# Weight Gain Shake Before Bed



## donsonic (Dec 16, 2008)

My 1st post so please help! I know it's pretty long-winded but i'd really appreciate some advice. Even if you just skipped to the bottom and looked at the questions.

I'm 1 of the guys who struggles to put on muscle, but recently i've started using a weight gainer between meals (in addition to upping protein and complex carbs in my meals) and my training's starting to produce more results

The gainer i'm using is real gains by universal nutrition as it seems to be a good mix of quick and slow release protein and complex carbs.

Obviously when you up your calories youre bound to put on some fat in addition to the muscle. But i was wondering whether i was making things worse for myself with my pre-bed shake. Previously i had a whey shake with milk. However i've heard that your supposed to have complex carbs before bed to aid muscle growth as well as slow-release protein rather than pure whey.

So i've started to use a smaller serving of the weight gainer in semi skimmed milk to give a total of around 35g protein and 35g complex carb (plus the sugar from the milk).

Will most of this just be stored as fat? Do I need to cut down how much I'm actually having before bed?

So 3 questions:

1) What's the ideal pre-bed shake? Ideally i'd want some sort of powder

(which I could add milk to if needed)

2) Do you need the complex carbs before bed? If so how much?

3) Is having lots of skimmed milk before bed e.g. 400ml bad as all the sugar will just be converted to fat?

Thanks for reading


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## flapjack (Mar 1, 2008)

I am no nutritional expert but I do know that when you are training hard your body is building your muscle whilst you sleep. If you want to put on some good slabs of muscle you will get some fat going on at the same time unless you are genetically gifted or an expert in nutrition. I would suggest a whey drink made with skimmed milk. Plenty of protien and just the carbs from the milk. The weight gainer before bed is probably a bit ott and will add a bit too much fat to your body. If you go to http://www.myprotein.co.uk/formulas/mp-formulas/bedtime-extreme-(1800g)/ they do a protien shake designed for just before bed.

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your training mate.


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## ParaManiac (Mar 20, 2007)

flapjack said:


> I would suggest a whey drink made with skimmed milk. Plenty of protien and just the carbs from the milk.


Welcome don

Neither Whey or milk are good choices before bed,both are insulogenic(rapid blood sugar rise) plus Whey has no longevity.

Choose a slower release protein powder(casein or milk concentrate),mix 40g with a small amount of water,so you're not up for a slash every hour,and also have a small amount of healthy fat from nuts,EV olive/flax/fish oil etc


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## Daz (May 21, 2009)

I agree with casein protein as its slow release feeds ure muscles as you sleep but a few carbs would be ok as ure muscles use energy to repair, creatine could provide adequate ATP for this process instead but there are night time supplements like SIS Nocte which provides all the slow release amino acids u should need. personally i tend to either eat cottage cheese and wholemeal crackers or some nuts followed by soup both usually with a cup of green or peppermint tea.


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## miles2345 (Mar 26, 2008)

you can also have regular whey protein, with peanut butter as the fats in the peanut butter slow the release of the protein through the night, you dont want carbs before bed and i wouldnt use milk before bed but this is personal preference more than anything. I wake up really mucus-y if i drink a loada milk right before bed


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