In this article I'm going to talk about how to overcome one of the most catabolic times of the day for you, and turn it into your advantage. What is the most catabolic time of day for you? It's when you go to sleep. You literally starve your muscles for eight hours!

You would never go eight hours during the day without eating a meal, but that is exactly what you do when you go to bed. The old time bodybuilders knew this and would actually wake up half way during the night; to consume a meal in order to prevent muscle breakdown.

Think about it. If you are staying a certain weight right now then you are consuming your maintenance calorie intake. In order to gain muscle you need to consume above this calorie maintenance. The middle of the night meal provides these extra calories for muscle gain. Since you haven't eaten for four hours most of the calories will be headed for your muscles. If you consume a meal replacement or protein shake with 500 calories in it; that's 3500 calories for the week over and above your current maintenance calorie intake. This will help you gain about 1 lb. of muscle a week. If you can stick with it you can gain some serious amount of muscle pretty quickly.

With the new supplement technology coming out everyday pretty soon you won't even have to bother waking up. In fact, the technology is available right now, but as far as I know, no supplement company has released a meal replacement that slowly releases over an eight-hour period. Really all you would have to do is stick it in a time-released liposome ; which would provide your muscles with constant food while you sleep.

Until then though, you'll have to set your alarm clock. I usually pre-mix a special shake with other nutrients in it as well (might as well load other supplements while you have the chance) before I go to bed. It takes me about 5-10 minutes to throw down a shake. I only do this when I have hit a plateau in my training and want to put on muscle quickly. There are some other tricks you can do to make it more advanced which I go into further in my book.