Envision your future muscle-bound physique. Your clothes drape perfectly over your torso, your jeans cinch around your waist, and the compliments roll in. You feel better than you’ve ever felt: relaxed, energized, and more self-confident. You can get there by being consistent in the gym. But is that enough, or is that just a prerequisite?
While consistency in the gym has been shown to increase moderate to vigorous physical activity levels and help to better promote long-term weight loss through a “negative energy balance” (i.e., caloric deficit), is training alone enough to build and sustain muscle?
Within that, there is an array of other factors — primarily the necessity for a protein-sufficient diet to coincide with that resistance training. A 2009 randomized control study in Amino Acids found that “whey protein intake close to resistance exercise may…[be] advantageous for muscle hypertrophy. Eleven years later, The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness determined, “Supplementation with whey protein, combined with resistance, can increase muscle mass with no effects on muscle strength.”
Whey protein supplementation may alter body composition in favor of additional fat-free mass with no significant changes in body fat. Simply, your physique goals, whether that’s fat loss, muscle gain, or both, are likely doomed if you don’t consume enough quality protein.
