Protein Requirements in Endurance-trained Athlete

Healthy, Increased Metabolic Requirement

Protein requirements in individuals who participate in endurance-based exercise training have been suggested to be greater than the current recommended dietary allowance (RDA). Nutritional requirements for dietary amino acids in adults have traditionally been determined utilizing the nitrogen balance technique, which is prone to underestimating protein requirements. As a result, there is a need to re-evaluate recommendations in order to characterize how dietary amino acid needs may be modulated by physical activity. Recent studies using the minimally invasive indicator amino acid oxidation (IAAO) technique have suggested that protein requirements in young men are at least 50% higher than RDA based on nitrogen balance data. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to measure the protein requirement in endurance trained adults using the IAAO technique.