Research
Hormonal
Aging causes anabolic resistance to protein intake, characterized by a blunted muscle protein synthetic response to amino acids, which contributes to sarcopenia.
As you age, your muscles become less sensitive to protein. To build or maintain muscle, you likely need to consume more protein per meal (specifically leucine-rich sources) or time it precisely around exercise, rather than just eating the standard amount spread out.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Recent studies suggest that the muscle protein synthetic response to food intake is blunted in the elderly. The latter is now believed to represent a key factor responsible for the age-related decline in skeletal muscle mass.
Why this rating
Based on a review of multiple studies showing consistent findings of blunted response, though mechanisms are still being elucidated.
Source
Aging, exercise, and muscle protein metabolism
René Koopman et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology · 2009
DOI 10.1152/japplphysiol.91551.2008
narrative_reviewCited 377×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Resistance exercise training effectively increases muscle mass and strength in the elderly, even in the presence of anabolic resistance, provided protein is ingested around the exercise.Strong
- Increasing the leucine content of meals can compensate for the blunted muscle protein synthetic response in the elderly.Good
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