NCT07119749

Vegan Whey Protein for Muscle Anabolism and Post-exercise Recovery

The Effects of Ingesting Vegan-friendly Whey Protein on Muscle Anabolism and Recovery Following Damaging Eccentric Resistance Exercise

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 27 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Birmingham · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 40 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study will be a randomised, double-blind trial where participants will be randomly assigned to consume either a i) vegan whey protein; ii) a whey protein; or iii) a non-protein carbohydrate control supplement for 3 days following strenuous eccentric knee extension exercise. For the duration of the study period, participants will orally consume deuterated water stable isotope tracer (D2O). This, together with repeated blood sampling and muscle biopsies will allow for the calculation of free-living myofibrillar protein synthesis rates under conditions of rest and over 24-, 48- and 72-hours post-exercise recovery.

Detailed description

Participants will be asked to attend 7 experimental visits at the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Birmingham. The first of the 7 visits will be to assess participant eligibility and to gain written informed consent, where the remaining 6 visits will involve experimental procedures. Briefly, participants will be randomly assigned to ingest one of three nutritional supplements (i: vegan whey protein isolate; ii: whey protein isolate; iii: a non-protein carbohydrate control), 3 times a day for a total of 3 days following an acute bout of unilateral lower-limb eccentric exercise. The study will be run in a double-blinded fashion, where the researchers and participants will both be unaware of nutritional treatment allocation. The amount of protein in each supplemental beverage is prescribed based on total body mass (0.3 g of protein per kg of body mass). As well, for 3 days before and 3 days after the exercise bout, participants will be provided with a standardised diet to consume. For the 3 days before the exercise bout, all participants will consume an identical diet, with a protein intake of 1 g per kg body mass and diets will be energy-matched between treatment groups. For the subsequent 3 days, participants assigned to each of the protein supplementation groups (whey protein or vegan whey protein) will have a daily protein intake of 1.9 g per kg body mass, whereas participants assigned to the carbohydrate control group will maintain protein intake at 1 g per kg body mass. Measures of muscle function, soreness and thickness will be taken before and at various time points after the eccentric exercise, details of which can be found below. To assess the muscle protein synthetic response to each nutritional treatment, participants will orally consume a stable isotope tracer ("heavy water") for a period of 9 days, and muscle biopsies and saliva samples will be taken periodically. An outline of each experimental visit is outlined below.

Conditions

• Muscle Soreness

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Stable isotope tracer consumption	Daily consumption of oral deuterium oxide (0.3 ml per kg of lean body mass) to equilibrate in body water and become slowly incorporated into muscle protein, enabling measurement of muscle protein synthesis rates
RADIATION	DXA scan	Whole body DXA scan to assess lean body mass for prescription of deuterium oxide tracer
BEHAVIORAL	Controlled diet	Participant will be asked to consume a provided 6-day diet package that will be prepared by the research team. This package will include 3 meals per day plus snacks
OTHER	Saliva sample	Obtained from participants by asking them to spit into a tube each day during the study, for 11 days in total.
OTHER	Blood sample	Resting venous blood sample from a forearm vein on 6 separate occasions
PROCEDURE	Muscle biopsy	A highly experienced researcher will sample a small section of muscle (\~200 mg) from the vastus lateralis muscle under local anaesthetic (5 ml, 1% Lidocaine)
BEHAVIORAL	Resistance exercise	participants will complete 8 sets of 10 repetitions of unilateral eccentric knee extensions on an isokinetic dynamometer.
OTHER	Isometric strength test	Bilateral isometric strength will be measured using a well-established protocol on an isokinetic dynamometer.
DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT	Supplement	Consumption of 3 supplements a day for 3 days following resistance exercise. All supplements are commercially available.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-09-01
• Primary completion: 2024-11-22
• Completion: 2024-11-22
• First posted: 2025-08-13
• Last updated: 2025-08-13

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom