As a quick sidetrack, I want to talk about BCAAs a bit more after naming it in my previous
video as one of the three supplements not worth your money.
Proponents of BCAAs have claimed that it’s still important in two situations: 1, when
you’re in a calorie deficit, and 2, when you’re fasting.
And frankly, the claims make sense on the surface.
BCAAs do promote muscle protein synthesis through the mTor pathway and they do have
preservative and recovery effects while containing very few calories.
All important factors for a cut or fast.
But it doesn’t always translate into real world results.
One study in 2016 did report some effect.
They found that going on a calorie restricted diet while consuming BCAAs help maintain lean
mass and burn fat, while consuming a carby sports drink resulted in loss of lean mass.
But if we take a closer look at the study, we’ll see that the BCAA group lost on average,
only .05 kg, or 0.11 pounds of fat mass in a span of 8 weeks.
Not exactly amazing results by any stretch and definitely cannot rule out chance.
The abstract also surprisingly omitted the amount of fat loss observed in the carb group.
When we look into the study, we see that the carbohydrate group loss significantly more
body fat.
Even more surprising is that they denoted the BCAA group was the one to lose any statistically
significant body fat, giving the reason that it’s based on relative loss.
You be the judge.
Digging further, we’ll see that some carb subjects actually GAINED fat mass, which doesn’t
make any sense if they were truly on a cut.
Resting metabolic rate also DROPPED by 400 calories in the BCAA group, which goes against
even the authors’ understanding of greater lean mass is supposed to mean a higher resting
metabolic rate.
It just doesn’t add up.
But possibly the most glaring issue, as I reported in my previous video, is conflict
of interest.
This study was conveniently funded by Scivation Incorporated, a company that rose to fame
for their…
BCAA products.
Other than this study, there’s not much else that reports any benefit to taking BCAAs
with calorie restriction.
The same thing applies to fasting.
Protein-matched benefits wfor muscle preservation isn’t there.
If anything, studies show that you should supplement with whey instead since it’s
much better at maintaining elevated muscle protein synthesis than the most potent BCAA,
leucine.
Additionally, research shows that there wouldn’t be a difference in body composition regardless
of you training fasted or fed as long as you get enough protein for the day.
Not to mention that BCAAs insulinogenic and contains claories, which will kcik you out
of your fast.
Also, some people say that BCAA is great for a quick boost of energy when fasting.
My argument to that: carbs are even better.
But the fact is, the only studies showing BCAA supplementation benefits always come
down to what they’re comparing to.
Universally, you WILL find positive effects when comparing BCAAs to a placebo that has
no protein in it.
However, BCAAs alone almost always loses out to a complete protein supplement like whey.
It comes down to this: What’s the point of taking BCAAs when something like whey is
not only less expensive, but also contains the BCAAs you need AND has all the other essential
amino acids that are important to actually building muscle, not just stimulating it?
Right now, of any integrity, I possibly cannot recommend taking BCAAs when it’s less effective
than total protein consumption.
wAnd it always seems to come back to that.
Just eat enough protein.
But if this video is still not convincing enough, then by all means, do you.
So now, let’s leave the question to you guys: Are BCAAs still worth taking?
Share your thoughts in the comments below.
And thank you to everyone that picked up a new It Depends t-shirt.
Your purchase is gonna go a long way in helping this channel out.
Come check out the new shirts if you haven’t already, and get 15% off your purchase if
you use the link below.
As always, thank you for watching!