As an athlete, it is easy to focus on fitness gains and muscle recovery when it comes to liquid collagen benefits – but there’s far more to collagen than it’s fitness applications.
Now, this is good news for all athletes, because that means your collagen supplement is not only helping you reach your physical best, it is supporting your overall health as well.
We’ve chosen our top eight reasons to use liquid collagen protein to help you learn some liquid collagen benefits that have nothing to do with your workout.
Things you won’t see on this list (that are also benefits of collagen) include that collagen:
- may improve muscle recovery
- may stimulate muscle growth
- may enhance endurance performance
These are not included because those liquid collagen benefits relate directly to your workout. We want to look at other ways collagen can improve your health – and why it is not only a great supplement for athletes, but for anyone.
Remember, when reviewing liquid collagen benefits of any kind, that not all collagen supplements will provide the same results. These benefits are variable according to the quality of the collagen source, the absorption rate, and the credibility of the supplement company.
1. Collagen may reduce cellulite
While reducing cellulite may not be a necessary thing to do, it is often seen as one of the top liquid collagen benefits for women. The reason why collagen may reduce cellulite is because of how many collagen proteins are needed to support young, healthy skin elasticity.
Collagen has long been used in the medical field to help rebuild cellular protein structures. And, as you may already know, your natural collagen production starts declining by your mid twenties.
When you consistently take a high quality, easily absorbable collagen supplement you are providing your body with the necessary amino acids it needs to construct new collagen proteins.
The more collagen your body can make, the more it has to distribute to non-essential areas, like your skin. This can allow your body to repair and restructure your dermal layers.
2. Collagen may help with anti-aging skin health
Collagen is well known for the potential it has to help with anti-aging. Much like we discussed with cellulite, the thought behind this is that collagen may improve skin elasticity.
As you age and your natural collagen production decreases, your skin loses elasticity because the collagen your body does produce is sent to other places like your vital organs. When your skin starts to lose elasticity, that’s when you start to see wrinkles and lines appearing.
In addition, some studies have found that liquid collagen benefits may include improved skin hydration and overall skin cell recovery when ingested orally.
That’s good news for Frog Fuel customers! Not only is our liquid collagen great for workouts, but it may help you look younger too.
3. Collagen may help with weight loss and management
One of the liquid collagen benefits that is not talked about often enough is that collagen may help you manage or lose weight.
There are three main reasons why collagen might help with weight loss:
- collagen may help to increase your bodies metabolic rate,
- collagen may increase fat burn, and
- collagen may keep you fuller longer.
Although collagen may boost your metabolism, it is not solely a liquid collagen benefit. It is a benefit of consuming protein in general.
Protein consumption may boost your metabolism because it takes more energy for your body to break down proteins than it does fats or carbohydrates. The thermic effect of food (TEF) of protein tends to be much higher than that of fats and carbs. In fact, it is usually around 25-30%.
So, if you consume 100 calories of protein, you will potentially burn around 30 calories just by eating it.
Energy for building and maintaining muscle is produced by burning calories. As you build more muscle with a high-protein diet, your metabolic rate often increases, and maintaining a healthy weight becomes easier.
Weight management is one thing, but what about weight loss?
Many people that struggle to lose weight often hold it in one area of their body: their belly.
Much like maintaining a healthy metabolism, having more muscle will help you lose belly fat. Once you’ve gotten to the point where you have a healthy fat to muscle ratio, then maintaining that muscle mass is important so you do not once again gain belly fat.
To help preserve your muscle mass, eating enough protein, specifically high-quality collagen protein may help.
Protein also helps you feel satiated longer, even if you consume fewer calories of it. Keep in mind that these should be complete protein foods. That’s why if you are on a high protein diet, you likely feel fuller faster and for a longer period of time.
Not all collagen supplements are complete proteins, because collagen in the whole form is not a complete protein. That’s why Frog Fuel is fortified with the missing amino acids to make it a complete protein supplement.
4. Collagen may improve hair and nail health
Your body uses collagen for a lot of different things. In fact, collagen makes up 30% of your body’s protein. Since it is used so widely throughout your body, including in your nails, then it may not be a surprise that an increased intake of collagen will help prevent brittle nails.
How can it help with hair health though?
Your hair is held in place via hair follicles in your skin. When these hair follicles are too brittle or loose, your hair has a much harder time staying in place and getting the nutrients it needs from your body.
The distribution of amino acids that comes from introducing a collagen supplement to your diet can not only maintain hair follicle structure and strengthen hair roots, but it may also help build keratin.
Keratin is one of the primary proteins used to help your hair grow and stay strong. Since some of the amino acids within a collagen protein supplement are also found in keratin, when you ingest collagen, your body will send those amino acids where they are needed most.
5. Collagen may improve digestive health
It seems like collagen is everywhere in our bodies, and that’s because it is! Collagen proteins make up 90% of your connective tissues, which is why one of the liquid collagen benefits is that it may improve your digestive health.
Digestive health issues are common no matter your gender, making this one of the many collagen benefits for men and women.
While you may be familiar with the easy digestion of Frog Fuel liquid collagen protein, there’s more to it than simply being easy on your stomach when compared to other protein supplements.
One of the predominantly studied aspects of collagen and digestive health is in relation to leaky gut syndrome.
Having a leaky gut is what it sounds like: it means that your stomach and intestinal lining are “leaking.” This happens when the lining can no longer retain the necessary structure to help pass toxins, and they begin to be absorbed instead.
Since collagen may help build up your soft tissue structure and increase overall connective tissue elasticity, it can help rebuild and maintain the structure of your intestinal and stomach walls.
6. Collagen may help with wound healing and injury recovery
If you’re an athlete that has suffered an injury of any kind, then you may be familiar with the liquid collagen benefits on healing. Beyond sports injuries, collagen is sometimes used in post-surgery recovery to help patients heal from wounds more quickly.
When you have an injury of any kind, your body primarily uses protein molecules to repair cells, multiply cells, and produce natural healing enzymes. Among the many proteins your body needs to complete this process, collagen is a main player.
Since collagen is the most abundant protein in your body used to build up all connective tissues from cartilage, skin, tendons, and muscles, you can see why it could help with wound healing.
7. Collagen may reduce arthritis symptoms
Collagen is a key player in your overall joint health. As an athlete, your joints are extremely important to your overall performance, so avoiding early signs of arthritis or arthritis in general is a great investment.
There are several other joint conditions that may be impacted by the use of a daily collagen supplement, but we will focus on arthritis here as it tends to be one of the most common.
The main reason why those that have arthritis tend to suffer from a lot of pain is because of inflammation. One of the best liquid collagen benefits is that collagen may reduce some inflammation around your joints. This can help with already existing arthritis symptoms.
In general, collagen may help to promote healthy joints and ligaments. As you continue to take collagen supplements, your body has more amino acids to delegate towards joint health and recovery.
8. Collagen may be used in medical nutrition therapy
Medical nutrition therapy is often associated with malnutrition, chronic diseases, and wound recovery – but it has numerous medical applications. It entails working hand-in-hand with your doctor and a nutritional professional like a dietitian to construct a diet that is most suitable to your recovery or treatment plan.
Depending on what is being treated, a higher protein diet may be necessary, or doctors may want to include a collagen supplement to help speed up recovery.
Although there are many liquid collagen benefits that apply to everyone, the medical applications of collagen protein as a whole are vast, which is why it is often used in medical nutrition therapy.
Frog Fuel liquid protein uses the same formula as our ProT Gold liquid collagen protein, which is classified as a medical food and trusted by thousands of medical facilities.
Both Frog Fuel and ProT Gold will have similar results and liquid collagen benefits. And although collagen has many applications, remember that the quality of the collagen protein matters too.
Get the most out of liquid collagen benefits
Not all collagen supplements are created equal. In order to fully reap your liquid collagen benefits, it’s important to use a hydrolyzed or nano-hydrolyzed collagen supplement.
The benefits of hydrolyzed collagen outweigh those of collagen protein in the whole form because hydrolyzed collagen has been broken down into pieces that are much more easily absorbed by your stomach lining.
When you consume collagen protein in its whole form, your body cannot absorb most of the protein, and you miss out on a lot of the amazing liquid collagen benefits.
That’s why Frog Fuel uses nano-hydrolyzed collagen protein, so you can get the most out of your supplement.
