Plant and animal proteins ranked alike for exercise recovery after lifting

If you lift weights or do strength exercise, you may wonder whether your post-workout protein has to come from milk or eggs. For exercise recovery, a new review says plant proteins ranked close to animal ones. The best results showed up at a moderate dose, about 18 to 25 grams of protein.

That means you have room to choose. What matters most is getting a solid serving of protein after you train, and the source can fit your taste, your budget or your diet.

How the study worked

Researchers pooled 51 trials in healthy adults who did a session of resistance exercise and then had a single serving of protein. In each trial, muscle samples were taken before and after, so scientists could measure how fast muscles were building new protein each hour. The pooled analysis was published Oct. 12, 2026, in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. It measured a short-term effect in the lab, and some protein sources were tested in only a few studies, so those results are less firm.

What they found

The team ranked protein sources by how well they boosted muscle building in the hours after a workout. Five came out on top, in this order:

• Native whey (a minimally processed form of milk protein)
• Pea protein
• Whole egg protein
• Mycoprotein (a protein made from fungi, used in some meat substitutes)
• Whey protein

The scores were close together. Animal proteins (whey and egg) and plant proteins (pea and mycoprotein) landed in the same neighborhood. Native whey and pea protein each came in at about 5 hundredths of a percent per hour in the study’s measure of muscle building.

One detail is worth knowing. Only regular whey protein cleared the bar for a statistically solid result, with a difference of 0.02% per hour. The others ranked just as high, but there were fewer studies on them, so the numbers were less certain. The researchers rated the overall evidence as low to moderate.

The review also looked at how much protein to eat. For native whey, whole egg, pea and mycoprotein, the highest predicted responses came with servings of 18 to 25 grams.

What is muscle protein synthesis?

It is the way your body builds new protein in muscle. After strength training, your muscles are ready to repair and grow. Eating protein gives them the building blocks, and this process speeds up. Scientists use it as an early sign of how well a food supports recovery.

It is not the same as muscle you can see or lift with months later. This review looked at the early signal, not at long-term gains.

What this means for different eaters

If you eat mostly plants, or dairy does not agree with you, this is reassuring. Pea protein and mycoprotein ranked right alongside the animal options in this early measure. If you already eat eggs or dairy, nothing here says to change.

The study tested specific protein sources. It did not test every food, so it cannot say how yogurt or lentils would rank. But peas are in the same family of foods as lentils and other legumes, and the dose finding applies broadly: a real serving of protein, not a nibble.

What you can do today

After your next strength workout, or a brisk session with weights or bands, have a snack or meal with a solid serving of protein. Eggs, dairy, a pea-based protein shake or a bowl of legumes can all be part of it. Aim for roughly the 18 to 25 gram range, which you can check on a food label or the Nutrition Facts panel the FDA requires on packaged foods.