Whey during the day

[HUNTER13]

I have noticed if I have some whey first thing in the morning (and a cup of coffee of course) I seem to have more energy and be in a better mood. I have a shake at 7am and another around 12pm and workout around 530pm. Has anyone else experienced this extra energy? I know it's not just the coffee, because I don't feel the same if I skip the shake and only have a coffee.

[mdw2020]

Hunter-

I'd previously been following an intermittent fasting regimen where I only ate during an 7-8 hour window, beginning about 2 pm, a la Martin Berkhan at leangains.com. After recently reading some of Ori's blog posts and books, I've just started adding in a whey shake upon rising, again around "lunch" time, and yet again before working out, and not eating a full meal until the evening.

I think that the whey is doing two things for me:
- blunting a cortisol rise that occurred by not eating in the morning
- allowing me to go longer into the day without eating a full meal, getting to my workout time in a semi-fasted state

I less agitated eating the whey than with coffee alone, and better going into the early evening workout still fasted (Martin recommended a small meal to break the fast prior to lifting if you could not workout until later in the day). I do find the that I am more satiated adding some coconut oil to the plain whey, but I skip the coconut oil for the pre-workout shake.

Cheers,
Mdw2020

[HUNTER13]

Hey Ori or anyone that might know the answer to this question. I was thinking 1.  a straight shot of whey (well whey and water) first thing in the morning like I am doing now, and having some whey with my yogort at the 'lunch' time period. 2. whey at breakfast and lunch, with some yogort in between. 3. or should I just stick with the two whey shots during the day and my post workout whey? I really enjoy my whey with my yogort (which is totally organic, pasture raised, and local). It's like my pudding.

[HUNTER13]

Or will the yogourt a too much of an impact on the absorbtion of the whey? I read in a Dr mercola article that adding whey to raw milk was like making mothers milk, since I can't get raw milk I want to use yogourt. I am curious as to whether whey and yogourt in the morning is a good idea also?

[mdw2020]

3. or should I just stick with the two whey shots during the day and my post workout whey? I really enjoy my whey with my yogort (which is totally organic, pasture raised, and local). It's like my pudding.

Hunter-

I was waiting to see if anyone else had thoughts on this, but I will put my $0.02 in:
I think that the yoghurt would cause an excessive insulin spike and hence disrupt your fasted state if taken prior to working out during the under-eating phase. I believe that the significant benefit of the under-eating phase/intermittent fasting is actually a prolonged period without a significant release of insulin, and the whey with a little coconut oil (essentially pure protein and fat, respectively) do not engender any significant or prolonged insulin response. However, by taking the whey with some MCTs (in the form of the coconut oil) we get enough protein and fuel to promote muscle growth, or at least avoid muscle catabolism, while otherwise keeping our body in a fasted state.

However, I believe it is a very good thing to provoke an insulin response after working out by taking some carbs with your protein, as the insulin helps to shuttle the protein into the muscle. Combining your post-workout whey with yoghurt would be an ideal means of effecting this result; I use kefir or just straight raw milk combined with whey post-workout for this very purpose.

You should really consider an additional whey shot, without coconut oil, 30 mins. prior to working out as well. Making branched chain amino acids available to your muscle during workouts will facilitate improved performance and hence better results, but the jury is still out on the safety of taking highly processed BCAA isolates on their own- hence, whey is once again a good choice. Skip the coconut oil to allow for faster absorption and to avoid any stomach upset.

I'm curious to hear what others more knowledgeable than I think of this reasoning.

Cheers,
Mdw2020