purpose of BCAA?

[gotrice33]

Hi, I've tried looking around but the search function advanced keeps giving me only results from 2002 for some reason. I just had a basic question. What's the purpose of BCAA's and are they necessary? I've been looking into doing the leangains diet and part of it is taking BCAA drink pre-workout. I was looking into getting Xtend watermelon. Also, I've only been working out for about 4-5 months. Thanks alot

[TheWarriorPoet]

Lot's of people believe BCAA's to be very useful during a cut to preserve muscle. Other than that it's a pretty split debate as to their usefulness.

[Bluestar92]

If your cutting I can see using them but bulking they are almost useless IMO

[gotrice33]

Oh so it wouldn't be worth it if I'm trying to clean bulk right? The leangains diet is basically 16 hours fasting, drink BCAA, workout, then 8 hours of eating. So should I just skip the BCAA and workout on an empty stomach?

[maragon34]

BCAAs, and specifically leucine, are the amino acids repsonsible for activating the mTOR pathway. The mTOR pathway is responsible for a number of different processes, but a few of them are protein synthesis, cell size and volume, as well as cell differentiation. The amino acids responsible for activating mTOR cannot be produced naturally in your body and must come from outside sources, food/supplements, I think they are useful for cutting or bulking personally

[DedicatedDad]

Purpose of them is to make supplement companies M-O-N-E-Y.

Check out a few threads, Alan Aragon makes an appereance, and a quite compelling argument that they are not necessary if you have a protein rich diet already.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=121279921

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...#post536649083