Consume More Protein To Help Recovery?

Walk into any Cold Storage, Fairprice or 7-Eleven and you will see so many choices of high protein drinks. They are popular since they offer convenience. Many people are trying to add more protein since many fitness influencers tell us that we need more, especially for older adults.

What about after surgery? Nutritional status is a strong predictor of postoperative outcomes and known to be an important component of surgery recovery programs.  You generally need to consume more protein after surgery to help your body heal, repair tissues and prevent muscle loss. 

Research has demonstrated muscle protein turnover rates, but little is known regarding the turnover of other musculoskeletal tissues. Response to protein supplementation is not assessed as well.

The following paper (Houtvast et al, 2026)  used a safe heavy-water tracer to measure how quickly knee tissues rebuilt in older adults during a routine knee replacement surgery. 24 subjects (12 male, 12 females) with an average age of 68 ±7 years were recruited for the study (pictured above).

Half the subjects kept their usual diet while the other half added 40 grams of whey protein a day for 2 weeks. 

Ready for the results? The gap between the different tissues was vast. Muscle rebuilt at about 1.2 percent a day, meaning your thigh muscles (quadriceps) can turn over or be "rebuilt" in about 3 months. The patella tendon, the articular cartilage and meniscus rebuilt at 0.18 to 0.21 percent a day or about 1.3 to 1.5 years for a full cycle. Bone was the slowest, up to 2.3 years at some sites at 0.12 to 0.21 percent per day (pictured above). At the end of the study, every tissue rebuilt at the same rate in both groups.

Connective tissue is maintained by protein since all of the above tissues is built from the protein amino acids we eat.

All of us need sufficient protein in our diets. Protein drinks and supplements are good at reducing intake gaps and helping to meet the necessary per meal amount that helps muscle growth after training. They are not a shortcut for preventing or reducing articular cartilage damage, tendon injuries or bone loss after menopause or even ACL rehabilitation. 

This study shows that in older adults already eating normal diets, a 2-week protein boost did not make any of them rebuild any faster. Perhaps a longer trial with more subjects will have different results.

For muscle, the proven approach is about 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram (or 0.7 grams a pound) of body weight each day. This should be spread across 3 to 4 meals of at least 0.4 grams per kilogram per meal.

For tendons, ligaments and bone, progressive training and loading seems to work best while for articular cartilage, weight management matters too. Collagen with vitamin C before training helps for tendons along with isometric exercises.

Please note that your body runs different tissue clocks at different healing speeds. A tendon injury at age 55 is different from someone else at 15. The rehab timeline is set by how fast that tendon can lay down and rebuild new collagen fibers. Having enough protein gives you the building blocks while load and time determine how quickly the repair actually occurs.

Reference

Houtvast DC, Hendriks FK, Weijzen ME et al (2026). Assessing The Responsiveness Of Musculuskeletal Tissues To Protein Supplementation In Vivo In Older Adults.  Am J Clin Nutr. 24(1): 101349. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajcnut.2026.101349