Research
Hormonal
There is a 'leucine threshold' that must be met at each meal to stimulate muscle protein synthesis; meals with low leucine content (like wheat or soy at low doses) fail to trigger this response.
Make sure each meal you eat contains enough leucine to trigger muscle growth. Whey protein is a great source because it naturally has high leucine. If you eat plant proteins, you may need to eat larger portions to get the same effect.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
The leucine threshold appears to differentiate the quality of proteins for meal efficacy... The breakfast meal containing wheat or soy did not provide sufficient leucine to increase plasma concentration and failed to stimulate post-prandial muscle protein synthesis
Why this rating
Supported by multiple animal studies and clinical trials showing threshold effects.
Source
Leucine dense whey proteins
Gabriel J. Wilson et al. · Nutrafoods · 2011
DOI 10.1007/bf03223383
narrative_reviewCited 1×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Consuming whey protein, which has high leucine density, stimulates muscle protein synthesis more effectively than proteins with lower leucine content (such as wheat, soy, or casein) by triggering the mTORC1 signaling pathway.Good
- Consuming whey protein in combination with resistance training results in greater increases in muscle mass compared to resistance training alone or isonitrogenous casein intake.Good
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