Dietary Protein as a Trigger for Metabolic Adaptation

This chapter provides an overview on the impact of dietary protein administration during and/or immediately after exercise on subsequent postexercise recovery and its possible impact on the skeletal muscle adaptive response to exercise training. It formulates a few basic guidelines regarding the preferred type and amount of dietary protein and the appropriate timing of protein administration to maximize postexercise muscle protein accretion for practical purposes. The chapter defines the optimum nutritional strategies that allow maximal muscle protein synthesis rates following exercise. Co‐ingestion of (large) amounts of carbohydrate or additional crystalline leucine does not further augment postexercise muscle protein synthesis rates when ample dietary protein is already provided. A healthy diet with smart timing of the ingestion of dietary protein after exercise will further improve the skeletal muscle adaptive response to prolonged exercise training.