Nutritional needs of elite endurance athletes. Part II: Dietary protein and the potential role of caffeine and creatine

Abstract Amino acids contribute between 2–8% of the energy needs during endurance exercise. Endurance exercise training leads to an adaptive reduction in the oxidation of amino acids at the same absolute exercise intensity, however, the capacity to oxidize amino acids goes up due to the increase in the total amount of the rate limiting enzyme, branched chain 2‐oxo‐acid dehydrogenase. There appears to be a modest increase (range = 12–95%) in …