Quick: you just finished a workout. How long do you have to slam a protein shake before your gains evaporate? If you said 30 minutes, you've been lied to. If you said "it doesn't really matter that much," welcome to what the research has been saying for over a decade.
You must consume protein within 30-60 minutes of training or you'll miss the anabolic window and waste your workout.
The post-workout "anabolic window" is more like an anabolic barn door. Total daily protein intake matters far more than the exact timing of any single meal. As long as you're eating enough protein spread across the day, you're fine.
What the Science Actually Shows
A landmark 2013 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld, Aragon, and Krieger looked at every study on protein timing and muscle growth. Their finding? When total daily protein was matched, timing made no meaningful difference. The "window" effect seen in earlier studies disappeared once you controlled for the simple fact that people eating protein around their workout also tended to eat more protein overall.
What Actually Matters
Protein Priorities (In Order)
Practical Takeaways
Does this mean post-workout protein is useless? No. If you train fasted or it's been 4+ hours since your last meal, having some protein after training is smart. But stressing about whether you ate at minute 28 versus minute 47? That's anxiety, not science.
Simple Protein Strategy
Stop overthinking timing and focus on hitting your daily target:
- □Calculate your target: bodyweight (lbs) × 0.8 = grams of protein per day
- □Divide that across 3-4 meals, roughly evenly
- □Make sure one of those meals falls within a couple hours of training
- □Choose whole food sources first: meat, fish, eggs, dairy, legumes
- □Use a shake only if you genuinely struggle to hit your target with food
I've never had a client stall because they ate their chicken breast at 5:15 instead of 4:45. I've had plenty stall because they were eating 60 grams of protein a day when they needed 130. Focus on the big rocks.
- ✓The 30-minute anabolic window is largely a myth
- ✓Total daily protein intake is far more important than timing
- ✓Aim for 0.7-1g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day
- ✓Spread intake across 3-5 meals for optimal muscle protein synthesis
- ✓Post-workout protein matters most if you trained fasted