The debate is over. Dietary protein supplements significantly improve muscle strength and size when taken by healthy adults who lift weights, a determination reached by McMaster scientists who analyzed dozens of research studies.
The debate is over. Dietary protein supplements significantly improve muscle strength and size when taken by healthy adults who lift weights, a determination reached by McMaster scientists who analyzed dozens of research studies.
But the effects are not as big as some supplement companies would have you believe, cautions the senior author on the paper, Stuart Phillips, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University.
The study, published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, also suggests the benefits of protein supplements increase with resistance training experience but become less effective with older adults, pointing to a need for greater supplementation to reach optimal results as we age.
But there is a limit to the amount of protein that is beneficial, plateauing at roughly 1.6 grams of dietary protein per kilogram of bodyweight per day.
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