The latest research says that whey protein is a better option if you want to shed fat, build muscle and increase testosterone. If you want a plant-based alternative, soy protein isn't necessarily a bad choice. In fact, the FDA claims that it's better for heart health than whey. Ingesting whey protein stimulates myofibrillar protein synthesis during weight loss more efficiently than soy protein and, naturally, better than carbohydrates.
This indicates that whey protein can save muscle mass more efficiently than soy protein, but the real impact is outside the evaluation capabilities of this study. Soy protein and whey protein are dietary supplements that can help increase total protein intake. While each form of protein has its own benefits for health, for exercise, muscle building and weight loss, research has shown that whey protein is superior. This is likely related to the amino acid profile and the rapid absorption rate of whey protein.
A practical application is that the consumption of vegetable protein can promote strength and muscle development in a way comparable to whey protein, when consumed in quantities that provide sufficient leucine. When SPF was expressed as the change in SPF between before and after ingestion of the supplement, soy scored higher than the CHO control supplement and whey scored higher than both. After three months of training in the Volek study, the participants in the whey protein group increased the LBM by 3.1 ± 1.5 kg and the soy group increased the LBM by 1.9 ± 1.1 kg. All of these factors make it difficult to establish conclusively the superiority of whey over soy according to this study.
Whey protein was absorbed more rapidly than soy protein and stimulated muscle protein synthesis approximately twice as much as soy supplements. The ingestion of the glucose control supplement produced higher levels of glucose and insulin than the intake of any of the protein supplements, with no difference between the soy protein and whey supplement groups. We hypothesized that muscle size, strength, and body composition would change in a similar way in participants who took soy protein or whey supplements. Whey protein products have always been considered in the last 50 years to be the perfect protein supplement to take.
Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of daily soy versus whey protein supplementation, equated with leucine content, on lean body mass, muscle strength and body composition during a 12-week resistance training program. Because amino acids are more rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream from whey protein than from soy protein, it is possible to expect higher levels of glucose and insulin in the blood after supplementation with whey. This means that between 1.0 and 1.5% of the protein in muscle protein is accumulated and broken down every day in balance of muscle mass. Therefore, this study did not evaluate the effectiveness of protein supplementation versus control; rather, the effectiveness of two different protein sources was compared.
This means that whey stimulates protein synthesis in the muscle more efficiently than soy protein.
