Protein can be found in muscle, bone, skin, hair, and almost every other body part or tissue. It is an essential to increasing muscle mass and promoting muscle growth. Lack of protein can cause a decrease in immunity and a weakened heart and respiratory system. An adult needs to consume protein at a minimum rate of 0.8 g.kg^-1 (0.8g of protein per kg of the body mass). Individuals who are engaging in strength training typically need 1.2-2.0g.kg^-1 daily. To meet the need, most weightlifters choose to take protein supplements to facilitate their muscle growth. In this blog, I will lay out different protein sources, evaluate their effectiveness in terms of absorption speed and nutrition content, explain different protein combination and determine the ideal time for protein intake.
Types of Protein Supplements
A protein supplement can be dairy or soy-based. The four typical protein sources are bovine milk, casein, whey, and soy. To determine the efficiency of each protein source, we can use the biological value (BV) and the protein digestibility corrected amino acid score (PDCAAS) to score different protein sources. The maximum score of BV is 100, which means absorbed protein can lead to protein synthesis in tissues efficiently. The maximum score of PDCAAS is 1.0, which shows a completeness of the essential amino acid content.
- Bovine milk: consists of 80% casein and 20% whey with a BV of 91. and a PDCAAS of 1.00
- Casein: with a BV of 77 and a PDCAAS of 1.00
- Whey: with a BV of 104 and a PDCAAS of 1.00
- Soy: with a BV of 74 and PDCAAS of 1.00
All of these four types of protein contain all essential amino acids. Whey protein is the best for being easily absorbed by the body and leads to protein synthesis quickly. Bovine milk is also a good protein that can be quickly absorbed. Casein and soy are less likely to be absorbed, so they are not the ideal choice for building muscle mass.
The Most Efficient Protein Supplement Should Be a Combo
To promote protein synthesis, 3-4g of leucine (a type of essential amino acid) should be contained in each protein serving. However, the leucine can’t work efficiently without insulin. Therefore, the most efficient protein supplements should combine whey protein, leucine, and an insulin source carbohydrate.
Protein Timing
Besides picking the correct type of the protein and its components, the protein intake time is also an important factor that affects the growth of muscle mass and strength gains. The following are the results from two studies exploring the timing of protein supplement intake:
Case 1– The protein supplements for speeding up weight training recovery:
Protein blend can maximize weight-training performance with both pre- (20min prior) and post- (within 30min after) workout consumptions and can hasten the post-workout recovery.
Case 2– The protein timing for resistance exercise on skeletal muscle:
Supplements taken pre and post-workout resulted in significant improvements in 1RM strength and body composition compared to taking them in the morning and evening.
The protein I choose for my workout is whey protein, which is the one that can be the most rapidly absorbed. Depending on your age and training type, the protein requirement varies. Please refer to this link to calculate your protein needs. For example, I need to take 96g of protein daily. I recommend calculating the amount of protein supplement needed in combination with your daily consumption of protein from food. If during the day I’ve obtained 70g protein from food, I’ll only take one serving of whey protein (containing 20g of protein) post-workout. If during the day I have less protein consumption, such as 40g from food, I’ll take one serving of whey protein both pre and post-workout to meet my daily protein requirement. If you want more information about other workout supplements, please look at my first blog.
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