To Gain Muscle And Lose Fat, Drink Milk

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To Gain Muscle And Lose Fat, Drink Milk

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070808104257.htm

Part of an ongoing study into the impact of drinking milk after

heavy weightlifting has found that milk helps exercisers burn more

fat.

The study by researchers at McMaster University and just published

in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was conducted by the

Department of Kinesiology's Exercise Metabolism Research Group, lead

by Stuart .

The researchers took three groups of young men 18 to 30 years of

age -- 56 in total -- and put them through a rigorous, five-day-per-

week weightlifting program over a 12-week period. Following their

workouts, study participants drank either two cups of skim milk, a

soy beverage with equivalent amounts of protein and energy, or a

carbohydrate beverage with an equivalent amount of energy, which was

roughly the same as drinking 600 to 700 milliliters of a typical

sports drink.

Upon the study's conclusion, researchers found that the milk

drinking group had lost nearly twice as much fat - two pounds -

while the carbohydrate beverage group lost one pound of fat. Those

drinking soy lost no fat. At the same time, the gain in muscle was

much greater among the milk drinkers than either the soy or

carbohydrate beverage study participants.

" The loss of fat mass, while expected, was much larger than we

thought it would be, " says , associate professor of

kinesiology at McMaster. " I think the practical implications of

these results are obvious: if you want to gain muscle and lose fat

as a result of working out, drink milk. "

As reported in the first phase of the study, the milk drinking group

came out on top in terms of muscle gain with an estimated 40 per

cent or 2.5 pounds more muscle mass than the soy beverage drinkers.

In addition, this group gained 63 per cent or 3.3 pounds, more

muscle mass than the carbohydrate beverage drinkers.

" I think the evidence is beginning to mount, " says . " Milk

may be best known for its calcium content in supporting bone health,

but our research, and that of others, continually supports milk's

ability to aid in muscle growth and also promote body fat loss. To

my mind -- with milk being a source of nine essential nutrients --

it's a no brainer: milk is the ideal post-workout drink for

recreational exercisers and athletes alike. "

Ongoing work with this project will focus on the components of milk

that might be responsible for the effects observed by the McMaster-

based researchers. The work was supported by grants from the

Canadian Institutes for Health Research and a grant from the US

National Dairy Council.