Research
Macro partitioning
Endurance athletes require a daily protein intake of approximately 1.8 g/kg body mass per day, which may increase to >2.0 g/kg/day during carbohydrate-restricted training or on rest days.
Aim for 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight every day. If you are doing low-carb training sessions or taking rest days, bump this up to over 2.0 grams per kilogram. This helps your body repair muscle and replace amino acids lost during exercise.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Based on findings from a series of contemporary protein requirement studies, the evidence suggests a daily protein intake of ~ 1.8 g·kgBM−1·day−1 should be advocated for endurance athletes, with the caveat that the protein requirement may be further elevated in excess of 2.0 g·kgBM−1·day−1 during periods of carbohydrate-restricted training and on rest days.
Why this rating
Based on multiple controlled metabolic studies using the Indicator Amino Acid Oxidation (IAAO) method.
Source
Protein Nutrition for Endurance Athletes: A Metabolic Focus on Promoting Recovery and Training Adaptation
Oliver C. Witard et al. · Sports Medicine · 2025
DOI 10.1007/s40279-025-02203-8
narrative_reviewCited 19×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Co-ingesting protein with carbohydrate during endurance exercise does not improve performance or glycogen resynthesis when carbohydrate recommendations are met.Good
- Post-exercise protein ingestion stimulates myofibrillar muscle protein synthesis (MPS) but has little to no effect on mitochondrial MPS rates during recovery from endurance exercise.Moderate
Related findings · Macro partitioning
- Total daily protein intake of 1.6 g/kg/day is sufficient for maximizing resistance training-induced muscle gains, with an upper confidence interval of 2.2 g/kg/day.Strong
- Resistance exercise training combined with sufficient dietary protein intake acts synergistically to maximize skeletal muscle hypertrophy, with protein intake saturating around 1.6 g/kg/day for general populations and potentially requiring 2.0-2.2 g/kg/day for resistance-trained individuals.Strong
- Trans fats should be completely eliminated from the diet, as they increase LDL cholesterol, decrease HDL cholesterol, and are directly associated with increased coronary risk.Strong
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