Another study that would probably generate a lot of controversy and hate-mail for me. Meh, such is life, better to embrace it than hide:-) The study below demonstrated that eating low-fat pork after weight lifting led to robust increase in muscle protein synthesis (MPS) on top of the boost triggered by the weight training itself. In contrast, eating high-fat pork either produced no MPS increase or in some people actually decreased MPS below the level produced by weight training.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2025.09.001
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/10/251015032318.htm
“…At the gym, participants performed leg presses and leg extensions, then returned to the lab to eat one of three test meals: a high-fat pork burger, a lean pork burger, or a carbohydrate drink. Five hours later, the researchers took another muscle biopsy to measure how the meal and exercise together affected protein synthesis. After several days of recovery, 14 of the 16 volunteers repeated the process but switched meal types to ensure that individual differences did not skew the results. As expected, amino acid levels in the blood rose sharply after eating pork compared with the carbohydrate drink. However, those who consumed the lean pork burger showed the largest increases in amino acids — both total and essential. “When you see an increased concentration of amino acids in the blood after you eat, you get a pretty good idea that that is coming from the food that you just ate,” Burd said. Those who consumed the lean pork burger after a bout of weight training also had a greater rate of muscle-protein synthesis than those who ate the high-fat pork burger. This was a surprise to Burd, as “the previous studies using fattier foods, such as whole eggs or salmon, generally showed enhanced post-exercise muscle-protein synthesis compared with lower fat food such as egg whites or nutritional supplements,” he said. Although weight training boosted muscle-protein synthesis in the groups eating pork, the protein in the high-fat burger seemed to have no added benefit in the hours after participants consumed it, while the protein in the lean pork gave muscle-protein synthesis a boost. “For some reason, the high-fat pork truly blunted the response,” Burd said. “In fact, the people who ate the high-fat pork only had slightly better muscle-building potential than those who drank a carbohydrate sports beverage after exercise.”
