Hello. So, I vaguely remember in a podcast that it was said that some studies showed that older people required more protein in order to stimulate muscle synthesis. Am I correct in this? Where would the best place be to find this research if, in fact, I am correct? If not correct, is this a recommendation? By older, I mean over 50 years old.
Thank you.
Anabolic resistance means that in response to stimuli that would otherwise cause the muscle to grow, such as lifting weights and eating dietary protein, the increases in muscle protein synthesis and suppression of muscle protein breakdown are blunted in older individuals compared to younger individuals. There’s some nuance here, as older individuals who are healthy and regularly exercise seem to have minimal, if any, evidence of anabolic resistance. Similarly, some studies have shown that light exercise such as walking can “rescue” anabolic sensitivity. Still, most older individuals - particularly those > 65 (50 isn’t really “old”) do not exercise, have 1 or more medical conditions, and have some degree of anabolic resistance warranting > anabolic stimuli, e.g. higher doses of protein than would otherwise maximize muscle protein synthesis/attenuate muscle protein breakdown. Somewhere ~ 30-40g of protein in a meal would more than suffice for this. I do not think protein doses > 1.6g/kg/day, which is our stock recommendation for protein intake, are warranted in in older individuals, though they can certainly eat more protein if they want!
A few studies requiring various levels of access discussing this:
Thank you for that. I’ll get into those articles you posted.