Nutrient timingMeal timing
Arranging when you eat around training, rather than only what and how much.
Nutrient timing is the idea that when you eat, particularly around training, changes the result. It covers the anabolic window after a session, pre-workout fuelling, overnight protein and carbohydrate placement.
The strong version has not survived. The anabolic window was once described as roughly thirty to sixty minutes, after which the opportunity was lost; the current picture is far wider, with the muscle building response to training elevated for a day or more and total daily protein mattering considerably more than the clock.
That does not make timing irrelevant, only secondary. What survives is modest and sensible: several protein feedings across the day rather than one large one, roughly 0.4 g per kg per meal across at least four meals, and carbohydrate available around hard sessions when performance matters.
Where timing genuinely matters is when recovery windows are short. Two sessions in a day, a tournament, or training again tomorrow morning are all situations where refuelling promptly changes the next performance, which is a different question from whether it changes muscle gain over months.
Fasted training is the mirror image of the same anxiety. It does not meaningfully cost muscle if daily protein and energy are adequate, and it suits some people's schedules and stomachs.
The hierarchy is worth stating plainly: total energy, then total protein, then food quality and fibre, then distribution, then timing. Most people arguing about the last of those have not settled the first two.
In practice, set the daily totals with our protein intake and macro calculators, spread protein across three or four meals, and stop watching the clock.