Drinking Milk After Exercise Encourages Muscle Gain And Fat Loss, Study Finds

[SinJester]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/79235.php

Part of an ongoing study into the impact of drinking milk after heavy weightlifting has found that milk helps exercisers burn more fat.

The study by researchers at McMaster University and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was conducted by the Department of Kinesiology's Exercise Metabolism Research Group, lead by Stuart Phillips.

The researchers took three groups of young men 18 to 30 years of age -- 56 in total -- and put them through a rigorous, five-day-per-week weightlifting program over a 12-week period. Following their workouts, study participants drank either two cups of skim milk, a soy beverage with equivalent amounts of protein and energy, or a carbohydrate beverage with an equivalent amount of energy, which was roughly the same as drinking 600 to 700 milliliters of a typical sports drink.

Upon the study's conclusion, researchers found that the milk drinking group had lost nearly twice as much fat - two pounds - while the carbohydrate beverage group lost one pound of fat. Those drinking soy lost no fat. At the same time, the gain in muscle was much greater among the milk drinkers than either the soy or carbohydrate beverage study participants.

"The loss of fat mass, while expected, was much larger than we thought it would be," says Phillips, associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster. "I think the practical implications of these results are obvious: if you want to gain muscle and lose fat as a result of working out, drink milk."

As reported in the first phase of the study, the milk drinking group came out on top in terms of muscle gain with an estimated 40 per cent or 2.5 pounds more muscle mass than the soy beverage drinkers. In addition, this group gained 63 per cent or 3.3 pounds, more muscle mass than the carbohydrate beverage drinkers.

"I think the evidence is beginning to mount," says Phillips. "Milk may be best known for its calcium content in supporting bone health, but our research, and that of others, continually supports milk's ability to aid in muscle growth and also promote body fat loss. To my mind -- with milk being a source of nine essential nutrients -- it's a no brainer: milk is the ideal post-workout drink for recreational exercisers and athletes alike."

----------------------------
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
----------------------------

Ongoing work with this project will focus on the components of milk that might be responsible for the effects observed by the McMaster-based researchers. The work was supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and a grant from the US National Dairy Council.

McMaster University, a world-renowned, research-intensive university, fosters a culture of innovation, and a commitment to discovery and learning in teaching, research and scholarship. Based in Hamilton, the University, one of only four Canadian universities to be listed on the Top 100 universities in the world, has a student population of more than 23,000, and an alumni population of more than 125,000 in 125 countries.

I just hope the research wasn't funded by a milk company.

 

[Quiksilver]

It's hard to say... I don't know how one could carry out this study with any effectiveness with only 56 participants though. Post workout drink isn't the only factor in fat loss and muscle growth. It's only one brick in the body composition wall. I also wouldn't call a 5 day split a great muscle building schedule..It's also interesting to note that they used an exploited/processed and hardly natural form of milk.. Skim milk.

Still hard to say though.. Milk will work for some and not others. Sounds like a bold hypothesis that they made and I won't criticize their study.

On a different note, I have heaps of friends at McMaster and it was one of the easiest places to get laid

edit:

Ongoing work with this project will focus on the components of milk that might be responsible for the effects observed by the McMaster-based researchers. The work was supported by grants from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and a grant from the US National Dairy Council.

Now that changes things a little, doesn't it

 

[Throttle]

I just hope the research wasn't funded by a milk company.

The US Dairy Council IS milk companies, for all intents and purposes.

All this shows is how useless high fructose sports drinks & soy protein shakes are for gaining muscle mass. Conclusion: consume real protein after lifting -- duh!