Extra protein beyond RDA has no benefit for most people, European study concludes

The research was conducted by an expert group of the European branch of the International Life Sciences Institute. Contributing researchers hailed from a number of countries, including the UK, Spain, France, Italy and Canada.”

What are the RDA’s?

For a rough estimation of protein intake, the National Academy of Medicine recommends consuming between 10 and 35 percent of your daily calories from protein. For most people this would be equivalent to 50 grams to 175 grams per day.

Calculating an exact “personalized” RDA will vary slightly based on which country you live in since each government sets its own recommendations.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration’s protein RDA is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight.

This may seem low—and indeed, most Americans exceed this amount without even trying. However, in the UK the government recommends an even lower amount of protein: 0.75 grams per kilogram of body weight per day.

Obviously these recommendations are general guidelines. Proper protein intake will vary by age and other factors. One of these factors is whether or not you’re participating in resistance exercise.

Even if you’re a hardcore athlete, though, you shouldn’t just load up on unlimited protein.

A study published in Sports Medicine-Open established there is a dose-response between protein intake and muscle strength.

The researchers documented how there is a “peak” amount of protein that is beneficial, then the benefit quickly tapers off.

For more details on that study, see our earlier post here.

Study details

The primary goal of the researchers was to assess whether extra protein ingestion could increase athletic performance and skeletal muscle mass when the protein was not accompanied by resistance exercise.

Four databases were searched to conduct the meta-analysis. Researchers applied search strategies for protein intake alone or in addition to resistance exercise interventions.

This resulted in a total of 23,757 records making up 164 studies. Finally, 74 random control trials were obtained at the end of the screening process.

The participants’ mean age ranged from 19 to 85 years, and study protocols lasted from 6 to 108 weeks. Daily total protein ingestion of the participants varied from 1 to 4.4 g/kg/day in the intervention groups, and from 0.8 to 2.3 g/kg/day in the placebo/control groups.

Unfortunately for anyone looking for an easy fix, the researchers found none of the studies they examined presented any evidence that extra protein alone improved skeletal muscle mass. Moreover, when it came to athletic performance, the researchers noted, “Effects on bench press strength, handgrip strength, and improved performance in physical tests in healthy adults were trivial or non-existent.”

“Adequate” protein still vital

Notwithstanding the findings, the researchers noted their undertaking was to look at extra protein intake—greater than the RDA—and that their research was separate from the long proven fact that adequate protein is still vital.

“It appears that ingesting sufficient protein is required to maintain muscle mass,” the researchers wrote in the study introduction.

Finally, while protein alone did not present any consistent improvements, the researchers noted that their research did corroborate existing studies that some additional protein is beneficial when accompanied with resistance exercise.