The Study
Whey Protein Hydrolysate Increases Amino Acid Uptake, mTORC1 Signaling, and Protein Synthesis in Skeletal Muscle of Healthy Young Men in a Randomized Crossover Trial.
This study showed that drinking a special kind of whey protein makes muscles start building faster for a few hours after you drink it — but only in young, healthy guys. It doesn't prove it makes you bigger or stronger over time, or that it works better than regular whey.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Scientists gave young men two kinds of whey protein — one broken into tiny pieces (hydrolysate) and one whole — to see which made muscles grow better after exercise.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 574 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Even though the broken-down version kept leucine around longer, both types ended up building the same amount of muscle over 3 hours — so the longer leucine presence didn’t make a bigger difference in total muscle growth.
- 2Both types made muscles synthesize protein 43% more.
- 3The broken-down version kept leucine levels high in muscles for 3 hours; the regular one only did for 1 hour.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
The Journal of nutrition
Year
2019
Authors
T. Moro, Camille R. Brightwell, Brenda Velarde, C. Fry, Kyosuke Nakayama, C. Sanbongi, E. Volpi, B. Rasmussen
Related Content
Claims (5)
In healthy young men, consuming 0.08 grams of whey protein hydrolysate per kilogram of body weight increases phosphorylation of S6K1 and rpS6 proteins in skeletal muscle to the same degree as intact whey protein.
Consuming 0.08 grams of whey protein hydrolysate per kilogram of body weight increases muscle protein synthesis by about 43% in healthy young men, and this increase is no greater than that caused by the same amount of intact whey protein.
In healthy young men, both whey protein hydrolysate and intact whey protein raise leucine levels in skeletal muscle to the same degree, but the hydrolysate form keeps leucine levels elevated for up to three hours after consumption.
After consuming whey protein hydrolysate, phenylalanine is used for muscle protein synthesis for 3 hours; after consuming intact whey protein, this use stops by 1 hour in healthy young men.
In healthy young men, whey protein hydrolysate and intact whey protein result in the same increase in the rate of muscle protein synthesis over three hours, even though the timing of amino acid processing differs between the two forms.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.