Reconsidering Protein Supplement Amounts

One of the basic tenets in sports nutrition is that we shouldn’t consume more than 25 grams of protein in a drink product. The reasoning has been that more won’t help you to add more muscle after a workout. This has trickled down to the point that it applies to anyone who drinks a protein shake. Based on a recent study, that may not necessarily be true.

First, let’s review why you want to build muscle. Obviously, more muscle helps you do more with your body: lift heavier objects or move your body more easily. Muscle is more dense than fat, so it takes up less space; when you are more muscular you look slimmer as well as more fit. Maybe most important, more muscle burns more calories; you can use that fact to lose weight or to eat more food.

Researchers wanted to test how long muscle synthesis would continue after an hour-long intense weight training session. The study was simple in design: take 36 young men who were physically active, test their initial exercise capacity, and then subject them to an hour-long weight training session in a laboratory setting. Afterward, in a randomized way, 12 of them got 100 grams of a protein drink, another 12 got 25 grams of the same protein drink, and the final 12 got a placebo that had no protein.

That’s where the simplicity stopped. The protein had specific quantities of carbon-labelled amino acids including leucine, the amino acid responsible for initiating protein building in muscle. The objective was to monitor whether protein synthesis lasted more than four to six hours, the previous conventional thinking. The other question is whether the excess protein would be used for making energy.

The short answer is that protein synthesis lasts at least 12 hours (and perhaps longer) at the highest intake, 100 grams. There is more to it than that, and I’ll cover it on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?