Research
Micronutrients & recovery
Protein ingestion during prolonged endurance exercise (>1h) may attenuate muscle protein breakdown and improve whole-body net protein balance, though its ergogenic value for performance is limited.
For events longer than 1 hour, consider adding a small amount of protein to your carbohydrate intake during exercise. This may help reduce muscle breakdown and improve your net protein balance, although it likely won't directly make you faster.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
protein/CHO co-ingestion may attenuate the typical exercise-induced increase muscle protein breakdown... Collectively these data suggest that athletes performing prolonged, strenuous training could benefit from the co-ingestion of protein in their daily nutrition plan to limit the catabolic environment of exercise...
Why this rating
Based on studies showing metabolic benefits, but explicit performance benefits are noted as 'limited' or 'unclear'.
Source
Beyond muscle hypertrophy: why dietary protein is important for endurance athletes
Daniel R. Moore et al. · Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism · 2014
narrative_reviewCited 137×
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