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Are BCAA’s Worth It? (Branched Chain Amino Acids Review)

Posted on by Chris Wright
15
Oct

► THE BODY TRANSFORMATION BLUEPRINT Science-based muscle building and fat loss system: http://www.BodyTransformationTruth.com ► REALSCIENCE ATHLETICS No B.S, premium quality supplements you can trust: http://www.RealScienceAthletics.com CONNECT WITH ME Blog: http://www.SeanNal.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Sean_Nalewanyj/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SeanNalewanyjOfficial GET YOUR FREE CUSTOM MEAL PLAN http://www.SeanNal.com/free-meal-plan.php TAKE MY ONLINE FITNESS QUIZ http://www.SeanNal.com/quiz-questions.php ——————————————————————————– Citrulline Malate: http://www.SeanNal.com/recommends/primaforce-citmal.html ——————————————————————————– Video Summary: Are BCAA’s Worth It? (Branched Chain Amino Acids Review) http://www.SeanNal.com/articles/supplementation/are-bcaas-worth-it.php Branched chain amino acids (BCAA’s for short) are one of the most popular muscle building supplements on the market and are made up of the essential amino acids leucine, valine and isoleucine. The commonly listed benefits of BCAA supplements are that they improve muscle recovery and growth, enhance training performance and reduce delayed onset muscle soreness. But are BCAA’s worth it for the average lifter? When you sit down to really analyze it piece by piece, it’s highly unlikely that BCAA’s are necessary to purchase as a stand alone bodybuilding supplement. Quick BCAA Review: First off, if you’re eating anywhere between the standard intake of 0.8-1g of protein per pound of body weight daily that most lifters are, you’re already getting a very high BCAA intake just from that alone. Most typical high protein foods are anywhere from 15-25% BCAA’s as is, and this should easily be enough in the overall picture to obtain maximum benefits since your body can only utilize a finite amount in a given day anyway. Secondly, BCAA’s may improve training performance, but usually only during long duration, exhaustive training like the type an endurance athlete would perform. For standard bodybuilding workouts with normal rest periods, they probably won’t be very helpful. Thirdly, the only studies showing benefits of BCAA’s in relation to muscle soreness were done in the absence of proper protein intake. It’s fairly obvious that BCAA’s would be better than nothing, but it’s fairly safe to assume that dietary protein would accomplish the same thing. So, are BCAA’s worth it? Unless you’re eating a low protein diet, are training fasted, or are performing very high volume/long duration workouts, I don’t see any reason to go out and spend your hard-earned money on branched chain amino acids supplements. It’s not that the BCAA’s themselves are not needed (they’re crucial for muscle growth in fact), it’s just that supplemental BCAA’s on top of what you’re already getting from your muscle building diet are not likely to provide added benefits. Just focus on hitting your overall protein needs for the day as a whole, and you’ll be obtaining enough BCAA’s from that without needing to worry about it further. Hope you found this branched chain amino acids review helpful.

Read our review of the best BCAA supplements here.

What’s up guys, Sean [inaudible] here, Sean Nell, ICOM, body transformation, truth.com and today I’m going to be doing a review of branch chain amino acid supplements. So bcaas are one of the most popular muscle building supplements on the market. They’re surrounded by a lot of hype and in this video I’ll be giving you the honest, unbiased facts so that you can decide whether or not you think they’re worth your money. So the BCAAS are the three branch chain amino acids, of course, Ellucian, Valium and ice solution. And they’re usually taken as a supplement before, during, and after training, sometimes all three and a, the benefits of bcaas that supplement companies will claim our number one that they improve muscle recovery and growth. Since Ellucian is the primary amino acid involved in protein synthesis, the second benefit is that they improve training performance. And a third benefit, which isn’t mentioned quite as often, is that they reduce delayed onset muscle soreness.

So let’s quickly go over each one of these. The first just being the overall benefit of improving muscle recovery and growth. So, uh, it is true that the branch chain amino acids play a very important role in the muscle building process. Again, Ellucian specifically is critical in this. It’s sometimes referred to as a, the anabolic trigger. However, what a lot of people don’t really take into account is that bcas are already found in quite high amounts in the regular dietary protein sources that you’re eating throughout the day. Uh, for example, uh, the branch chain content of whey protein is about 25%. Egg is 20%. Uh, beef is also around 20%. These are just a few examples. So if you went ahead and ate a, say 30 grams of protein from beef or you took a scoop of whey protein, you’re already getting around six grams of bcas just from that one serving alone.

Even a lot of Vegan protein sources are pretty high as well. Things like brown rice protein, uh, pea protein, soy hemp, these are all very high in bcas on a grant per gram basis as well. So, uh, as long as you’re eating enough total dietary protein each day, uh, from a variety of sources, then you’re already getting sufficient BCAA intake just from that alone. Again, it’s not that the branch chains themselves aren’t effective or useful. They definitely are, uh, they’re crucial for that matter. Uh, but it’s just that dumping an extra 10 or 15 grams in supplemental form on top of what you’re already getting from your diet, that’s probably not going to benefit you in any noticeable way. Just because some bcas are good doesn’t mean that more are automatically better. And there’s a finite cap on how much of them you can actually use to maximize protein synthesis at any given time.

And if you look at the actual research, then what you’ll see is that the only time they really provide clear benefits is when they’re taken on their own in isolation without any whole food protein. For example, a lot of studies will have a, you know, one group taking just bcas and then another group taking just dextrose. Uh, but it’s not surprising that using the bcas in comparison to using pure dextrose would have positive benefits, but that really doesn’t tell us anything about whether or not free form bcas are superior to just eating regular whole food protein sources. And I don’t really see any reason to assume that they are. The second claim benefit is that they improve training performance. So you’ve probably seen those guys walking around the gym with a giant four liter jugs filled to the brim with a bright pink or bright green liquid that they sip on during their workout.

Uh, maybe you are one of those guys and chances are that those jugs are at least partly filled with BCAA powder. Now the reason people use intro workout branch chains is because as your workout drags on and BCAA levels get depleted and your body tryptofan levels increase, and that causes an increase in serotonin levels, which makes you feel tired. And so by supplementing with them into a workout, you prevent trip defend from entering your brain. And that helps to keep serotonin levels lower and it boosts your energy as a result. However, a couple points on this, uh, first off, usually this is only gonna be a concern when we’re talking about long duration, exhaustive workouts that someone like an endurance athlete might perform. A, if you’re going into the gym and just performing a standard bodybuilding workout with normal rest periods for say an hour to an hour and a half, it’s probably not going to be necessary in that context.

And secondly, even though BCAA supplements do decrease tryptofan uptake, they also decrease Tyrese and uptake as well. And tyrasine is an amino acid that improves your mental focus and improves your energy. And so it is possible that there could actually be a counteracting effect there. And a third benefit is the issue of muscle soreness. But again, the research that was done on this, like I mentioned before, was done in the absence of proper protein intake. And so it really doesn’t say much. All that tells us is that there’s a benefit to taking bcaas as opposed to nothing at all. But it’s perfectly possible that a, just having a scoop of way or eating a regular serving of dietary protein that already has bcaas in it, perfectly possible that that would have the same effect. If you do want a supplement for reducing muscle soreness, then my suggestion would be to check out centrally mallet instead.

And I’ll link that in the description box below for you. So everything that I’ve mentioned so far are the reasons why I personally don’t think that BCAA supplements are worth the money for most trainees in most situations. And I say most situations because there can be exceptions, which I’ll mention in a second here, uh, but for almost everyone, as long as you’re eating enough total daily protein, so between 0.8 to one gram of protein per pound of body weight daily, then you’re likely already getting enough branch chain amino acids to get all of the benefits that they offer. And not only that, but you have to weigh it off against the cost as well. Uh, because these are not a cheap supplement. Uh, it’d be one thing if they were really inexpensive and you could just throw them into your program for the possibility that they might help, but they are fairly costly on a grant for gram basis and that will add up quite a bit over the long term.

The only situations where BCAA supplements might be of use are first off, if you’re training fasted in that case, 10 grams or so taken pre-workout might be helpful in terms of reducing muscle breakdown. And I say might because I can’t even say for sure if they would make a significant difference. So that’s really more of a a Justin Case kind of thing. The second situation is if you’re someone who does train with long duration, high volume workouts and you find that they do improve your focus, uh, and your energy during your training sessions. Uh, but even there I’d still be skeptical because the research is very mixed on that. And even the research that supports it still only shows a small effect. So it’s my guess that a lot of what people, uh, report there is largely a placebo effect. But it’s up for you to decide if you really feel that they help than a, I can’t argue with that.

Uh, the third situation would be if for some reason you’re eating a low protein diet. Now, I’m not sure what the reason for that would be. Uh, but if you are eating significantly lower than 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight daily, then BCAA supplements would likely be beneficial just to make sure that you’re getting enough to maximize protein synthesis. And the last situation would just be if money is not an issue at all for you, and you’re a very serious lifter trying to squeeze out every possible ounce of muscle growth that you can, uh, there’s no real downside to BCAA supplementation. And so you could still just use them, uh, in case they do provide a very small longterm benefit. Uh, one last thing I’ll mention here before closing this video out is keep in mind that branch chains do have appetite stimulating effects.

So if you’re using them during a cutting phase, then that is something to consider. And lastly, a don’t fall for the idea that bcaas are calorie-free because they actually do contain calories even higher than a typical whole food proteins. They have about six calories per gram. For some reason, the FDA doesn’t require that calories be listed unless it’s coming from a whole food protein. Uh, but if you are tracking calories and Macros, then don’t forget to count your bcaas as well. So I hope you guys found this advice helpful. If you appreciate a this no nonsense science-based approach when it comes to building muscle and losing fat, then you can check out my body transformation blueprint by clicking here or by heading over to body transformation, truth.com using the link in the description box. That program will give you all the tools you need to optimize your results, the workouts, the meal plans, the guides, and the one on one coaching a. If you enjoyed the video, as always, make sure to hit the like button, leave a comment and subscribe to stay up to date on future videos. You can check out my official blog over@seannow.com for all of my latest updates and you can follow me on social media here if you aren’t already. The links for that are also in the description box. Thanks for watching guys and I’ll talk to you again soon.

Read our review of the best BCAA supplements here.

41 thoughts on “Are BCAA’s Worth It? (Branched Chain Amino Acids Review)”

  5. Danny Banks says:

    Since I started using BCAA a week ago, all my muscle soreness are gone for good, i used to have muscle soreness whenever I trained a particular muscle, most trainers saying it doesn’t worth the money when it is the cheapest supplement in the store, by the way which supplement worth the money? I guess we could get every nutrition from food? So why not eat food instead of creatine and whey.

    • Rob Roux says:

      the reason against it , is that you can get the same recovery from Natural Whole Food products. But those Whole food products end up costing the same; the bennefit to BCAA is that is that its quick and all in one go. Not everybody has access to these whole food locations and not everybody has a great metabolism. The key thing is the PLACEBO effect and this is ON ANY product. BCAA’s aren’t going to get you swole , but they are great for when you are SLIMING DOWN and trying to get lean, PROTEINS only get you BIG, but BCAA allows your body to burn mostly fat and not the PROTEIN. I went natural and on whole foods and the process is slow and was the same cost.
      CREATIN is overrated af …that’s only for slim people trying to become body builders.

    • Brian Duaqui says:

      Rob Roux check your science.. “Protein makes you big”?.. Do you even science? You can eat anything and it will make you big IF YOU ARE ON A CALORIE SURPLUS. Protein powder contains all the bcaas you need. Protein from whole food sources does too. People just like to waste money on things that flavor their water.. And because the broscience guys tell them to.

      Creatine is for anyone who is on a cut phase, maintenance or bulk phase. Creatine is found in red meat as well. My goodness the amount of garbage you are spewing here is ridiculous. Do your research.

    • Ahmad Saqer says:

      Danny Banks bcaa doesn’t prevent soreness dumbass u take them and im always sore if you’re not sore then youre not doing correct form or working hard enough

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