I'm 75 year old female. How much protein should I eat each day to retain and add muscle mass?

Answer:

In healthy persons we recommend ~1gram per pound of lean body mass (LBM) divided into 3-5 servings daily if you want to maximize muscle protein synthesis (MPS), which is severely compromised by aging. In other words, younger people don’t need as much protein as us older persons.

Example: 150 LB person with 20% body fat would have ~120 LBs of LBM and therefore consume 30 gms at each of 4 meals daily. If you need a low calorie supplement to help you achieve your daily protein goal the dotFIT WheySmooth is a great choice .

If exercising, use ~25-35 gm (depending on age) fast acting protein 30-40 min before & repeat immediately following 


Whey Protein in Health and Ageing 

Ageing, thus long term health, may increase protein needs because ageing increases the body's resistance to the anabolic effects of exercise, amino acids, insulin and other related protein synthesis mechanisms. In fact Yang et al. found that in contrast to younger adults in whom it’s been proposed that post-exercise rates of MPS are saturated with 25-30 g of protein per meal, exercised muscles of older adults respond to higher protein doses of up to 40 g. Given the role of the EAA, especially leucine and the other BCAAs in MPS, and whey having the highest content of these MPS activators per gram of protein (EAA density), whey protein is an obvious choice when supplementation is necessary. The EAA density of whey protein may be especially important when appetite is compromised or if calories or nitrogen content were to be limited based on the overall health and body composition goal. To that point, Bauer et al. showed that 13 weeks of a Vitamin D and leucine enriched whey protein supplement resulted in improvements in muscle mass and lower extremity function among sarcopenic adults compared to the control group. Additionally, Niitsu et al. using 32.2 g of whey protein supplementation pre and post rehabilitation during a two week postoperative period found that the combination of whey protein intake and rehabilitation for two weeks in the early postoperative period has a beneficial effect on knee extension strength in both lower limbs and Barthel Index (transfer, walking and toilet use) scores in patients with hip fracture. In general, safety concerns related to bone, renal function, etc. of higher protein intakes (above the RDA) have all but left the radar. Kerstetter et al. used 45 g/day of whey protein supplementation so that total daily protein was well above the recommended dietary allowance (0.8 g/kg of body weight). Compared to placebo, they found the whey supplemented group preserved fat-free mass without adversely affecting skeletal health or renal function in healthy older adults.

If you'd like the references for the above information, please contact support@dotFIT.com 

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