Eating protein before a hard bike ride doesn’t make your body produce more harmful stress molecules than eating carbs or riding on an empty stomach — your cells aren’t more damaged.

49

Pro

0

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

49

Community contributions welcome

49

Pre-Exercise Carbohydrate or Protein Ingestion Influences Substrate Oxidation but Not Performance or Hunger Compared with Cycling in the Fasted State

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2021 Apr 14

The study gave cyclists protein before they rode their bikes and found it didn’t make their bodies produce more stress markers than if they had eaten carbs or nothing at all — so protein doesn’t make exercise more damaging to the body.

Contradicting (0)

0

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Pre-Exercise Carbohydrate or Protein Ingestion Influences Substrate Oxidation but Not Performance or Hunger Compared with Cycling in the Fasted State

Score: 49

DOI: 10.3390/nu13041291

Similar Assertions

If you're a trained cyclist and want to burn more fat during a moderate ride, eating a protein snack before you start works just as well as riding on an empty stomach — but eating carbs before you ride cuts down on fat burning.

49

0

81%

When you eat protein before a bike ride, your heart beats faster than if you hadn’t eaten — but you don’t feel like you’re working harder, and you still ride just as hard.

49

0

79%

Eating protein after working out doesn't make your body burn more protein as fuel than it needs for building muscle - most of the protein goes toward building muscle instead of being burned for energy.

77%

Eating sugar before a workout makes your body burn more sugar during the workout—but eating protein doesn’t change how much sugar you burn.

53

0

75%

Eating a big protein meal (100g) after working out keeps your blood amino acid levels high for the whole 12 hours, while a smaller meal (25g) only keeps them high for the first 5 hours.

74%