The anabolic response to protein ingestion during recovery from exercise has no upper limit in magnitude and duration in vivo in humans
Jorn Trommelen et al.
Cell Reports Medicine · 2023
What the research tells us
After one resistance-exercise bout, 100 g of milk protein produced a larger and more prolonged protein-synthesis response than 25 g over the 12-hour observation. This challenges a fixed 20–30 g utilization ceiling under those conditions.
Scope & interpretation
Only three doses, one exercise bout and a 12-hour window were tested. The title’s “no upper limit” should not be read as proof of unlimited benefit, an optimal meal size or long-term safety. There was no matched-total comparison of one 100 g dose versus four 25 g meals, and no months-long growth or strength outcome.
Study at a glance
- POPULATION & SAMPLE
- 36 healthy, recreationally active young men, randomized to 0, 25 or 100 g of milk protein; 12 per group.
- EXPOSURE / INTERVENTION / SUBJECT
- Double-blind parallel trial; intrinsically labelled milk protein and intravenous stable-isotope tracers after whole-body resistance exercise.
- OUTCOMES
- Amino-acid appearance and incorporation, muscle and whole-body protein synthesis, protein balance and oxidation.
- TIME FRAME
- 12 hours after a single exercise bout and test drink.
Cited on this site
Editorial & review record
Record for v1.0 · Updated
Editorial responsibility: TAP Editorial Team
Editorial note
Under the editorial responsibility of the TAP Editorial Team, this publication used AI assistance for content organization and editing.
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How responsibilities and review are recorded ↗Scope of this reading note
PMC main text: design, results and key figures, limitations, participant criteria and declarations. Supplementary participant-level data were not reanalysed.
- Study funding
- No separate study funding statement was identified in the consulted main text. The declarations state that FrieslandCampina had no role in funding, data collection, analysis or manuscript preparation.
- Competing interests
- Glenn A.A. van Lieshout was a FrieslandCampina employee. The paper links the Maastricht University profiles of Trommelen and van Loon for their wider career funding; those histories were not fully audited here.
Project support
Founded and supported by Resilio.
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