Frequent meals are superior for muscle-building 💪💪

When you consume a protein-rich meal, you stimulate muscle protein synthesis (MPS) – the process through which you build muscle

MPS peaks about 1.5-2 hours after a meal and returns to baseline after 3-5 hours.

Consuming multiple meals per day allows you to stimulate MPS frequently and spend the majority of the day in an anabolic state

On the other hand, fasting leads to 1-2 big spikes in MPS but the majority of the day is spent in a non-anabolic state

While consuming all of your protein in 1-2 meals may lead to large spikes in protein synthesis, they cannot make up for having missed multiple protein feedings

This visualization represents how multiple protein feedings keep you in an anabolic state throughout the day, while fasting only leads to minimal time where MPS is elevated

All of this being said, if fasting allows you to adhere to your diet then you should follow it. However, if you want to maximize muscle growth, then having multiple protein feedings will be important. Those are the tradeoffs to consider 💪

If you want more great information on all things nutrition, including meal timing and frequency amongst countless other topics, stop into Valley Strength and Fitness, Clackamas and Happy Valley’s premier personal training facility.