William Morgan
Protein powders have become a routine part of many people's lives and a $10 billion industry in recent years, but most of those who rely on a big sack of powder in their cupboard to improve their workouts have little idea of what it actually does to your body.
For people who exercise frequently, protein supplements can feel like something of a wonder drug, with them commonly helping to quell hunger and improve recovery times, as well as the added bonus of improving lean muscle mass.
Protein itself is one of the three major macronutrients that your body needs, containing nine amino acids that you cannot produce yourself but which are essential to almost every healthy bodily function.
But research suggests that many people who use protein powders are focused on the wrong thing when it comes to incorporating them into their diet, with the size of the scoop going into their daily shake actually being among the less important factors in boosting their fitness.
Advert
While your average scoop of whey protein, the most common powdered supplement, contains around 25g of protein and accounts for just under half of your recommended daily intake of this nutrient, the timing of when you eat or drink it can have more of an impact than how much you have consumed.
A study decided to put this to the test in 2019, by putting 18 young men through their paces with a double-blind and placebo controlled study. The participants were split into two groups, one received a protein supplement, the other was a placebo group.
Researchers wanted to uncover the link between a number of studies which had separately hinted that the amount of supplementary protein ingested in the course of exercise might actually plateau at 20g, while others found hints that consuming protein before and after exercise encouraged lean muscle mass growth.
But many of these had focused on athletes consuming high amounts of protein during grueling training regimes, this research dared to ask, what about your ordinary person?
In the study published in the Journal of Exercise Nutrition & Biochemistry, the team asked each group to maintain a consistent diet and to exercise on three days each week, with an equal upper and lower body weight training routine.
Both were asked to come into the lab once every four weeks, fasting for eight hours beforehand. The supplement group would drink whey protein before starting their warm up, doing their usual 50 minute training regime with increasing weights, before cooling down, and then having another protein drink.
In total, they would consume 40g of protein over the course of their pre and post-workout.
Both groups would then have their blood taken, as well as a number of other metrics like blood pressure and muscle circumference, with scientists also calculating their increases in strength from the weights and number of reps achieved at each session.
They found that every muscle had benefited, but in particular that the chest and thigh muscles had 'significantly increased in the protein intake group' over the course of 12 weeks.
In fact, only the protein supplement group had seen these muscles bulk up during the study, despite strength and endurance increasing for the placebo group as well.
Researchers also stated that protein supplements were only necessary during the course of training, and that there was no beneficial effect of upping your protein intake on days off.
"These findings support that the ingestion of whey protein immediately before and immediately after workouts can promote improvements in strength and hypertrophy," the study concluded.
After carefully tracking the protein intake of participants during their regular meals, with the placebo group generally consuming more dietary protein, the researchers added that 'the composition and timing of protein intake are more important than the total amount.'