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You don’t need to eat a lot of carbs after a workout to build muscle—30 grams works just as well as 90 grams when combined with essential amino acids, because the amino acids drive muscle growth, not...
After lifting weights, the main reason muscles grow is because the body makes more new muscle proteins—not because it breaks down fewer old ones. Adding more carbs doesn’t change this, because...
After resistance training, consuming essential amino acids with a small amount of carbohydrates (30 g) improves muscle growth just as much as consuming a much larger amount (90 g), because the...
After a strength workout when muscle sugar is normal, the activity of genes that signal muscle breakdown drops significantly within a few hours.
When muscle sugar is low before a workout, genes that signal muscle breakdown are more active, but this effect stops after one strength session.
Starting a strength workout with low muscle sugar doesn’t turn on genes that help muscles grow bigger, compared to starting with normal sugar levels.
One intense strength workout eliminates any differences in gene activity caused by having low or normal muscle sugar before the workout, meaning the workout itself is a stronger signal than starting...
In trained athletes, having low muscle sugar stores before a strength workout leads to higher activity of certain genes related to metabolism and muscle breakdown at rest, but after one intense...
When male bodybuilders eat large amounts of plant-based food to build muscle, their saturated fat intake is about half the recommended maximum—around 5% of calories—making it potentially better for...
Even when eating enough plant-based food to build muscle, male bodybuilders get less vitamin D than recommended—about 536 IU per day instead of the 600 IU needed—meaning they likely need supplements...
Male bodybuilders eating large amounts of plant-based food to build muscle consume nearly four times the recommended daily sodium limit, but this may be less concerning because they lose large...
When male bodybuilders eat enough plant-based food to support muscle growth, they get more than enough of nearly all essential vitamins and minerals—except vitamin D, which is too low, and sodium,...
When male bodybuilders following a strict plant-based diet eat enough calories to build muscle, they naturally consume more than enough protein and leucine—key nutrients for muscle growth—without...
Even when people who lift weights do fewer reps and feel more tired, they can still build muscle just as well as those who train harder, as long as they eat enough protein and calories.
When people who lift weights regularly follow an 8-hour eating window during a muscle-building diet, their upper-body strength and endurance improve just as much as those who eat the same food...
People who eat all their food within an 8-hour window during intense weight training often feel more tired and less motivated to train hard compared to those who eat the same food spread out over the...
When people who already lift weights regularly follow an 8-hour eating window during a muscle-building diet, they tend to do fewer reps and gain less strength in squats compared to those who eat the...
When well-trained people lift weights and eat more calories than they burn, restricting food intake to an 8-hour window each day leads to similar muscle gains but less fat gain compared to eating the...
The amount of fat consumed in the diet is associated with changes in testosterone levels in the blood, with higher intake between 50 and 150 grams per day linked to higher levels.
People who feel more energized during their workouts tend to perform more total exercise, and this higher exercise volume is linked to larger muscle growth.
When muscle glycogen levels are much lower than normal, the biological signals that trigger muscle growth after weight training are less active.
Consuming at least 0.25 grams of fat per pound of body weight each day is enough to support basic bodily functions and the production of hormones.
When people engage in resistance training, eating protein across four to six meals per day leads to higher rates of muscle protein synthesis than eating the same amount of protein in fewer meals.
To build the maximum amount of muscle mass while lifting weights, consuming more calories than the body burns is required.