Why is post-exercise protein so important?

Hi everyone,

We hope you all had a lovely Halloween weekend! This week we’re going to touch on protein, taking a particular look at protein post-exercise.

Why do we need it?

Well, we know that resistance exercise is the best way or ‘gold standard’ for building muscle mass. After exercise, both muscle protein breakdown & muscle growth occur at the same time, this is a natural response. The inclusion of protein in your post-exercise meal helps to ensure that muscle growth exceeds breakdown allowing for an overall net gain of muscle protein! So when resistance exercise & protein work in tandem, muscle gain is optimised!

How much protein should I have?

• A simple calculation will help you to figure out what a protein feeding should look like for you: multiply your body weight (in kg) by 0.4. For example, a 75kg male/female = 75(0.4) = 30g protein
• It’s important to note that as we get older, the receptors (aka signals) in our body that initiate muscle growth require more protein in each feeding to be stimulated. The muscle protein receptor we are trying to target is stimulated by leucine, an essential amino acid (if you can remember from our previous email on protein, amino acids are the building blocks of protein). The leucine content is higher in high quality protein sources (meat, eggs, dairy) than plant protein sources for example, which is why we recommend you try to include a variety of protein sources in your diet. Older adults should aim for closer to 40g protein per feeding.
• Protein intake should be split evenly throughout the day over ~4 feedings (with one of these post-exercise!)
• Protein intake should remain consistent. Try to consume the same amount of protein on both training & rest days

Hope training is going well for everyone at the moment!

Much love,
The NutriKate team