Maximum muscle building through the right combination of whey protein and casein
Deciding which protein to use at what times and for what reasons can be a difficult task. This article aims to shed some light on the differences between the properties and uses of the two most important proteins in a bodybuilder's arsenal. These two proteins are, of course, whey protein and casein, which are also known as fast and slow digesting proteins. This article will look at the properties of these proteins and try to highlight what is important to the user.
Facts and myths
So you have a choice between whey protein and casein or between fast-digesting and slow-digesting protein. Many bodybuilders swear by either whey protein or casein and believe that one of these proteins is superior to the other.
However, these people are completely wrong. Either they don't understand the scientific literature or they simply want to make an impression by making a point. Either way, these people are misleading others and I can assure the reader that such a view will ultimately lead to sub-optimal results.
To get the most out of protein supplementation, you need to use both types of protein in the right way at the right times. To get the most out of these two types of protein, it is important to know a little more about their specific properties.
Whey protein
Whey is a by-product of cheese production. When cheese is made, a thin liquid remains. This liquid is whey, which contains less than 1% protein. This liquid is concentrated and dried, resulting in whey protein powder. Whey protein is considered a fast-acting, or more accurately a fast-digesting protein. But what exactly does "fast" mean?
Fast refers to the time it takes for this protein to be fully metabolized, or more specifically, the time it takes for it to be digested, absorbed into the bloodstream, absorbed into the body's tissues and fully utilized.
The two dominant processes here are the formation of new protein from the individual amino acids formed during the digestion of protein or the oxidation to urea and possibly glucose. Urea is the main component of urine, while glucose is the basic human unit of carbohydrate. With whey protein, it takes less than half an hour before almost everything you have ingested circulates through your veins.
Amino acid levels in the blood reach their maximum sometime between 20 and 40 minutes after consumption. Within about an hour, the lion's share of the whey protein consumed will have gone through one of the different metabolic pathways - either protein synthesis or oxidation.
This is a good thing, as muscle growth depends on the balance between protein synthesis and protein breakdown. If the synthesis of new muscle protein is higher than the breakdown of muscle protein, then there will be a net increase in muscle mass.
With whey protein, it only takes 40 minutes for the blood levels of amino acids and protein synthesis to reach their maximum value and less than two hours after consuming a portion of whey protein, both values will return to their initial value. This is surprisingly fast compared to its counterpart casein or even complete protein foods.
Casein
Casein is considered a "slow" or more correctly a slow digesting protein. If you consume casein, you will reach maximum amino acid levels in the blood and maximum protein synthesis after about 3 to 4 hours.
However, the maximum amino acid levels in the blood do not even come close to those of whey protein. On a scale of 1 to 10, the maximum blood amino acid levels of whey protein would be 10, while casein would only achieve a meager 2.
But here is the real highlight. This behavior of casein is not a bad thing, but a good thing. Casein dramatically reduces the rate of protein breakdown and muscle growth, as mentioned earlier, is dependent on the ratio of protein synthesis to protein breakdown.
As you can quickly see, debating whether whey protein or casein is better and which of the two you should rely on exclusively makes no sense if you want to reap the maximum benefits of these proteins. To maximize muscle growth, you need to both increase the rate of protein synthesis and slow down muscle breakdown. You would be foolish to ignore either of these options.
What is the best way to combine the benefits of whey protein and casein?
Many readers will probably think that you should simply mix whey protein and casein to get the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple. This is due to casein's unique property of coagulating in the stomach, which means that not only casein but also other proteins present in the stomach are digested more slowly.
You can think of it as if you were trying to run through a lake of tar. It wouldn't be particularly easy and you would only be able to move very slowly. Casein does the same with whey protein and other proteins. So you can think of casein as a kind of binding gel.
This simple fact would therefore neutralize the most important and greatest advantage of whey protein: the ability to quickly flood the body and its systems with a large amount of amino acids and thus stimulate protein synthesis.
Some readers may now think that it would be best to avoid casein or only use casein before going to bed and instead consume whey protein throughout the day in order to continuously flood the body with a maximum amount of protein. Unfortunately, it's not that simple and such an approach would actually be counterproductive.
As scientific studies show, it is not the high amount of amino acids circulating in the blood that stimulates protein synthesis. Rather, it is a strong increase in the amount of amino acids circulating in the blood that is responsible for stimulating protein synthesis. However, this increase in the rate of protein synthesis is only temporary and the rate of protein synthesis will fall back to its initial value around two hours after such an increase, even if the concentration of amino acids in the blood remains very high.
However, it is interesting to note that even if the amino acid levels in the blood are very high and the protein synthesis rate begins to fall again two hours after its initial increase, a further increase in the amino acid levels in the blood will stimulate an increase in the protein synthesis rate again. It appears that an increase in blood amino acid levels always stimulates an increase in the rate of protein synthesis, regardless of the initial amino acid level.
So the bottom line is that it's not about simply consuming x,xxx kcal or xxx grams of protein to saturate the blood with the maximum amount of amino acids all the time. Rather, it is about confronting the body with sudden and sharp increases in blood amino acid levels in order to stimulate protein synthesis and increase the rate of protein synthesis. For this reason, it is important to know the differences between different types of protein supplements.
If certain products emphasize how much of a certain amino acid has been added, or how the amino acid profile has been altered, then that is secondary. The amino acid profile becomes interesting when comparing different protein sources. Whey protein and casein, which are both made from milk, have quite similar amino acid profiles, with a few differences. It is therefore better to focus on the main protein source of a product in order to know whether this product will stimulate protein synthesis or slow down protein breakdown.
Of course, a high protein intake is an important prerequisite for building high quality muscle mass. However, it is important to find the right balance. If you consume so much protein that you have chronically high amino acid levels in your blood, then protein synthesis will never reach its maximum, as there will be no or only rarely a significant increase in the concentration of amino acids in the blood.
As a result, a large proportion of the protein you consume will not be used to build muscle protein or other body proteins, but will simply be burned for energy. Claims often made that excess protein is simply excreted by the body are, of course, absolute nonsense. The body is designed to use all the macronutrients it receives as efficiently as possible and any macronutrients that cannot be used for something else are either burned to provide energy for the body or converted into fat and stored in fat cells.
On the other hand, of course, you should not consume too little protein, which would hinder muscle building by shifting the protein balance towards muscle breakdown.
One strategy for maximizing protein synthesis while minimizing protein breakdown
From all the information about whey protein, casein, protein synthesis and protein breakdown, with a little creativity we can create a plan that should help maximize muscle building.
We know what we need to increase the rate of protein synthesis and reduce protein breakdown. We know that whey protein is the most effective product for increasing protein synthesis rates and that casein is the most effective product for reducing protein breakdown. And we know that we can't use these two proteins together because casein neutralizes the primary benefits of whey protein.
However, we have another weapon in our arsenal that is often forgotten by athletes who are overly fixated on supplements: whole foods. Proteins from whole foods are generally digested quite slowly. This means that, like casein, they provide a constant flow of amino acids into the bloodstream. However, most whole food protein sources do not coagulate in the stomach like casein and therefore do not slow down the digestion of other proteins to the same extent as casein.
The first step is to forget everything you know about the classic timing of supplements. It's perfectly fine to take whey protein at times of the day other than before and after training or right after waking up, and you should do so.
Step 1: Whey protein should be consumed shortly after a meal consisting of whole foods.
This creates an environment that is very conducive to muscle growth. By consuming the whole food meal, you will reduce the rate of muscle protein breakdown because, on the one hand, a slow influx of amino acids into the bloodstream begins and, on the other hand, if the meal contains carbohydrates, the carbohydrates supplied cause an increase in insulin levels, which reduces the rate of muscle protein breakdown.
Insulin is the hormone that regulates the rate of protein synthesis. By increasing the release of insulin before consuming a whey protein shake, you prepare the body for a strong anabolic response. Ideally, the increased insulin levels caused by the carbohydrates in the full meal reach their maximum value at the same time as the increased amino acid levels in the blood caused by the whey shake.
After the whey protein has been completely absorbed by the body, the amino acid levels in the blood will fall again, but they will not reach their starting point, as the increase in amino acid intake caused by the consumption of the complete meal is still maintained. This simple step therefore makes it possible to effectively increase the rate of protein synthesis while reducing protein breakdown.
Step 2: You should consume casein two hours later
By consuming casein, we want to ensure that the amino acid levels in the blood are maintained at a low level in order to continue to prevent protein breakdown. This level should not be too high so that we can later achieve a dramatic increase in blood amino acid levels again, as the degree of increase in the rate of protein synthesis is directly related to the degree of change in blood amino acid levels.
Step 3: Repeat the whole process.
You should alternate a full meal with a whey protein shake followed by a casein-based meal.
At first glance, this may sound quite expensive, as you need a relatively large amount of protein powder per day. Of course, there are ways to modify this approach. However, what you should not do under any circumstances is to reduce the size of the whey protein drink, as the degree of increase in the rate of protein synthesis is directly dependent on the degree of increase in amino acid levels in the blood. Less whey protein therefore means a lower increase in amino acid concentration and consequently a lower increase in the rate of protein synthesis, which results in a lower anabolic effect.
One way to reduce the costs somewhat is to replace the casein-based meal with a protein-rich meal made from whole foods. This can achieve a similar effect.
Summary
In summary, casein is a slow-digesting protein with anti-catabolic properties that prevents protein breakdown, while whey protein is a fast-digesting protein with anabolic properties that increases the rate of protein synthesis but does not inhibit catabolism.
Since casein and whey protein cannot be used simultaneously without neutralizing the anabolic benefits of whey protein, specific timing of these two proteins is required to both maximize muscle building by increasing protein synthesis rates and minimize muscle breakdown by reducing protein catabolism. Incidentally, this strategy is particularly effective in the context of a calorie-restricted diet.