Does... taking BCAAs help with your muscle gains, fat loss, or ego in the gym?
Or, are they simply a waste of money?
While these types of supplements generally are perceived as positive additions to one’s
diet and training regime, they may be something that you might want to rethink the next time
you begin to hand over your hard-earned money.
Branched chain aminos, or, BCAAs, are a popular supplement in the health and fitness realm.
But, if you’re a little confused and you’re wondering what an amino acid is, let’s break
that down first.
Amino acids are the building blocks of life.
If we didn’t have these guys.
Then, we wouldn’t exist.
You see, as proteins are made up of amino acids, if we didn’t have these amino acids
up for grabs, we wouldn’t have protein.
Then, we wouldn’t have muscles, organs, various other tissue in our body, and our
body would not even be able to carry out numerous processes like digestion and muscle building.
So there are 20 main amino acids, with a 21st being discovered recently.
Of these 21 amino acids, 9 of them are termed essential.
These 9 essential amino acids, or EAAs, are held at high regard because our body cannot
manufacture them.
Instead, we must consume them via our diet if we hope to maximise our body’s building
and maintenance processes.
If you take a close look at these amino acids, you can see that they all contain the same
core design.
This is more commonly referred to as the amino acid’s backbone.
All of the amino acids contain a carboxyl group, an amino group, and only differ in
their R group side chains.
Tryptophan here, has what is known as an indol group attached to the amino acid backbone.
Whereas leucine, for example, only has two methyl groups attached to carbon 3.
These differences in the molecule are crucial to tell them apart and of course for their
different effects and possibilities.
How amino acids do their thing is simple: they combine with one another via peptide
bonds to form proteins.
To see this easier, let’s break tryptophans carboxyl and leucine’s amino group up into
their truer formations..
Now that we have those hydrogens separated, all it takes is for these aminos to get closer
and the carboxyl group forms the peptide bond with the amino group and expels a water molecule.
When we look at the newly combined formation, we can still see the main tryptophan portion
of the molecule.
And the leucine.
And of course... the peptide bond.
Amino acids essentially go through this type process until they form enough bonds to make
a protein.
Proteins then go on to be used for things like cell structure, cell functioning, enzyme
synthesis, muscle synthesis, recovery, hormones, various metabolic pathways, and even for optimal
immunity.
Inside your typical BCAA supplement, you will find three of these EAAs: valine, leucine,
and isoleucine.
Valine, leucine and isoleucine, when found together, provide people with what they’re
all chasing: muscle protein synthesis (MPS).
aka.
Dem muscle gainz.
Bro.
In this story, however, Leucine is the main protagonist.
If you took him out of the picture, then the movie fails to do well at the box office.
Too metaphorical?
Look at it this way.
If leucine is not consumed alongside these other two amino acids, then the other two
essentially shut down.
What this means is that the effects that you’re most likely chasing - building or maintaining
muscle - become diminished.
What you can do to ensure that this doesn’t occur is simply consume the other two.
But, this is where it becomes hazy.
You see, while taking these three amino acids does ensure the benefits that people may seek.
For truly optimal results, ALL nine of the EAAs must be consumed.
Which means simply taking in the 3 that are found in BCAA supplements may be a waste of
time and/or money.
Furthermore, protein-rich foods like chicken and eggs contain all the EAAs at high amounts.
Which brings us to our main question.
In a study by Glynn et al, it was found that a mere 1.8 grams of leucine is enough to induce
a maximal muscle protein anabolic response.
Moreover, in a study by Katsanos et al, it was found that roughly 3 grams of leucine
is enough to improve muscle protein retention and reverse a lack of stimulation of muscle
protein synthesis.
So, in short, between 1.8 and 3 grams of leucine is enough to provide people with the benefits
that they typically seek when taking in BCAAs (i.e. muscle building and muscle retention)
Anymore, and their body simply has no use with them and will expel them.
As typical BCAA supplements on the market today contain roughly 1 to 2g per amino acid
per serving, requirements can be met in a single serving of that shaker bottle you probably
haven’t washed properly in a while.
Let’s say that you’re serious about your health.
And let’s therefore assume that you eat sufficient protein already from real foods
throughout your day-to-day life.
Then, you’re more than likely already eating your requirements.
For example, if you consume 100g of chicken breast alone, you would take in
over 1000mg or valine, 1700mg of leucine, and 1200mg of isoleucine.
Think about it, that is from less chicken that people would typically consume in the course of an
entire day.
And if the same people also happened to consume 2 eggs throughout the course of the same day, then they would also
gain roughly 300mg of valine, 700mg of leucine, and 400mg of isoleucine.
What this means is that practically everyone that eats an adequate intake of all the macronutrients,
will already gain the required amounts of these three EAAs.
Meaning, drinking BCAAs simply means that their drinking expensive water.
Since most of us eat that care about our health are already eating enough dietary protein,
it immediately becomes realised that buying this type of supplement is somewhat unnecessary.
Instead, if you do desire some form of liquid in and around your workout, perhaps you may
be better suited to simply drinking whey protein variants.
These can be far more satiating and satisfying as they contain extra nutrients that can provide
you with far more benefit than the three lonely amino acids.
But, let’s say that you love your BCAAs.
If we want to be positive about them, then there is indeed merit regarding the fact that
you just simply love the taste of them and that they help you focus and train better.
There is nothing wrong with either of those reasons -- especially since it is your money,
after all.
Of course placebo may play a role somewhere here, too, but this may now be void after
watching this type of video.
It’s simple really: Eat enough of your protein requirements through food, proper food, and
you can reap the rewards that you seek.
If you think that you need to have some sort of liquid before, during, or after your workout,
then opt for whey and save some serious cash.
Nothing beats food.
And if you are serious about your health and fitness, then you will more than likely already
be consuming enough of these three bad boys from your diet alone.
Therefore meaning that there is no need to rely on this supplement.
Hey guys, what's going on?
I'm Hayden and I hope you enjoyed that video.
If you did happen to happen to learn something from it, please make sure you hit that like and/or share button.
That'll really just help me to gauge whether or not to keep making these types of videos.
If you're watching this on YouTube,
make sure you hit that subscribe button, that'll really help me out.
And every bit of material that I used in the construction of this video,
will just be linked in the description.
So if you wanna learn a little bit more about anything,
just make sure you follow those links.
I guess that's it, so thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.