Amino Acid-Stimulated Muscle Protein Synthesis is Attenuated During Early Recovery from Aerobic Exercise in...

In healthy individuals, exercise and amino acid availability act synergistically to stimulate muscle anabolism. However, this interaction may be impaired in individuals with obesity.

We examined whether acute aerobic exercise alters amino acid-stimulated muscle protein synthesis during immediate postexercise recovery in adults with obesity.

Sixteen sedentary adults with a body mass index >30 kg/m² underwent a stable-isotope tracer infusion to measure mixed-muscle protein fractional synthesis rate (FSR) in the basal/fasted state and during an amino acid infusion, either with or without prior aerobic exercise. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either amino acid infusion alone (AA) or 45 min of cycling exercise at ~65% heart rate reserve immediately before amino acid infusion (EX + AA).

Amino acid infusion increased muscle protein FSR in the AA group (P < 0.0001) but not in the EX + AA group (P > 0.05), and the amino acid-stimulated increase in FSR was 78% lower in EX + AA than in AA (P < 0.01). The amino acid infusion increased (P < 0.05) plasma amino acid concentrations in both groups. However, during the amino acid infusion, plasma concentrations of essential and branched-chain amino acids, including leucine, were lower in EX + AA than in AA (P < 0.05). Moreover, across participants, absolute changes in muscle protein FSR were positively associated with plasma leucine concentrations during the amino acid infusion (P < 0.05).

These findings show that, in individuals with obesity, acute aerobic exercise markedly attenuates amino acid-stimulated muscle protein synthesis during early postexercise recovery. These findings have important implications for designing nutritional strategies to optimize muscle anabolism in this population.