Long-term feeding of whey protein hydrolysates increases skeletal muscle glycogen levels and improves exercise performance in mice

Background Recently, our studies have shown that co-ingestion of carbohydrate and whey protein hydrolysate (WPH) is more effective for increasing post-exercise skeletal muscle glycogen content than ingestion of other protein sources (whey protein, casein hydrolysate, or branched chain amino acids). We have also shown that chronic feeding of whey protein increases glycogen contents in skeletal muscle of exercise-trained rats to a greater extent than does casein. To confirm our hypothesis that longterm feeding of WPH is more effective for increasing both muscle glycogen content and exercise performance than other protein sources, we compared long-term feeding of WPH to other protein sources for their effects on skeletal muscle glycogen levels and exercise performance.