Meal Fat Content Influences Muscle Building After Exercise

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Briana Mercola

Health & Fitness, Alternative Health

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Low-fat protein after exercise delivers amino acids into your bloodstream faster, giving your muscles a stronger signal to repair and grow
High-fat meals slow digestion and weaken your muscle-building response, even when the total amount of protein is the same
A stronger and faster leucine surge from lean protein helps activate muscle repair more effectively, improving your recovery window
Higher daily protein intake — around 0.8 grams per pound of ideal body weight — supports better muscle gain, fat loss, bone strength, and metabolic stability
Simplifying your post-workout meal and choosing low-LA, low-fat protein sources help you recover more quickly and get better results from every training session

Transcript

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0:00.0	Are you losing muscle you already earned because your post-workout meal is slowing the signal to rebuild?
0:05.0	Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen summaries of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go.
0:13.0	No reading required. Subscribe for free at Mercola.com for the latest health insights.
0:18.0	Hello, and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom.
0:22.6	Today we're examining how the fat content of your meal
0:25.6	changes the speed and strength of muscle repair after training
0:28.6	and why a higher daily protein intake supports better body composition,
0:33.6	bone strength and metabolic stability.
0:35.6	I'm Ethan Foster. The core takeaway is simple. Timing and
0:40.4	composition matter. When your meal is low in fat, amino acids arrive in your bloodstream faster.
0:46.5	Lucene peaks higher, and your muscles receive a stronger command to repair. When the meal is
0:51.7	high in fat, digestion slows, and you blunt the very response
0:55.8	you trained to create.
0:57.0	I'm Alara Sky. A controlled study compared three options after resistance exercise, a high-fat
1:03.9	pork meal, a low-fat pork meal with the same protein amount, and a carbohydrate drink.
1:09.8	While pork isn't recommended here due to its high
1:12.1	linoleic acid content, the comparison shows the effect of fat itself. The low-fat
1:18.4	meal produced the strongest rise in myofabrilla protein synthesis. That difference
1:23.9	traced back to speed. The low-fat meal delivered a faster and higher surge of essential amino acids,
1:29.3	especially Lucene, while the high-fat meal delayed and reduced that surge.
1:34.3	By the time amino acids finally rose after the high-fat meal,
1:38.3	the peak window of post-exercise sensitivity had narrowed.
	...

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