Amount of Protein Needed to Ingest a Good Dose of Leucine

In our previous article about post exercise protein we mentioned the importance of leucine as one of the amino acids that must be included in your post exercise meal. Leucine is a key component of skeletal muscle synthesis and current evidence suggests that with amounts of 20-45 mg leucine per kg of body weight muscle protein synthesis is optimised (1,2). Remember don't fall into the common sports nutrition trap of thinking even more leucine will turn you into Arnie. There appears to be a ceiling when it comes to protein ingestion and protein synthesis, therefore amounts larger than 45mg/kg don't appear to be beneficial (3). 

Below is a table (3) taken from the work done by Moore et al. (1) and Pasiakos et al. (2) that offers practical advice on how much total protein you would need to achieve 45mg of leucine per kg of body weight.

Use this table as a guideline when planning your post work out meal to ensure you achieve the optimum post work out leucine dose. 

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References 
1.Moore, D. R., M. J. Robinson, J. L. Fry, J. E. Tang, E. I. Glover, S. B. Wilkinson, T. Prior, M. A. Tarnopolsky, and S. M. Phillips. 2009. Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 89 (1): 161–168.

2.Pasiakos, S. M., H. L. McClung, J. P. McClung, L. M. Margolis, N. E. Andersen, G. J. Cloutier, M. A. Pikosky, J. C. Rood, R. A. Fielding, and A. J. Young. 2011. Leucine-enriched essen­tial amino acid supplementation during moderate steady state exercise enhances postex­ercise muscle protein synthesis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 94 (3): 809–818.

3.B.I Campbell 2014, Sports Nutrition: Enhancing exercise performance. CRC Press