Episode 199 - Plant vs Animal Protein – Which Builds More Muscle?

Plant vs Animal Protein – Which Builds More Muscle?

Are plant-based proteins really good enough for triathletes chasing strength gains and performance? Or do animal proteins still reign supreme?

In this episode, I dive into a brand-new systematic review comparing plant and animal proteins on muscle mass, strength and performance outcomes – and break down exactly what it means for you as a triathlete. You’ll get a no-fluff summary of the science, plus practical takeaways whether you're a carnivore, vegetarian or full vegan.

Discover which protein sources really matter, how to optimise your intake for recovery and strength, and why you can’t out-supplement a lack of lifting.

Links:

📚 Full research article

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Episode Transcription

Episode 199: Plant vs Animal Protein – Which Builds More Muscle?

Welcome to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. The show designed to serve you up evidence-based sports nutrition advice from the experts. Hi, I'm your host Taryn, Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Advanced Sports Dietitian and founder of Dietitian Approved. Listen as I break down the latest evidence to give you practical, easy-to-digest strategies to train hard, recover faster and perform at your best. You have so much potential, and I want to help you unlock that with the power of nutrition. Let's get into it.

Taryn Richardson (00:00)

Welcome back to the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I'm Taryn Richardson, advanced sports dietician and founder of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy. And that is where I help age group triathletes just like you understand exactly how to eat to support your training your recovery and your racing.

Today, we're diving into the research and a topic that comes up a lot, especially as athletes, and it's kind of trendy to move towards a plant-based way of eating. And that is whether plant-based protein is as good or even better compared to animal-based protein when it comes to actual performance as a triathlete, including your muscle gains, your muscle mass, strength and recovery.

And what I want to do is actually separate the real science from the bro science.

And look at what the latest research says on the topic.

Or plant protein is better, and I want to share a newly published systematic review with you. Let's just take a step back and do a quick refresher on protein before we go any further.

Now, this might be taking you back to high school, but let's just make sure you're on the same page as me before we go into the research.

And protein is made up of these building blocks called amino acids that your body uses to recover, repair, and build hormones, enzymes, support your immune system, and so many other processes in the body. They're basically the building blocks of life.

They are involved in pretty much structural and functional process in the body. Now, some of these amino acids are essential, meaning that your body can't make them on their own. And so you have to get them from the food that you eat.

And that is where protein quality comes in because not all proteins are created equally. When it comes to their amino acid profile and how well they're actually absorbed by the body.

Our animal-based proteins, so things like any animal meat, eggs, dairy, these are called complete proteins. And that just basically means that they contain all of the nine essential amino acids that our body can't produce on its own.

They are highly digestible and often rich in a particular amino acid called leucine.

Now, leucine is important for you as a triathlete because it plays a very key role in triggering muscle protein synthesis pathway called mTOR.

So leucine is both an amino acid on its own, as well as the switch that turns on muscle protein synthesis pathways.

Now our plant-based proteins, so things like legumes, nuts and seeds, whole grains, are often incomplete in that they're missing one or a couple of those essential amino acids that we can't produce ourselves.

Sometimes the structure of the protein can also make it a bit harder to digest. But that doesn't mean they're not as useful. You can combine different plant sources of protein across a meal across the day to get that full complement of essential amino acids if you know what you're doing.

For example, rice plus beans or hummus and pita bread is going to give you that full range of essential amino acids that one is missing, that the other one gives it a leg up.

There are some plant proteins like soy and quinoa though, that are complete all on their own.

So you can meet your protein needs from plant-based protein sources, but it does take a little bit more planning and strategy so that you're reading with intention to get everything that you need from your diet.

You can't just simply cut out all animal sources of protein and cross your fingers and hope for the best.

Now for athletes with higher protein needs, and obviously we're looking for the competitive edge, what is the best protein source when it comes to strength and performance?

Recently, a massive systematic review was published that pulled together all of the best available evidence that we have to date on this specific topic and I will link it in the show notes if you want to get nerdy and have a read.

But it included 43 randomised control trials, which is that kind of top tier of research. So really good quality research studies, looking at the effects of different plant-based proteins versus animal proteins on specifically muscle mass, muscle strength, and physical performance in both younger and older adults.

It included over 1500 participants with trial durations that range from four weeks all the way up to two years long.

Using either protein supplements or whole food diets.

Now in terms of how their protein was delivered in these studies, the interventions fell into two

The first one was supplement-based trials. So most of those used a milk protein supplement, so whey protein or a casein protein as their animal source of protein.

For the plant protein studies, the supplements did include a wide variety of sources. So soy, which as I mentioned before, is a high quality complete plant protein.

Plus rice, pea, oat, potato and even chia seeds.

Now this is really important because both the quality and the amino acid profile of those plant proteins versus the animal sources and soy varies hugely.

So soy is not the same as rice or pea protein in terms of leucine content or the digestibility.

And the second group of studies looked at entire diets rather than isolated protein powders. So in the animal protein arm, participants followed diets including meat, fish, dairy and eggs.

And in the plant-based protein arms, it was either a vegan or a vegetarian diet or a diet high in plant-based protein foods like legumes, tofu, grains and nuts.

Some of these diet-based studies also involved energy restriction for weight loss or resistance training to mimic real-world, real-world athletic settings.

So what I like about this review is that it covers a wide spectrum of real world scenarios from athletes just chugging back protein shakes to people eating fully plant-based protein diets coming from real food. So it gives us a good solid foundation to answer the question, does the source of protein really matter for performance?

So what did they find? Overall, when comparing all of the animal protein interventions to all the plant protein interventions, animal protein did have a small advantage when it came to building muscle mass, but the effect was only seen in adults under 60 years of age.

When it came to adults over 60, there was no significant difference.

And interestingly, when the plant protein source was soy, there was no difference at all compared to animal-based protein.

It was those non-soy plant-based proteins, so things like the rice, oats, potato, chia, that didn't perform quite as well. And that makes sense, right, if soy is a complete protein source on its own and contains all of those nine essential amino acids.

When it came to muscle strength and physical performance, there was no meaningful difference between plant and animal sources at all. So that means when it comes to real world outcomes like lifting, climbing hills, pushing what's on the bike, protein quality might not be the limiting factor. So in simple terms, animal might give you that slight edge for muscle growth if you're younger and if you're using lower quality plant-based protein sources.

But when it comes to strength and function, it's more about your total protein intake and training than the specific protein source, which is pretty exciting.

So what does that mean for you? Let's get practical. This is what I love to do is then apply that science to practical application. What does that mean for you as a triathlete?

So if you're an omnivore, which means that you eat both animal and plant-based foods.

You've obviously got a wide variety of access to different protein sources and those high quality animal-based sources that contain the good essential amino acids.

So focus on including a good quality protein source at all of your main meals and potentially snacks. Prioritise leucine-rich protein sources after exercise like dairy, eggs, meat.

And if you are a vegetarian or vegan, you can still meet your needs, but you do need to be strategic.

I would look at including soy as regularly as possible. So things like edamame, tofu, its fermented cousin tempeh, soy milk or a soy isolate protein powder. Combine all of those protein sources across the day so you get the complete range of essential amino acids.

And if you need to, then look at a combined protein powder to help tick the leucine box.

And regardless of your dietary preference, whether you're an animal eater or a plant eater, then I think it's really important still to be meeting your overall dietary protein needs. And that's something I can help with understanding how much you need specifically for you. The right amount of protein post-training is imperative. And again, that is specific to you and a variety of different protein sources right across the day to help support your recovery, your hormone production, your strength gains and your immune function.

And let's, and I also wanted to just quickly say that it is not just diet. Protein is only going to work if you're training too. So you do need that training stimulus. You can't out supplement a lack of resistance training. So get in the gym, throw some heavy things around and consistently implement that into your training schedule. I know it's busy, but you're to have to prioritise it, particularly as you get older, because you're missing huge performance gains, especially if you're over 40.

Now there is a lot of around plant-based diets and physical performance. So I wanted to quickly bust two key myths.

The myth number one is that you need to eat animal based protein to gain muscle mass. And obviously that is false. You can build muscle mass on a plant-based diet, but you have to eat enough protein and you have to prioritise those high quality protein sources like soy and quinoa and train smart about it.

Some of those plant-based sources, yes, are less anabolic, but they still contribute to your overall intake of protein.

So it's not all or none, like most things when it comes to nutrition. And muscle mass is not everything. It is one measure of performance. And as we saw in this study, it doesn't seem to impact all of the other measures of performance.

The second myth is that protein supplements are essential. Now I'm very much a dietitian and a real food focused dietitian. So I don't necessarily think you need a protein supplement or a protein powder. If you can hit your needs from real food, they can be great for convenience, particularly around training. If you're, you know, time poor and you're running from A to B, getting kids to school, trying to get to work, all those sorts of things. So they can be helpful, but they're not something that you need.

And it's definitely not something that I would encourage you rely on heavily either.

So after all that, here's the bottom line. Animal protein does have a slight advantage for muscle mass in some cases, but that doesn't mean you do desperately need it. Strength and performance outcomes are similar between plant-based protein and animal protein when your total protein intake is adequate.

If you're a plant-based protein eater, make sure you scooch soy protein up your priority list.

And consider combining proteins or using a supplement if you need it just to round out your intake.

What matters most is not about whether your protein came from an animal or a chickpea, it's whether you're getting enough and consistently and combining it with a training program that does challenge and stimulate your body and your muscles.

Now, if you want help building a nutrition strategy that aligns with your triathlon goals, then check out the Triathlon Nutrition Kickstart course. It's my self-paced course that'll show you exactly what to eat, when and why, so you can stop guessing and start fuelling like a triathlete.

Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you found this episode helpful at all, make sure you subscribe on your podcast feed or YouTube. Leave me a review and share it with a training buddy who is navigating the plant-based versus animal protein debate. It really just helps get practical, evidence-based nutrition strategies into this big bite into the big wide world of triathlon. And don't miss next week's episode. It is our 200th. I've got something really special lined up with a few of the TNA athletes who are joining me and have taken over the mic.

The podcast has come and sharing some of their fueling strategies that have helped them smash their goals.

So until next week, train hard and recover well.

Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Triathlon Nutrition Academy podcast. I would love to hear from you. If you have any questions or want to share with me what you've learned, email me at [email protected]. You can also spread the word by leaving me a review and taking a screenshot of you listening to the show. Don't forget to tag me on social media, @dietitian.approved, so I can give you a shout out, too. If you want to learn more about what we do, head to dietitianapproved.com. And if you want to learn more about the Triathlon Nutrition Academy program, head to dietitianapproved.com/academy. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to helping you smashed in the fourth leg - nutrition!