meal with another one about an hour after that. That is assuming you are wanting to maximize your muscles getting the nutrients that it needs after a workout. Some bodybuilders follow this religiously while others are not so strict about it.
As far as eating throughout the day, again if you're looking to maximize this thing, six small meals a day is ideal as it will keep a constant and steady flow of energy and help keep your metabolism high. Eating big meals only serves to stretch your stomach, among other negative aspects.

[Lady C]

Your body will store any excess food it cannot process in a couple of hours, regardless of the time of day. If you eat three big meals it is likely that you are either hungry in two hours or ate too much and the body stored some as fat for later.

Post workout your body is craving carbs to replenish its glycogen. If you don't eat enough of them then the body will break down protein and fat and covert them to glycogen. Not necessarily the protein you ate either. So that it won't take any of that hard earned muscle you should make sure that you eat some carbs for it to use. The frequent smaller meals ensures that your body is using everything you eat and not storing anything for later.

[B.A.]

Originally Posted by Chris09

Ok, I have heard lots of stuff about getting lots of protein after a work out. When you work out it is good to get nutrition in you to rebuild. I understand that everyone is going to be different, but at what point is it too late?

How long does it take for the protein to go from my mouth to my muscles? When you work out, your body rebuilds with nutrition from your food. At what point is it finished? If I eat a ton of protein 5 minutes after working out, will it go to rebuilding muscle from that work out? What if I get the protein 1 hr, 2 hr, or 5 hrs later?

Lets say for example, someone works out lifting really hard at 5 am and then piles on the protein all day eating a lot ensuring the body is getting what it needs to rebuild. At what point will the body stop using the stuff you are eating to rebuild and just start storing it as fat?

Let say I eat 3 big meals through the day, one first thing in the morning, then one at lunch and the other at dinner. Then late that night, I go running. Will I be burning the food off that I ate on all three meals? Will breakfast and lunch already have gone into storage and I will only be burning off dinner?

How exactly does all this work? Thanks

How "essential" it is for you to eat post training (volume and type of food) depends on the duration and intensity of your training. If you're running half-marathons as your training in order to compete in a full marathon then yes, you will be *considerably* glycogen depleted at the end of your training and as such should look towards eating a full meal with additional emphasis placed on carbohydrates. However if you're just doing 30 minutes on the cross trainer or 60 minutes lifting a few weights then you will not be glycogen depleted (in the sense that they must be replenished otherwise you'll be lethargic, breakdown muscle tissue, fall into a hypoglycaemic coma or whatever).

It takes anywhere between 3-5 hours for protein to be digested (from mastication to being absorbed via your small intestine). The anabolic process - where you're making contractile proteins to build muscle tissue - peaks 36-48 hours post workout. If you ate a tonne of protein, or more literally several hundred grams post workout, *most* of it would be excreted as waste or stored as fat.

The more protein you ingest over the course of the day the more "inefficiently" your body uses it i.e. the percentage of total protein ingested used for building muscle tissue decreases as you ingest more protein. The point at which amino acids are no longer used for anabolism but rather as energy, fat storage, excreted as waste cannot be determined for you here on this thread.

As for the last paragraph, how "big" are your meals and how "long" are you running for? Some other variables also include climate, your body mass, composition of your meal, period between last meal and commencement of running, glycogen levels etc.

~ B.A.