Best timing for shakes?

[ZeroPt99]

Hey guys.

The buddy I workout with and I both drink 2 protein shakes a day, and the rest of our protein comes from food. We both typically drink one shake immediately after working out. However, our pre-workout meals differ.

My PRE-workout protein is in the form of actual food, like eggs and oatmeal. He drinks a shake before working out. I save my other shake for mid-afternoon.

His opinion is that you need the first shake immediately upon waking, and the other immediately after working out. We both workout early in the mornings, roughly 1 hour after waking, before work.

Is he right that I need the quick-absorbing protein in a shake immediately upon waking up, or would it work just as well to get protein from real food? He says your stomach can't digest the real food fast enough to make good use of it within one hour, which is why he chooses a shake as his pre-workout protein.

I understand your fuel stores are diminished when you first wake up, but I question whether the protein from eggs is taking too long to get into my system to be useful at the gym an hour later. If the whey protein shake gets into your system quicker, perhaps that is a better solution.

Thoughts?

[NBRD1808]

Ive done both whole food and shakes before workouts and dont really mind either. If your worried about food not digesting quick enough within the 1hr time frame try getting up a little earlier to eat leaving more time for absorbtion. sometime i find a food meal first thing before training in the morning leaves me abit sluggish especially if im tired already but if i wake up more hungry a food meal makes me feel much better.

Over all a meal comming from whole food is superior to protein powders and if you are seeing results whith what you are doing then keep it up. some people choose to eliminate protein powder altogether from their diets so this would include having a PWO meal consisting of whole food instead of a shake (again the question of absorbtion comes to mind)

[Rugger02]

Ive done both whole food and shakes before workouts and dont really mind either. If your worried about food not digesting quick enough within the 1hr time frame try getting up a little earlier to eat leaving more time for absorbtion. sometime i find a food meal first thing before training in the morning leaves me abit sluggish especially if im tired already but if i wake up more hungry a food meal makes me feel much better.

Over all a meal comming from whole food is superior to protein powders and if you are seeing results whith what you are doing then keep it up. some people choose to eliminate protein powder altogether from their diets so this would include having a PWO meal consisting of whole food instead of a shake (again the question of absorbtion comes to mind)

^Agreed. I've seen my best results having eliminated all shakes from my diet. (Including PWO)
However the argument can be made that the fast absorbing shake in the morning is a good way to break your fast.
This also brings up the question that since it's fast absorbing as well as fast digesting, will your glycogen levels be depleted more quickly during your workout than they would be if you had real food, therefore making you catabolic more quickly?
I don't know the answer but I don't think either way is "Wrong" I would say if you both are seeing results then don't fix it if it aint broke.

[BuiltForThis]

I find when working out in the morning eating a Pro/Carb meal works the best for me. I have tried shakes in the morning before working out and I didn't really like it that much. After switching to a pro/carb meal I started to see improvements in my workouts. Also starting the day off with two shakes also doesn't work very well for me either.