New study time, and today we're talking about protein!
I know, super shocker coming from me.
The cool thing about this new study though, is that it potentially turns something we
long believed about protein into a protein myth.
Let's check it out.
It is generally believed that the best way to maximize muscle growth is to distribute
our protein intake into smaller portions throughout the day.
That rationale primarily originated from research showing two things about muscle protein synthesis,
the process that drives muscle growth.
One is that synthesis rates are elevated from protein ingestion but quickly tapers off.
And two, an upper limit to protein synthesis exists, and any excess protein ingested above
this limit will be oxidized and wasted.
Not good.
So, to maximize protein synthesis, this rationale dictates that we should eat smaller portions
of protein of about 15 to 30 grams and distribute them throughout the day to keep protein synthesis
rates elevated.
And this has been the go-to advice for a while now.
But , all that is about to change if the findings of this new study is true.
In this study, researchers measured the effects of consuming a single serving of either 0,
25, or 100 grams of milk protein following a bout of resistance exercise.
And what they found was that, for the entire 12-hour duration of the trial, consuming 100
grams of protein led to by far the highest peak and longest rates of muscle protein synthesis.
On top of that, protein net balance was significantly higher, which suggest that an upper limit
to the amount of protein your body can utilize does not exist or is much higher than we believe.
Oxidation rates were also similar between 25 and 100 grams, which contradicts the whole
wasting protein if you eat too much concept.
In other words, based on this new data, in terms of muscle protein synthesis, getting
most if not all of your protein from one meal can be completely fine.
In fact, the researchers also noted that, with consuming a hundred grams of protein,
certain metabolic responses were still elevated after the 12-hour assessment period, which
might mean that its effects are higher still than even what this study showed, which itself
is already so vastly different from previous studies.
Now, at this point, some of you are probably wondering, "Okay, but we do have those past
studies showing different outcomes, so what makes this new study any better than others?"
Well, in short, the researchers in this study produced perhaps the most comprehensive and
robust dataset that we've ever seen for this topic.
And, they did so by presenting a new and improved version of intrinsically labeled protein paired
with a quadruple stable isotope amino acid infusion.
If you have no idea what that means, that's completely okay.
In short, it means that their methods to measure protein synthesis is one of, if not the best
out there.
And not only that, they also collected way more samples than most other studies -18 total
samples over a 12-hour period compared to only the handful of samples in other studies
over a smaller 4 to 6-hour period.
More samples mean more accuracy in the data.
So overall, this study is pretty darn solid.
Of course, more research would always be great, but if we were to believe in this robust set
of data, then I am tempted to say that the idea of a protein ceiling or the need for
protein distribution are now indeed protein myths.
Well, not entirely just yet.
Mainly because the subjects in this study were recreationally active young male adults,
which means we cannot generalize the findings to all other populations.
We also know that more advanced individuals can be more sensitive to protein ingestion
which can lead to different outcomes.
But it wouldn't surprise me if future studies on these populations still follow similar
lines, but we'll have to wait and see.
Another thing is that these are mechanistic findings that don't always translate to actual
muscle growth.
For that, we only have limited data, mostly on fasting studies, that do show getting most
of your protein in one meal doesn't affect muscle growth much, but we definitely need
more studies to say for sure.
Still, a positive mechanistic outcome is a good place to start.
Now, finally, what is the main takeaway from all of this?
In the end of the day, the main thing we have known for a while now is that the most important
thing is to make sure you're getting enough overall protein period.
Now, whether you get that from one, two, fix, or ten meals per day doesn't seem to matter
all that much, at least according to this new study.
But if you're a bit more advanced in your training, you might want to consider splitting
your protein into smaller meals for now until more research is available, but you can probably
cram more protein into one meal than you think you can.
So, everyone, I can't stress this enough, as always, get your protein.
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As always, thank you for watching and, you already know... don't forget to get your protein!