Before asking the question “How to take BCAA amino acids?”, consider “is it worth it?”. They indeed play a colossal role in gaining and maintaining muscle mass in bodybuilding, but the necessity of taking them in the form of special sports nutrition supplements is highly questionable. Recommendations to take BCAA from sellers, manufacturers, and some bodybuilding gurus resemble basic marketing noise. And here’s why.
Main thoughts:
Do you take BCAA?
If you do, why? Did someone recommend it? Or are you acting consciously, truly understanding what they are needed for?
In our decision to take or not take certain supplements, we tend to rely on the opinions of authorities.
There is some common sense in this.
On one hand, professionals have seen more in their lifetime, have stuffed themselves with all sorts of things to draw some conclusions.
On the other hand, it should be acknowledged that all this numerous mishmash, in which chemistry and natural supplements are mixed, has long made respected professionals absolutely incapable of giving objective assessments of the benefits and effectiveness of individual products.
Why? Simply because if you eat a salad of nails, medications, ammonia, and mercury, sprinkled with the fiery urine of a dinosaur… it is very difficult to say what exactly will be the cause of hospitalization or death…
Similarly with sports supplements and pharmacology: if a lot of everything is taken, it is hard to say what specifically works or doesn’t work. And believe me: professionals load up completely.
Moreover, if a professional wears a shirt with a large logo of some sports nutrition manufacturer (which has become fashionable lately) – it is quite likely that the brand is “feeding” him to give “correct” advice.
So, BCAA.
Large internet portals and compatible online stores rave about how this is a MUST-HAVE supplement in the arsenal of all bodybuilders. Without it, gaining muscle mass is NOT realistic. Everywhere you hear the claim that “BCAAs are as important as whey protein and have the same power as creatine in stimulating muscle growth”.
But.
As with many types of sports nutrition, you are not being told the whole truth. Simply because it is profitable. Financially. And as we know, an unspoken truth is more of a lie than a truth.
BCAA amino acids are absolutely important for ensuring numerous functions in the body, including muscle growth. But as a type of sports nutrition – they are very controversial.
How correct is the question “How to take BCAAs?”. Perhaps it is more appropriate to ask “Is it worth taking BCAAs for muscle growth?”.
More likely NO than yes. Although they do have one justified application in bodybuilding…
Why NO and who should properly take BCAA amino acids – all of this below.
Do not trust sellers and professionals regarding whether to take BCAA amino acids (as well as other types of sports nutrition): the former need to sell, the latter are often paid to say the necessary truth; their own opinion is very subjective: they take too much of everything to give an objective assessment of something specific.
What are BCAA amino acids?
Protein consists of amino acids. During digestion, protein is broken down to the level of amino acids, which enter the bloodstream and are used for various functions, including building muscle cells.
There are about 22 amino acids in total, 9 of which are called essential, as they cannot be synthesized within the body and must be obtained from food.
Among these nine essential amino acids, three – leucine, isoleucine, and valine – are referred to as BCAA (Branched Chain Amino Acids, which indicates the characteristics of their structure).
Of the three BCAA amino acids, leucine stands out particularly; it plays the role of the “workhorse” in building muscle tissue and is considered the most anabolic amino acid as it directly stimulates muscle growth.
It is evident that a deficiency of leucine will hinder mass gain. This is the main argument used by BCAA sellers.
The main argument of sellers recommending BCAA amino acids is that they contain leucine, the most anabolic amino acid: its deficiency hinders muscle growth.
How to take BCAA amino acids: PROTEIN vs BCAA
It is believed that to ensure muscle growth, one needs to consume 2-3 grams of leucine three times a day.
This is where sports nutrition manufacturers come into play with their colorful jars, offering to buy BCAA amino acids from them, which “quickly enter the bloodstream, help recover, and stimulate muscle growth”.
On the other hand, common sense, represented by a friendly butcher, says: “Why do you need these tablets and powders? Buy some fresh meat, cottage cheese, or milk… it’s tasty and healthy.”
Whom to listen to?
The point is that 2-3 grams of leucine are found in:
- 1 serving of whey protein, which is 25% composed of BCAA amino acids
- 1 cup of cottage cheese
- 100 g of chicken/beef
See for yourself. The table presents the amino acid profiles of beef and whey protein:
| Product | Beef | Milk | Egg | Whey Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protein content per 100 g | 25.9 | 3.4 | 12.6 | 98.8 |
| Isoleucine | 1.093 | 0.192 | 0.623 | 5.8 |
| Leucine | 2.164 | 0.383 | 0.916 | 10.2 |
| Valine | 1.339 | 0.218 | 0.781 | 5.8 |
In reality, any natural protein (meat, dairy products, fish, eggs) contains BCAA amino acids in amounts sufficient and even exceeding needs (it all depends, of course, on how much quality protein you consume daily).
Check out reviews from doctors and experts about amino acids (including BCAA), highlighting the advantages of protein over them.
The moral of this story is: if your diet contains enough quality protein, there is no point in spending money on expensive BCAA amino acids.
It’s not even about the fact that an excessive amount of BCAA amino acids can be harmful to health. Although this is not excluded (see BCAA Amino Acids: Harm).
It’s just that when something is consumed in amounts exceeding current needs, it is simply excreted from the body into the toilet or used improperly (for energy or stored in fat reserves). And it’s hardly worth paying for that.
Any natural protein (meat, dairy products, fish, eggs) contains BCAA amino acids in doses sufficient and even exceeding needs
“If you are eating an adequate amount of protein, then taking BCAA amino acids is a waste of money” – Dr. Stuart Phillips (McMaster University)
The Benefits of BCAA Amino Acids in Bodybuilding
It is very important to understand the following: BCAA amino acids have a truly colossal function in the body. The previous arguments do not mean at all that they are unnecessary and that one can do without them.
All arguments AGAINST specifically concern BCAA sports supplements.
Numerous scientific studies indicate that BCAA:
- improve immunity;
- reduce feelings of fatigue;
- decrease muscle damage during training;
- stimulate muscle growth;
- and much, much more…
In general, at this point, one could tell numerous long, beautiful, and convincing sales stories that sellers and manufacturers tell about the importance and necessity of BCAA amino acids. And all of this would be true.
For more on the benefits of BCAA in bodybuilding, see BCAA Amino Acids: What They Are Needed For.
But there are a few fundamental things they won’t tell you.
Manufacturers of sports nutrition recommending BCAA amino acids will never tell you this…
1 Scientific studies confirming the benefits of BCAA in bodybuilding for muscle mass gain are most often conducted under conditions where participants consume insufficient protein
For example.
A very bright and illustrative experiment that sellers often use to prove the benefits of BCAA amino acids: wrestlers took 52 g of BCAA per day for three weeks on a calorie-restricted diet, and in the end, it was shown that they retained muscle mass much better and lost a bit more weight than the control group that did not take 1.
Sounds good.
But the secret of the tricks is always in the details that are not noticeable to the untrained eye.
In the experiment, 80-kilogram guys consumed only ~80 g of protein, while the norm for athletes is twice as much! This is what doctors and scientists say. We discussed this in the article How to Eat Right for Muscle Mass Gain and How to Properly Take Protein.
In other words, from the study mentioned, it would be correct to conclude: if you consume half the recommended amount of protein, you can take BCAA amino acids to avoid muscle catabolism.
In numerous other studies that also demonstrate the “undeniable” benefits of BCAA for muscle growth, the diet is often uncontrolled, contains very little protein, or participants are tested in a fasting state.
Scientific studies that confirm the benefits of BCAA in bodybuilding for muscle mass gain are most often conducted in conditions where participants consume insufficient protein
2 A sufficient amount of BCAA amino acids can be obtained simply from food, which is much cheaper and… tastier 😉
Research on the anabolic advantages of BCAA in tablet (powder) form before/during/after workouts is most often intended to sell the supplement. But it is important to be able to see beyond the tree… the entire forest.
All that such studies say is that BCAA amino acids (regardless of their source and form!) are beneficial for muscle mass gain if taken before and after workouts. There is absolutely no basis to claim that BCAA supplements surpass regular natural food in any way.
Some might argue: “they are digested faster and reach the muscles…”.
Let’s assume.
Are you in a hurry? What prevents you from eating/drinking protein or a piece of meat in advance? Meat digests more slowly. That’s true. But it provides a continuous supply of amino acids to the blood for several hours.
If you take whey protein (and even better – hydrolyzed whey protein), it digests almost instantly. Nothing will happen to you in a few minutes.
Those who assert the importance of “feeding the muscles as quickly as possible before the anabolic window closes and to prevent muscle catabolism” portray us (or rather, our muscles) as capricious beings, similar to infants, who start crying and thrashing in agony, demanding immediate satisfaction of their desires from the body that carries them… Guys, this is ridiculous.
Now, I think it is obvious to everyone that the most complete madness one can imagine is to drink protein and BCAA together… one amino acid “bomb” with another…
There are studies that, on the contrary, demonstrate that natural food rich in protein and whey protein in particular are even more effective in building muscle mass than amino acids.
My recommendation: eat a balanced diet, figure out how much protein, fats, and carbohydrates, as well as overall calories you specifically need. Drink 30-40 g of whey protein before and/or after your workout, and everything will be fine. It’s cheaper than buying BCAA amino acids, tastier, and more effective.
BCAA amino acid manufacturers do not mention that a sufficient amount can be obtained from natural food and even more so – from sports protein.
An experiment that “proves” that taking BCAA in bodybuilding can lead to muscle mass gains… like on steroids
Is there really not a single study that supports the benefits of BCAA amino acids in bodybuilding under normal conditions, i.e., when enough protein is consumed?
Perhaps there is. A study funded by Scivation (the manufacturer of Xtend BCAA amino acids) conducted by Jim Stoppani – a well-known fitness trainer and one of the authors of bodybuilding.com – the largest online sports nutrition store in the burknet 2.
The results obtained by Jim are impressive:
“BCAA amino acids taken during training are twice as effective as just whey protein: over 8 weeks, they helped gain about 4 kg of muscle mass and reduce body fat percentage by 2%… in athletes with at least 2 years of bodybuilding experience who consumed 2.2-2.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight and maintained a caloric surplus…”
Let’s rephrase the conclusion: if you take BCAA amino acids, but not just any… but specifically Xtend BCAA from Scivation during your workout, and ensure a caloric surplus in your diet (as is required for muscle mass gain), then you can achieve muscle growth… like on steroids! Not bad.
Here is the opinion of one of the critics, Alan Aragon, on this matter:
“The skeptic in me makes me doubt the results of this study not only because it was funded by the manufacturing company (Scivation), but also because the friendship between Jim Stoppani and this company has been well known for a long time 3. The fact is that there is definitely a commercial interest in this study.”
Jim Stoppani – a well-known fitness trainer and author of bodybuilding.com – demonstrated twice the effectiveness of BCAA amino acids for muscle mass gain compared to whey protein: 4 kg of muscle in two months… like on steroids.
So, BCAA amino acids do not seem to be as good as we are led to believe by manufacturers, sellers, and “bought bodybuilding gurus.”
However, they do have one scientifically justified application..
When and to whom BCAA amino acids are recommended
I want to believe that by this point I have managed to convince you that there is nothing supernatural about BCAA amino acids and for most people, purchasing them is a waste of money.
There is a situation, when taking BCAA can be justified from a scientific perspective (we are not considering medical cases): training in a calorie-restricted mode, in bodybuilding – during “cutting”.
The goal of cutting is to get rid of excess fat to define muscle contours. For this, calorie intake needs to be restricted.
What does BCAA have to do with this?
The answer lies in.. insulin.
When we eat food, during digestion it is broken down to the level of individual molecules, which enter the bloodstream and are transported to cells for various purposes. Insulin is also released into the blood, and its function is to mix nutrients from the blood into the cell.
Depending on how much food we consume, insulin levels in the blood remain elevated for several hours (from 3 to 6). Why is this important? Because insulin blocks the breakdown of fat cells for energy. When we are full, insulin levels are high, and digested food is used for energy instead of fat.
Recommended: Powerful and deadly.. The mechanism of insulin action in bodybuilding for muscle gain and weight loss
When we put the body into a state of hunger, all nutrients from the blood are absorbed, and insulin levels drop. Training in this state is very effective for fat burning.
Intermittent fasting – one of the most effective diets for weight loss – works on the same principle.
The simplest way to achieve this fat-burning effect is to train BEFORE breakfast: abstaining from food for 6-8 hours increases the body’s ability to burn fat.
But.
There is another side to all this: training in a fasting state increases the breakdown of muscle tissue, which hinders muscle growth.
This is where BCAA amino acids come to the rescue: they contain leucine, which, as mentioned above, helps prevent the breakdown of muscle protein.
In one of the studies published in the scientific journal Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, it is stated that “the intake of BCAA amino acids during a calorie-restricted diet helps preserve muscle mass from breakdown”.
Above, we have proven that an adequate amount of protein in the diet eliminates the need for BCAA amino acids in bodybuilding. However, in a cutting phase, consuming protein from natural foods will lead to an increase in insulin levels and hinder fat burning. Therefore, it is restricted, but the lack of BCAA amino acids, which are important for maintaining muscle mass, is compensated for with special sports supplements.
The intake of BCAA amino acids in bodybuilding is justified only during cutting, when calorie intake is restricted; they help avoid muscle catabolism.
Conclusion
Sports supplements of BCAA amino acids are a lucrative business.
Manufacturers and sellers argue for the necessity of their intake by emphasizing the colossal importance of these amino acids in the body for muscle growth and maintenance of muscle mass. And this is true.
However, they do not mention that a diet with an adequate amount of protein already contains sufficient amounts of the necessary nutrients, including BCAA amino acids.
If you consume the recommended dose of quality protein throughout the day, you receive enough of all amino acids, including BCAA. There is no point in spending money on them in the form of separate supplements.
The intake of BCAA amino acids may be justified during “cutting” or calorie restriction for any other reasons, as the risk of muscle protein breakdown increases.
