Eating collagen helps older people keep more protein in their bodies instead of losing it, better than eating whey protein.

Pro

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

Community contributions welcome

Collagen peptide supplementation in combination with resistance training improves body composition and increases muscle strength in elderly sarcopenic men: a randomised controlled trial

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2015 Oct 28

This study shows that collagen peptides help improve muscle and strength in older men when combined with exercise.

Contradicting (1)

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Whey protein but not collagen peptides stimulate acute and longer-term muscle protein synthesis with and without resistance exercise in healthy older women: a randomized controlled trial.

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2020 Mar 1

The study found that whey protein helps older women build more muscle than collagen peptides, so collagen doesn't do better than whey for keeping muscle — it actually does worse.

Similar Assertions

One scoop of whey protein has over five times more of the key muscle-building amino acid (leucine) than one scoop of collagen protein—even though both have the same total protein.

79%

Even though both protein shakes had the same amount of protein, the whey one made the key muscle-building amino acid (leucine) in the blood much higher than the collagen one.

77%

Dietary collagen intake improves whole-body nitrogen balance, indicating reduced net protein catabolism and enhanced protein retention.

77%

After drinking whey protein shakes every day for a week, older women’s muscles kept building up new protein even on days they didn’t exercise—collagen protein didn’t do this at all.

76%

With collagen protein, the muscle-building effect was almost identical in the exercised and non-exercised leg—unlike whey, which responded more strongly where exercise happened.

75%