The Claim

Among frail older adults with baseline habitual protein intake below 0.8 g/kg/day, a 12-week protein supplementation program combined with resistance training was associated with a 10.9 kg greater increase in leg press strength compared to resistance training alone.

Source: Effect of a protein intervention during resistance training with varying training intensities on muscle outcomes in frail community-dwelling older adults: a randomized controlled trial

What the research says

Supports is higher

Support is ahead, but a single strong opposing study can change this.

Supports
90score
Challenges
0score

These are independent scores, not a percentage. Higher-grade studies count more, so a single strong opposing study can outweigh several weaker ones.

Quantitative
1 study reviewed
In plain English

In frail older adults who consume less than 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily, adding protein supplements to resistance training resulted in a 10.9 kg greater increase in leg press strength than resistance training alone over 12 weeks.

See the scientific wording

Among frail older adults with baseline habitual protein intake below 0.8 g/kg/day, a 12-week protein supplementation program combined with resistance training was associated with a 10.9 kg greater increase in leg press strength compared to resistance training alone, though this finding is from an exploratory subgroup analysis with limited statistical power.

Why this might work

When older adults eat too little protein, their muscles don't get enough building blocks to grow stronger. Adding protein shakes gives their muscles more amino acids, especially leucine, which turns on a key signal that tells the muscle to make more contractile proteins. This makes the muscle fibers thicker and able to produce more force during movement.

Supported mechanismbased on 1 study

What the research says

1 study
  1. Study: Effect of a protein intervention during resistance training with varying training intensities on muscle outcomes in frail community-dwelling older adults: a randomized controlled trial

    For older adults who don’t eat much protein, adding protein shakes to leg workouts helped them get much stronger—about 11 kg more than those who only did workouts. But for people who already ate enough protein, the shakes didn’t help much.

Score breakdown, mechanism chain, raw evidence, ideal studies needed & 1 supporting studies

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