Research
Macro partitioning
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.
Eat protein after your endurance workout to help repair muscle fibers. However, don't expect it to directly boost your mitochondrial energy production; that is driven more by the exercise itself.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
protein ingestion increased the stimulation of myofibrillar MPS during acute recovery from endurance exercise... No effect of protein ingestion on mitochondrial MPS was observed during the 4 h recovery period
Why this rating
Based on limited number of studies measuring specific MPS fractions.
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
- 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.Good
- Co-ingesting protein with carbohydrate during endurance exercise does not improve performance or glycogen resynthesis when carbohydrate recommendations are met.Good
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
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →