Gelita recently introduced PeptEndure, a first-of-its-kind collagen peptide ingredient evidenced to improve endurance performance in recreational athletes.

The ingredient is now supported by two clinical studies, including a study on 59 recreationally-active women between the ages of 18 and 40, and a study on a group of recreationally-active men which is still awaiting publication. Each of the studies found that daily use of the ingredient over a 4-month period resulted in significant improvements in time trial running performance compared to placebo.

“Imagine if you could improve your 10 kilometer running time from 55 to 47 minutes in just 3 months, or being able to run over 600 more meters during a 1-hour time frame,” said Martin Walter, healthy aging and sports nutrition category manager at Gelita. “That’s what PeptEndure does.”

Filling a Market Gap

Walter said that this new ingredient represents a major white space in the sports nutrition category. To date, most dietary supplements marketed to endurance athletes are limited to different formulations of carbohydrates, amino acids, and electrolytes, to offer short-term, immediate energy benefits. Meanwhile, the protein category on the whole is mostly studied and marketed for muscle gain benefits.

PeptEndure is a unique in that it represents a specialty protein for endurance athletes, and an ingredient which, rather than taken for immediate benefits, requires long-term daily use in order to achieve efficacy.

“In addition to this, the science behind this ingredient is exciting, when it comes to maximizing the effects of training,” he said. “It is a uniquely positioned collagen, and the first protein extensively studied for endurance sports.”

PeptEndure has excellent dissolution, a neutral taste, and the ability to combine with other ingredients and sweeteners, making it compatible with powders, ready-to-drink beverages, bars, milkshakes, smoothies, and more.

Clinical Study Details

Ginger Waller, technical services manager of nutrition and health ingredients at Gelita, discussed both the earlier findings of the women’s study which was published in Frontiers in Nutrition, and newer findings on a similar study involving men which still awaits publication.

In the 2020 study, published in Frontiers in Nutrition, 59 women classified as recreationally active took part in a concurrent training program for 12 weeks, either taking a placebo or 15 grams of PeptEndure daily. At baseline and points throughout the intervention, participants took part in running distance time trials, and were measured for velocity and heart rate at the lactate and anaerobic threshold in an incremental running test, and body composition, including fat mass and fat free mass.

Participants were intermittently measured for muscular strength and muscular endurance as well.

After 12 weeks, the treatment group had an increased running distance of 643 meters, compared to the controls, which had a 356-meter increase in time trial distance by the end of the study. The heart rate at anaerobic threshold was also reduced significantly more in the treatment group than in the control group.

“The women’s study suggested that participants had improved fat oxidation, along with experiencing some cardiovascular adaptations which need further research,” Waller noted.

The men’s study, which was similarly designed, found that the treatment group improved in distance covered over a set period by 662 meters after 12 weeks of treatment, which was significantly greater than the placebo group. In addition to performance improvements, the researchers noted that men who were given the collagen peptides also saw improvements in measures of fat metabolism, Waller said.

While the full range of mechanisms of action are not yet known, there were improvements in the production of mitochondrial ATP across the population of participants, which researchers believed was central to the ingredient’s endurance benefits, said Waller. One of the downstream effects of improved mitochondrial ATP production was a significant improvement in measures of lactate metabolism.

“This means that muscles were better able to utilize the lactate being fed to them—there always comes a point where muscles fail to continue utilizing lactate, at which point, lactic acid builds up and muscle performance declines. PeptEndure increased bioavailability of lactate to the muscles, which enabled the endurance improvements,” Waller said.