BCAA's: Essential?

[KDelRio]

I read a lot of good things about them, but from your experience, does it make a big difference? Before I go out and pay money to include this in my regimen, I'm curious to hear your opinions. Worth it?

[VO2Maxima]

If you go long periods of time without eating (e.g. 4-6 hours between meals/snacks), BCAAs can be used as a bolus between meals. Alternately, if you train fasted, EAAs intraworkout can be of benefit. Otherwise, you get BCAAs when you eat protein. There's absolutely no reason to use BCAAs when you have food...waste of money in that case.

[KDelRio]

Awesome, that's all I needed. Many thanks

[girl81]

So you can't add BCAAs to a meal?

[MyriaK]

So you can't add BCAAs to a meal?

BCAAs are already in any meal that includes a complete protein source.

I suspect one thing that confuses people is thinking of proteins and amino acids as separate things, they're not. Proteins are made up of amino acids. Your body does not use ingested protein, per se, all proteins are broken down into their constituent amino acids during digestion. Your body then uses those amino acids to synthesize things, including (especially) proteins, it needs.

There are over 500 known amino acids. Of those, 22 (or 21, depending on who you ask) are important to humans (note, different species have different essential diet requirements). Of those, nine ( phenylalanine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, methionine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine, and histidine) are 'essential', meaning that an adult human body requires, but cannot synthesize, them. These nine must be gotten in adequate quantities from one's diet. Six others ( arginine, cysteine, glycine, glutamine, proline and tyrosine) are considered 'conditionally essential', in that human children and those with certain physiologic or congenital conditions may not be able to synthesize them, or may not be able to synthesize them in sufficient quantity. The rest are considered 'dispensible', in that pretty much any living human can synthesize them just fine.

A complete protein -- eggs, most meats, most dairy products, a few (very, very few) plants -- contains all nine of the essential amino acids.

Three of the essential amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine) are referred to as BCAAs, an acronym for Branch Chain Amino Acid. This is a reference to their physical structure, each having a literal 'side chain'.

Here's where things get messy. We know that BCAAs make up a disproportionate percentage of protein in muscles. There's some evidence from animal models that BCAAs, particularly leucine, play a part in activating the mTOR pathways, and thus may be an important part of muscle growth/recovery. From there it gets hazy and rapidly devolves to broscience claims that ingesting BCAAs specifically before/after/during (generally depending on who's trying to sell you what) a workout will improve your recovery, build muscle, and almost certainly make your bank account shrink.

The long and short of it is that BCAAs are, by definition, essential. Any complete protein source contains -- again, by definition -- plenty of BCAAs. Supplementing BCAAs over the other six essential amino acids may or may not be particularly beneficial. The science, like nearly all the science involved in bodybuilding (what of it there actually is), is a lot less settled than people -- especially supplement companies -- like to admit.

Eat a boiled egg or three, a chicken breast, drink a (non-spiked, hopefully) protein drink and you've just gotten a good jolt of BCAAs. Beyond that, if you've got money to burn, have a hard time getting your protein macros in, whatever, BCAA supplements certainly aren't going to hurt, so have at if you want.

Full disclosure: I do have a drink with BCAAs in it when I'm at the gym. Partly it's because I tend to work out fasted, I like to work out first thing in the morning and I don't like to eat beforehand as it makes me feel a bit ill. Partly it's because I want something to drink besides water at the gym and some of the BCAA powders actually make fairly tasty (to me, anyway) drinks. Partially it's that the cost isn't a big deal to me so... Meh, why not?

[CanadianEmpire]

Alternately, if you train fasted, EAAs intraworkout can be of benefit.

Define training fasted. 4-6hrs since last meal? How many grams intra?

[cdhussey]

I started supplementing with BCAAs about six weeks ago. It has really helped me with soreness. I believe I get plenty of protein (1g/lb lean body mass) but was struggling with overall muscle soreness. It hasn't eliminated it, but it has been reduced.

Just as an FYI, I tend to workout twice a day on most days. Once with weights and the other time one of my aerial hobbies, which are pretty strength based, just in a different way.