Disclosed herein are methods for enhancing the efficacy of epigallocatechin gallate ("EGCg") in mitigating skeletal muscle loss in a subject. Providing EGCg to a subject in a nutritional composition reduces muscle protein degradation, thereby mitigating skeletal muscle loss in the subject. The combination of EGCg with zinc in a nutritional composition enhances the mitigating effect that EGCg has on muscle loss. Specifically, when used in combination, a nutritional composition containing both EGCg and zinc requires less EGCg to obtain the same mitigating effect that occurs in the same nutritional composition containing EGCg but no zinc.