The Study
The Effects of a High-Protein Dairy Milk Beverage With or Without Progressive Resistance Training on Fat-Free Mass, Skeletal Muscle Strength and Power, and Functional Performance in Healthy Active Older Adults: A 12-Week Randomized Controlled Trial
This study is like a fair test where people were randomly given different combinations of milk and exercise to see what works best. It shows that drinking this milk with exercise might make you stronger, but it doesn't prove it makes your muscles bigger or helps you walk faster. We can't say for sure it's the milk alone that did it, because we don't know if everyone was blinded.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Older adults who lifted weights and drank two glasses of milk a day got much stronger than those who only lifted weights — even though they were already eating enough protein. The milk didn’t make them gain more muscle, but it helped them get stronger and lose a little fat.
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.
- 1Yes — even people eating enough protein can get significantly stronger by adding dairy milk to their resistance training, and they may also lose a small amount of body fat without changing their activity.
- 2People who lifted weights and drank milk got 53–78% stronger on lifts like leg press and chest press.
- 3People who only lifted weights got 35–36% stronger.
- 4Those who drank milk alone lost 1.3–1.8% body fat.
- 5The milk + lifting group had 88% more anti-inflammatory IL-10 in their blood.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Frontiers in Nutrition
Year
2021
Authors
Zoya Huschtscha, A. Parr, J. Porter, Ricardo J. S. Costa
Related Content
Claims (6)
In healthy older adults who are physically active and already eating enough protein, drinking 500 mL of reduced-fat milk daily for 12 weeks does not lead to more muscle mass gain than progressive resistance training alone, even though total protein intake increases.
In healthy, active older adults, 12 weeks of progressive resistance training increases maximal strength by 35–36% on major lifts, even when protein intake is already high.
Older adults who are healthy and active and already eat enough protein gain significantly more strength from weight training when they drink 500 mL of reduced-fat milk daily than when they do weight training without the milk.
Healthy active older adults who drink 500 mL of reduced-fat dairy milk every day for 12 weeks experience a decrease in body fat percentage by 1.3–1.8%, even if they do not do resistance training.
In healthy older adults who exercise regularly, combining daily milk drinking with resistance training raises levels of the anti-inflammatory molecule IL-10 in the blood by 88% after 12 weeks, while either intervention alone does not produce this change.
People who consume about 1.3 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight and include dairy in their diet while eating fewer calories than they burn gain more lean body mass than those who do not.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.